Tennessee Board of Dentistry

Tennessee dentist CE requirements

The published continuing-education requirements for a Tennessee dental license, laid out clearly so you can see the whole picture before your renewal.

What the board requires

• 40 hrsTotal per biennial cycle.
• 2 hrsChemical dependency education, counted within the total.
• Up to 20 hrsTeaching / presenting credit cap.
• Up to 20 hrsPublication authorship credit.
• RequiredCurrent CPR / BLS training (BLS for Healthcare Providers, CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers, or equivalent; must be in person with a manikin skills exam) (does not count toward CE hours).

Common questions

Source: Tennessee Board of Dentistry (https://www.tn.gov/health/licensure/den.html). RECONCILIATION SUMMARY (adversarial reconcile of two blind extractions, A and B). (a) WHAT FULLY AGREES: Both extractors drew from the same primary/official source (Tennessee Secretary of State rules PDF, Rules of the Tennessee Board of Dentistry, Ch. 0460-01, Rule 0460-01-.05 "Continuing Education and CPR," September 2023 revision at publications.tnsosfiles.com), which is official code, not a third-party mirror. They agree field-for-field on the numeric spine: 40 CE hours per 24-month biennial cycle (the two calendar years running January 1 of an odd-numbered year through December 31 of the subsequent even-numbered year, preceding the renewal year); one mandated topic of 2 hours chemical dependency education counted within the 40; a 20-hour teaching/presenting cap; a 20-hour publication authorship cap; no excluded formats; no carryover (maxHours 0); and a required current CPR/BLS credential. The two format caps map to distinct format codes (teaching vs publication), so there is no format-partition collision. (b) WITHIN vs ADDITIVE: The chemical dependency topic is resolved to "within." The board text is explicit that the hours are a subset of the general total: "At least two (2) hours of the forty (40) hour requirement shall pertain to chemical dependency education." Both extractors agree. Not additive. (c) WHY FLAGGED: reviewStatus is flagged_ambiguous, not extracted_agree, for three reasons. (1) PROVIDER DISAGREEMENT: Extractor A set provider.accepts to ["state_approved"]; Extractor B set ["state_approved","CERP","PACE"]. The rule text names sponsoring ORGANIZATIONS (ADA and its constituent/component societies, AGD or a state affiliate, ADHA, recognized specialty academies, accredited schools, etc.), NOT the CERP or PACE accreditation programs by brand name. Both extractors acknowledged CERP/PACE are inferred, not cited. Following the literal rule text and preferring the better-grounded value, A's ["state_approved"] is adopted and B's CERP/PACE addition is rejected as an unsupported inference; a human should confirm whether TN operationally honors CERP/PACE via the ADA/AGD sponsorship route. (2) CONTROLLED-VOCABULARY MAPPING: TN's phrase is "chemical dependency education" (substance abuse / addiction), which is broader than opioid or controlled-substance prescribing; it is mapped to the closest available slug opioid_pain as an approximation, not an exact term match. (3) CPR NUANCE: CPR/BLS is placed in requiredCredentials as a must-be-current credential, but Rule 0460-01-.05(4)(b) states "The hours necessary to obtain or maintain CPR may be counted as continuing education hours," so unlike many states these hours MAY optionally count toward the 40; the credential itself must still be held. CONDITIONAL SUBJECT NOT INCLUDED IN topics[]: Dentists holding a limited or comprehensive conscious sedation or a deep sedation/general anesthesia permit must obtain a minimum of 4 of the 40 hours in anesthesia/sedation (Rule 0460-01-.05(1)(a), cross-referencing Rule 0460-02-.07(8)(c)). This does not apply to a general dentist without such a permit, so it is intentionally omitted from the topic spine and noted here. A separate bonus category awards 5 hours per state/regional/national dental meeting attended, up to 10 hours per cycle; it does not map cleanly to one of the seven activity-format codes and is therefore not recorded as a formatCap. No percentage cap or floor exists on self-study, correspondence, or audio/audiovisual formats (audio/audiovisual and correspondence require a written post-experience exam). EXTRACTION FLAGS (for human reviewer): 1. PROVIDER: A vs B disagreed. Adopted A ["state_approved"]; rejected B's CERP/PACE inference. Confirm TN's operational treatment of CERP/PACE-accredited courses. 2. SLUG MAPPING: "chemical dependency education" mapped approximately to opioid_pain. Verify this is the intended controlled-vocabulary fit. 3. CPR: Both required credential AND may count toward the 40 (Rule .05(4)(b)). Confirm downstream logic handles the dual nature. 4. PUBLICATION CAP: Rule grants "twenty (20) hours" for authorship without an explicit stated per-cycle maximum; entered as a 20-hour ceiling with the caveat that stacking of multiple works is ambiguous. 5. SOURCE CURRENCY: Both extractions rely on the September 2023 revision; verified:false on every citation. Not independently checked against any amendment adopted after that revision. Extractors cross-checked the law.cornell.edu mirror (secondary), which agreed on the numeric spine, but the mirror was not relied upon as primary. This is an hours requirement extraction from the current published rule; it is not verified or guaranteed complete, and a human operator must sign off before this state goes live. These are the published requirements as we read them, not legal or board advice, and CEChart does not certify compliance. Confirm your requirements with Tennessee Board of Dentistry before you rely on them.