How to Verify a Dental License in Pennsylvania Before You Hire

The Pennsylvania State Board of Dentistry regulates the practice and licensure of dentists and dental hygienists, and it certifies expanded function dental assistants (EFDAs).

The board's reach is wider than the two chairside licenses: it also regulates restricted faculty licensees and licenses public health dental hygiene practitioners (PHDHPs) — worth knowing about if you staff community settings.

You run the searches in the Department of State's Pennsylvania Licensing System (PALS) at pals.pa.gov — the database the Department points to for professional and occupational licensees.

A PALS search shows a licensee's license number and status, and the Department says it also shows whether the licensee has ever faced board discipline.

Search each credential — dentist, hygienist, EFDA, PHDHP — and save what the record shows; the sections below take the credentials a PALS search may not settle, such as anesthesia permits and EFDA certificates.

This page is the Pennsylvania chapter — the national process, and the order to pull records in, is in our guide to how to verify a dental license.

PALS is the search.

The Department of State says you can look up a licensee's license number and status at any time through PALS.

For a dentist hire, that means finding their record, matching the license number to the one on their application, and reading the status.

Sedation is the big extra.

Pennsylvania's anesthesia rules (Chapter 33, Subchapter E of Title 49 of the Pennsylvania Code) set out three dentist anesthesia permit types: an unrestricted permit, restricted permit I and restricted permit II.

The rules define the duties of "dentists who are unrestricted permitholders" as a group of their own, so a permit is a separate credential from the license — and our research could not confirm whether PALS displays the permits.

For a dentist who will sedate, ask for a copy, note which type it is, and confirm it is current with the State Board of Dentistry before scheduling sedation cases.

How a dentist earns a Pennsylvania license in the first place is the candidate's side of the desk — our guide to dentist licensure requirements in Pennsylvania covers that.

Hygienists verify in the same place: the State Board of Dentistry licenses them, so their record sits in PALS like a dentist's.

Run the same search, match the license number, read the status.

X-rays need no separate permit hunt — the regulation works the other way.

Under section 33.302(b) of Title 49 of the Pennsylvania Code, dental hygienists may perform radiologic procedures in any setting under the general supervision of a licensed dentist.

What you are confirming for a hygiene hire is the license itself; the radiography authority comes with the license, under a dentist's general supervision.

One related credential: the board also licenses public health dental hygiene practitioners (PHDHPs), who may perform radiologic procedures without a dentist's supervision in the settings listed in section 33.205b(c) of Title 49 of the Pennsylvania Code.

If you are hiring into a public-health role built on that credential, verify the PHDHP specifically rather than assuming a standard hygiene license covers it.

What Pennsylvania requires to become a hygienist, and the duties the license covers, is on our dental hygienist requirements in Pennsylvania page.

Assistants are where the picture changes.

The board certifies expanded function dental assistants, and Pennsylvania EFDA examinations are administered by Pearson VUE — exam appointments began April 3, 2023.

Our research could not confirm whether PALS displays EFDA certificates, so ask an EFDA candidate for a copy and confirm it with the board if the PALS search does not settle it.

Radiography for other assistants is exam-based, not licensed.

Under section 33.302(c) of Title 49 of the Pennsylvania Code, auxiliary personnel who have passed the radiologic procedure examination adopted by the Board may perform radiologic procedures on the premises of a dentist under the direct supervision of a dentist.

The rule does not describe a board-issued radiography license or registration, so a PALS search may not return one — keep proof that your assistant passed the board-adopted examination in their file instead.

Which examination the board adopted was not confirmed in our research, so ask the board which exam qualifies.

Mind the two limits in the rule: the work happens on the dentist's premises, under the dentist's direct supervision — so a new assistant takes no radiograph until you have confirmed both.

The full duty list for Pennsylvania assistants is on our dental assistant requirements in Pennsylvania page.

Discipline is part of the same PALS record: the Department of State says PALS also lets you determine whether a licensee has ever faced disciplinary action by their licensing board, including license suspension, fines, or other penalties.

Read that part of the record for every finalist rather than stopping at an active status.

Board discipline also has a federal shadow.

When a state dental board acts on a dentist's professional competence or conduct — revoking, suspending or restricting a license, censuring, reprimanding, placing the dentist on probation, or accepting a license surrender — it must report the action to the National Practitioner Data Bank, and the NPDB's regulations count a state Board of Dentistry among its reporters.

A practice that cannot query the data bank directly still has a route: any practitioner can run a self-query, the NPDB sends the response only to the practitioner, and they may share it with whomever they choose — so ask your dentist finalist for one.

Our guide to NPDB queries covers eligibility and the self-query in depth.

And for a candidate who has practiced outside Pennsylvania: licenses are issued and verified state by state — our research found no national dental license lookup — so run the other state's board lookup too.

Update speed varies from board to board, so save the last-updated date it shows with your result.

A verification is only worth what you can prove.

For each credential — base license, anesthesia permit, EFDA certificate, radiologic examination proof — save the date you ran the search, the name and license number you entered, a screenshot or PDF of what the record showed, and the copies you collected.

Run the check close to the start date rather than at first contact, and re-run it before you renew an employment agreement — a printout from two years ago says nothing about the license today.

The license file folds into the rest of your screen: references, your other background checks, and the federal exclusion list where it applies — our guide to OIG exclusion checks covers when and how.

Restrictive covenants come up at the same stage: if your associate is arriving from another Pennsylvania practice, check what the state allows before you draft — our guide to non-competes in Pennsylvania covers how the state treats them.