Recently, the Wisconsin Dentistry Examining Board released proposed rules outlining continuing education (“CE”) requirements (“CE Rule”), modifying licensure requirements, and clarifying what constitutes a dental specialty that may be advertised as such in Wisconsin.  The Board’s proposed rules were effective August 1.

Under the CE Rule, dentists must earn at least thirty CE credits every two years. Failing to meet these requirements means that the dentist must cease practicing dentistry.  At least twenty-five of the thirty hours must be in clinical dentistry or clinical medicine. However, dentists can earn CE credits in multiple ways:

• Dentists may earn up to four credits per reporting period for teaching or preparing a professional dental or medical program;
• Dentists may earn up to six CE hours for each one credit hour of a college level course they take related to the practice of dentistry or medicine;
• Dentists may take courses by independent study, correspondence, or internet programs or courses; and
• Dentists actively enrolled in a dental residency for at least twelve months meet the entire thirty hour requirement.

The new CE Rule also outlines procedural and recordkeeping requirements, such as requiring licensees to sign a certification statement and maintain a written record of CE hours for six years after the completion of each credit.

In additional rules released at the same time as the CE Rule, the Board modified the definition of “active practice of dentistry” to include practice in accredited post-doctoral dental residency training. The Board also modified the definition of what constitutes a “specialty” in the rule on unprofessional advertising. Under the new rule, a dentist cannot advertise that he or she is “a specialist in a dental specialty unless the dentist has successfully completed a post-doctoral educational training program approved by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association in a specialty recognized by the American Dental Association”.