CE Course Requirements

CCE courses must be taken through a CE provider recognized and approved by the Dental Board of California, the American Dental Association's Continuing Education Recognition Program (CERP) or the Academy of General Dentistry's Program Approval for Continuing Education (PACE).
In fulfilling CE requirements, the following conditions must be met:
All CE courses, including Basic Life Support, must be completed within the most recent 2- year license or permit renewal period (when renewing), or during the preceding two years (or when renewing an inactive or retired license to an active license).


Mandatory Courses
  • A two-unit, Dental Board of CA approved California Dental Practice Act course. This course must be taken through a Registered CE Provider approved by the Dental Board of CA and is qualified to teach a California Dental Practice Act course. Please note that a HIPAA course is not the same as the mandatory CA Dental Practice Act course.
  • A two-unit, Dental Board of CA approved California Dental Practice Act course.
    This course must be taken through a Registered CE Provider approved by the Dental Board of CA and is qualified to teach an Infection Control course. Please note that OSHA and Bloodborne Pathogens courses are not the same as the mandatory Infection Control course.

  • A maximum of four units from a Basic Life Support (BLS)* course.
    This course must be a BLS course provided by the American Heart Association (AHA), American Red Cross (ARC), the American Safety and Health Institute (ASHI), or a provider approved by American Dental Association's Continuing Education Recognition Program (CERP), or the Academy of General Dentistry's Program Approval for Continuing Education (PACE).
    *BLS courses that are 100% online only will NOT be accepted. The course must include a live, in person skills practice session; a skills test; and a written examination.

 

  • No more than 50% (RDH & RDHEF: 12.5 units; RDHAP: 17.5 units) of the total required CE units may be taken as correspondence courses.
    • Correspondence courses are defined as: tape recorded courses, home study materials, newsletters, video courses, computer courses, self-study, self- instructional, recorded/on-demand webinar.
    • Live-Interactive courses are defined as: live lecture, live telephone conferencing, live video conferencing, live workshop demonstration, live classroom study, live webinars, or live zooms.
  • 8 CE units shall be the maximum continuing education credits granted in one day. One unit of credit shall be granted for every hour of contact instruction and may be issued in half-hour increments.
  • Courses that are considered to be primarily of benefit to the licensee shall be limited to a maximum of 20% of a licensee’s total required course unit credits for each license or permit renewal period.
    Some examples of this type of course would be practice and human resource management, or leadership and team development courses.
  • Courses considered to be of direct benefit to the licensee or outside the scope of dental practice in California shall not be recognized for continuing education credit. Some examples of this type of course would be courses that focus on personal finance, health, motivation, business profitability, or non-clinical practice management.

The license or permit of any person who fails to accumulate the required continuing education units, shall not be renewed until such time as the licensee complies with those requirements.