Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (TSBDE)

Texas dentist CE requirements

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

What the board requires

• 24 hrsTotal per biennial cycle.
• 16 hrsTechnical or scientific coursework related to clinical care (minimum floor within the 24), counted within the total.
• 4 hrsSafe and effective pain management related to prescription of opioids and other controlled substances (if dentists whose practice includes direct patient care), counted within the total.
• 1 hrsHuman trafficking prevention course (HHSC-approved) - required each renewal; rule states a course, not an hour count, counted within the total.
• 0 hrsDental jurisprudence assessment (open-book exam, not clock hours; additive on top of the 24; recurs every 4 years), in addition to the total.
• Up to 8 hrsSelf-study maximum (Texas 'self-study' umbrella - includes online and correspondence delivery).
• RequiredDISPUTED between extractors - current hands-on CPR/BLS certification attested at renewal (A found it required for all dentists; B found Chapter 104 mandates it only for sedation/anesthesia permit holders, not general renewal). CPR/BLS training hours do NOT count toward the 24. (does not count toward CE hours).

Common questions

Source: Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (TSBDE) (https://tsbde.texas.gov/licensing/dentists/dentist-continuing-education/). PROPOSAL ONLY - nothing verified; Brian signs off. Rule = 22 Texas Administrative Code Part 5, Chapter 104, §104.1 (Requirements) and §104.2 (Providers); current version amended effective Aug 29, 2024 (49 TexReg 6455), which both mirrors reflect (not stale). The full numeric spine AGREES between both blind extractors: 24-month biennial cycle, 24 total hours, 16h technical/scientific (within), 4h opioid/pain (within, direct-patient-care trigger), human-trafficking course (within), jurisprudence assessment (additive/0 clock hours/every 4 years), 8h self-study cap, 8h risk-management cap, empty excludedFormats, CERP/PACE/state_approved providers, providerStrict, 24h carryover. Flagged rather than agreed for FOUR reasons: (1) no live PRIMARY source was reachable - both relied on mirrors; (2) sourceAuthority classification conflict (primary_board vs secondary); (3) requiredCredentials conflict on whether CPR/BLS is mandatory for general renewal; (4) human-trafficking hours are an estimate, not rule-stated. Provider system (§104.2) is provider-approval-restricted, not open: acceptable providers include ADA CERP, AGD PACE (AGD, constituents, approved sponsors), CODA-accredited dental/hygiene schools, American Heart Association, ADHA, NDA, DANB, and other Board-approved entities; the Board generally does not pre-approve individual courses. Human reviewer must: confirm CPR/BLS scope EXTRACTION FLAGS (why this is not yet verified): - SOURCE NOT PRIMARY/LIVE: Both extractors reported the board's own domain (tsbde.texas.gov) was unreachable (ECONNREFUSED) for the entire session, and the Texas SOS TAC portal did not serve rule text. Every rule quote was pulled from third-party mirrors (law.cornell.edu, txrules.elaws.us). No live primary board or state-code page was fetched. The 'agree' bar requires a live primary citation; not met. - sourceAuthority DISAGREEMENT: Extractor A classified the source as primary_board (treating the mirrors as reproductions of the primary state administrative code); Extractor B classified it as secondary because primary pages could not be loaded directly. Unresolved. - requiredCredentials DISAGREEMENT: A lists a mandatory hands-on CPR/BLS renewal attestation for all dentists (quote sourced from a web-search snippet, NOT fetched verbatim from a live page); B found Chapter 104 does not mandate CPR/BLS for a general dentist renewal, only for sedation/anesthesia permit holders. Assembled doc includes A's credential but marks it DISPUTED - human must confirm scope and verbatim wording. - HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOURS ARE AN ESTIMATE: Both extractors flagged that 22 TAC 104.1 requires 'a course in human trafficking prevention' with NO numeric hour count stated. The 1 hour is an approximation (typical HHSC-approved course length). The within-24 counting is certain; the hour value is not rule-stated. - SELF-STUDY CAP FORMAT SCOPE mismatch: A mapped the 8-hour self-study ceiling to [self_instruction, online_selfstudy]; B added correspondence. Assembled doc uses the union of the three. Numeric ceiling (8) agrees. - excludedFormats INTENTIONALLY EMPTY: OSHA annual-update coursework, CPR/BLS training, and practice-finance/practice-management hours are excluded from the 24, but these are SUBJECT/CONTENT exclusions, not delivery-format codes, so excludedFormats[] is empty by design - do not read empty as 'nothing excluded.' - CYCLE NUANCE: Per Extractor B, Texas dental LICENSES renew annually, but CE compliance is measured over a rolling 24-month (biennial) period requiring 24 hours. cycleLengthMonths=24 reflects the CE period, not the license term. - CARRYOVER RESTRICTION not captured in the numeric field: the 24 carryover hours must be earned in a CLASSROOM setting and within the one year immediately preceding the renewal period (self-study/non-classroom excess cannot be carried forward). These are the published requirements as we read them, not legal or board advice, and CEChart does not certify compliance. Confirm your requirements with Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (TSBDE) before you rely on them.