Wyoming Board of Dentistry

The Wyoming Legislature created the Board of Dental Examiners in 1905 to protect the welfare of the public by regulating the practice of dentistry, making it one of the older continuously operating dental boards in the western United States. The Legislature expanded the Board's authority in 1921 to include regulation of dental hygienists.

Under Wyoming Statute § 33-15-101(a), the Board consists of six members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Wyoming State Senate. Appointment distribution is five dentists and one dental hygienist. Members serve four-year terms that expire March 1, and no member may serve more than two successive terms (W.S. § 33-15-101(b)–(c)). To be eligible, an appointee must have actively practiced dentistry in Wyoming for at least five continuous years immediately before appointment and must be a Wyoming resident. The Wyoming Dental Association nominates at least 10 candidates and the Wyoming Dental Hygiene Association nominates at least 3 candidates each year from which the Governor makes appointments, and any vacancy must be filled within 90 days.

Current Board officers include Mark G. O'Farrell, D.D.S. (President, Rock Springs), Denise R. Prugh, D.D.S. (Vice President, Casper), and Joni M. Hamilton, R.D.H. (Secretary, Thermopolis), along with members Brian J. Cook, D.D.S. (Sheridan), Jeremy W. Hill, D.D.S. (Cody), and Rodney C. Hill, D.D.S. (Casper).

The Board is legislatively empowered to license and regulate dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants who take and expose radiographs or place pit and fissure sealants. It operates solely on fees collected from its own licensees and receives no state general fund appropriations. Rather than maintaining fully independent staff, the Board is staffed through the Professional Licensing Boards Office, a division of the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information (A&I).

The Board's mission, as stated on its website, is to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of Wyoming citizens by ensuring that individuals licensed to provide dental services in the state are duly qualified.

The Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners licenses and permits three categories of dental professionals:

• Dentists — full dentist licensure, with optional sedation permits (moderate sedation, or deep sedation/general anesthesia) for dentists who administer anesthesia beyond local anesthesia or minimal sedation.
• Dental Hygienists — full hygienist licensure, with optional expanded-duty certifications in local anesthesia, nitrous oxide analgesia, and soft tissue lasers.
• Dental Assistants — Wyoming issues permits, not full licenses, and only to assistants who take and expose radiographs or place pit and fissure sealants. Radiograph and pit-and-fissure permits are separate credentials, each with its own application and renewal.

Any dental office where sedation is performed must also hold a Facility Permit, issued to a designated "responsible dentist," and that office's sedation equipment and procedures are subject to inspection every five years by a Board-approved sedation inspector.

Wyoming dentist and hygienist applicants must submit National Board Examination scores (sent directly to the Board by the testing agency), transcripts (sent directly by the dental or dental hygiene program), and clinical examination scores. Wyoming accepts the CDCA-WREB-CITA and CRDTS clinical examinations, and — following rules signed by the Governor on April 14, 2023 — now accepts simulated-patient (manikin) clinical examinations. Dentist clinical exams must still demonstrate competency in endodontics (posterior access and anterior canal instrumentation/obturation), fixed prosthodontics (a full crown and a two-abutment bridge), periodontics (scaling), and restorative dentistry (Class II and Class III preparations/restorations); slot preparations are not accepted.

Wyoming Jurisprudence Examination

All applicants must pass the Board's Wyoming Jurisprudence Examination, a closed-book test covering the entire Wyoming Dental Practice Act and Board Rules and Regulations. Board staff provide applicants a link to the exam once their application is received. The exam has a strict one-hour time limit, and applicants who fail must wait one week before retesting.

Application by examination vs. by endorsement

Dentists applying by endorsement whose clinical exam did not include a fixed-prosthodontics component must also submit evidence of 5,000 hours of active clinical practice within the last five years, or verification of completing a general practice residency (GPR), advanced education in general dentistry (AEGD), or another specialty residency.

All applicants must submit proof of lawful presence and current BLS for Healthcare Providers certification. Board staff process applications in the order received — typically 3–4 weeks to compile a complete file, followed by a National Practitioner Data Bank query and a 1–3 week review by the Board's Application Review Committee.

Wyoming's current two-year CE period runs January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027, following the same odd-year renewal cadence established when the CE rules took effect December 9, 2019 (periods: 2020–2021, 2022–2023, 2024–2025, 2026–2027).

