Dental Hygienists CE Requirements: New Requirements for 2025 Renewal

Dental Hygienist = 20 CEUs by December 31, 2025  = no more than 10 in Home Study or Media or taped

The NJ State Board of Dentistry has voted that Registered Dental Hygienists are required to complete  the following CE requirements for the next license renewal of Dec. 31, 2025. The requirements include: One hour of continuing education in educational programs on topics concerning prescription opioid drugs, including the risks and signs of opioid abuse, addiction, and diversion. One hour of continuing education in preventing and controlling infectious diseases and managing personnel health and safety concerns related to infection control in dental settings. Three hours CPR One hour of continuing education in Ethics Below is the wording taken form the NJ Board of Dentistry Chapter 30 “The following six hours of continuing education shall be completed by each licensee during each biennial renewal period: i) Three hours of continuing education with practical hands-on certification for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that meets the American Heart Association certification standards for healthcare providers. The training shall include the use of an automatic external defibrillator (AED), unconscious and conscious choking, and rescue breathing. Webinars and electronic media distance learning courses shall not satisfy this requirement; ii) One hour of continuing education in preventing and controlling infectious diseases and managing personnel health and safety concerns related to infection control in dental settings. Examples of such education include: modes of disease transmission and the chain of infection; strategies that can prevent occupational exposures to blood and bodily fluids; methods to ensure that patient-care items and environmental surfaces are safe for use; selection and use of safe dental devices and dental water quality assurance and practice monitoring; and evaluation of dental infection control programs; iii) One hour of continuing education in professional ethics and New Jersey law concerning the practice of dental hygiene. Examples of such education include: dental ethics, professionalism, New Jersey jurisprudence, ethical issues concerning the abuse of prescriptions by patients, child abuse, competence and judgment, and patient confidentiality. The online New Jersey Jurisprudence orientation shall not satisfy this continuing education requirement; and iv) One hour of continuing education in educational programs or topics concerning prescription opioid drugs, including the risks and signs of opioid abuse, addiction, and diversion.”

All licensed dental hygienists shall submit a certification verifying the completion of 20 hours of continuing education every two years at the time of license renewal, except as provided in (b) and (d) below. No more than one-half of the required continuing education hours in the two-year period may be obtained through written or electronic media distance learning courses. b) An individual who graduates from a program in dental hygiene in the first year of the biennial period shall complete 10 credits of continuing education for biennial renewal. An individual who graduates from a program in dental hygiene in the second year of the biennial period shall be exempt from continuing education requirements for that biennial

A licensed dental hygienist who holds a permit to administer local anesthesia under the direct supervision of a licensed dentist shall complete four hours of continuing education in the administration of local anesthesia in every other biennial renewal period, consistent with the requirements of N.J.A.C. 13:30-5.2. (every 3 to 4 years, not every renewal period)

If you hold a Nitrous Oxide Certificate you must take specific CE every other renewal period on that topic, a min. of 3 ceu’s (they do not count towards you 10 needed) every 3 to 4 years.