How to Renew a Florida Dental License

All Florida dentists renew their licenses biennially (every two years) during the same renewal period. The deadline is always at the end of February. For example, if you were licensed initially in May 2023, you would still have to renew your license by the end of February 2024, even though you would have only been licensed for nine months. This is because 2024 is a renewal year. The next renewal would be in 2026.

If this is the first time you are renewing your license, you only need to complete a total of 4 CE credits, of which 2 hours must be from an approved HIV course and 2 hours must be from a controlled substance prescribing course. 

If this is not your first renewal, Florida requires 30 hours of dental CE credit per license renewal period. Two hours must be from an approved controlled substance prescribing course and two hours must be from an approved medical errors course. I highly recommend finding courses that specifically satisfy the Florida requirements. Some free CE providers have courses that appear to satisfy the controlled substance and medical error requirements, but after close inspection these courses often don’t meet the requirements outlined in the Florida statutes. For example, medical errors courses must address “root cause analysis,” and not every course that is marketed as a medical errors course does this. 

The remaining 26 CE hours may come from general CE topics. Keep in mind only 3 hours of approved practice management CE is allowed per renewal. The Florida statutes mention specific requirements for practice management courses in order for them to count towards CE. I would recommend avoiding practice management courses altogether since most of these courses don't satisfy the Florida requirements even though they might count as CE in other states. Lastly, every third renewal you must complete 2 hours of domestic violence training. 

All CE credits must be reported online by the time of renewal using the department's electronic tracking system, which is a website called CE broker. This website also helps you find the courses you need to meet the specific requirements mentioned in this article. 

Some dental implant companies provide free CE webinars online. I recommend going to the Implant Direct website and navigating to their online recorded webinars. You can get about one CE credit per video for free. 

Here is a link to the free Implant Direct courses:

https://www.implantdirect.com/en-us/webinars

Practitioners who hold sedation permits are subject to additional CE requirements. All CE requirements mentioned in this article should be confirmed by reviewing the information on the Florida Board of Dentistry website:

https://floridasdentistry.gov/renewals/dentist/#tab-ce

Written by Dr. Jonathan Josephs 1/8/2024

Edited 3/12/2024