• 16 hours of continuing education are due every two years for both dentists and dental hygienists.
• Dentists must complete at least 3 of those 16 hours on the responsible prescribing of controlled substances — a statutory requirement under W.S. § 33-15-109(c) that the Board cannot waive or alter.
• CE must be clinical in nature. Acceptable subjects include oral surgery, operative dentistry, oral pathology, preventive dentistry, orthodontics, clinical patient management, pediatric dentistry, oral biology, periodontics, prosthodontics, dental materials, implantology, radiology, infection control, endodontics, management of medical emergencies, dental anesthesiology, professional ethics, and pharmacology. Practice-building and business-management courses do not count.
• There is no limit on how many CE hours may be completed online — in-person and online courses count equally.
• Hours beyond 16 do not carry over to the next CE period.

New licensees

If a dentist's or hygienist's license is issued in an even year (e.g., 2026), only 8 hours of CE are due at the next renewal (for dentists, that 8 hours must still include 3 hours on controlled-substance prescribing). If the license is issued during the renewal year itself, no CE is required at that first renewal; the full 16-hour requirement applies to every cycle after that.

Attestation and audits

Licensees attest to CE completion on their renewal application; documentation is not submitted unless the licensee is randomly selected for audit. Those audited must retain CE records for at least four years after the renewal period in which the course was completed and must produce records within 30 days of an audit notice or risk disciplinary action. The Board does not pre-approve or pre-review CE courses — licensees are responsible for ensuring courses meet the requirements in Chapter 3 of the Board Rules. In limited circumstances involving extenuating circumstances that prevent both practicing and obtaining CE, the Board may approve a waiver.

Wyoming's Dental Practice Act (Wyoming Statutes §§ 33-15-101 through 33-15-133) and the Board's rules define the scope of practice for each credential type the Board regulates:

• Dentists — full diagnosis and treatment of oral conditions. Dentists who wish to administer sedation beyond local anesthesia or minimal sedation must hold a Moderate Sedation Permit or a Deep Sedation/General Anesthesia Permit, and any office where sedation is performed must hold a current Facility Permit tied to a responsible dentist.
• Dental Hygienists — standard hygiene scope of practice, with optional expanded-duty certifications for local anesthesia, nitrous oxide analgesia, and soft tissue lasers, each requiring a separate application.
• Dental Assistants — no license is required to work as a dental assistant in Wyoming, but a permit from the Board is required specifically to take and expose radiographs or to place pit and fissure sealants. These are the only two functions gated by a Board permit.

Effective May 29, 2024, the Board stopped pre-approving radiograph and pit-and-fissure training courses; applicants are responsible for confirming their course meets the requirements in Chapter 7 of the Board Rules before applying.

Dental offices where sedation is performed, along with their X-ray equipment, are subject to inspection every five years by a Board-approved sedation or X-ray inspector; an initial sedation inspection requires two inspectors, while a reinspection may be completed by one.

The Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners regulates dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants. Complaints must be filed against a specific individual licensee — not against a facility, clinic, or corporation. A copy of the complaint and all supporting documentation is provided to the licensee so they have the opportunity to respond to the allegations.

How complaints are processed

1. When a complaint is received, it is assigned a complaint number, and the person who filed it receives a written acknowledgment from Board staff.
2. An investigator is assigned and may contact the complainant and any witnesses for additional information.
3. After reviewing all gathered information, the investigator makes a recommendation to the Board.
4. The Board must vote to accept the investigator's recommendation during a public meeting; the case then proceeds as the Board directs.
5. Both the licensee and the complainant are notified of the outcome in writing.

The entire complaint review, investigation, and legal review process may take an extended period depending on the complexity of the case and the Board's pending caseload.

The Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners maintains two separate public-facing tools for checking a licensee's status and disciplinary history.

License lookup

The Board's public lookup page at dental.wyo.gov/public/lookup provides three separate roster spreadsheets, updated bi-monthly: an Active Dentists List, an Active Hygienist List, and an Active Dental Assistant Permit List. The Board states this data is for informational and verification purposes only. If you have trouble viewing a roster or need to confirm a specific credential, email a verification request to dentalboard@wyo.gov, or request a certified verification letter (a $25.00 fee applies) through the License Verification Request form on the licensing pages.

Disciplinary actions

Public disciplinary actions are tracked separately from the active license rosters, on a dedicated Docket List spreadsheet linked from dental.wyo.gov/public/discipline. The Board states this page is a current listing of public disciplinary action, updated as new discipline is taken.