Florida Clinical Exams

Florida Board of Dentistry

Florida Dental Clinical Exam

Florida is one of the very few states that administer their own clinical licensing examinations. This examination includes three different examinations; a written examination, a practical or clinical examination, and a diagnostic skills examination. You should complete all three examinations within a thirteen month period in order to qualify for licensure.

I. Written Examination:

This exam consists of the laws and rules of the State of Florida regulating the practice of dentistry and dental hygiene. This exam is administered in Prometric Testing Centers. Please find and download the Candidate Information Booklet for this exam at the Florida Department of Health website. A final grade of 75 or better is required to pass the written exam.

II. Practical or Clinical Examination:

This exam consists of four parts, a final grade of 75 or better is required for each part:

A. Restorative: Class II amalgam & class III composite preparation and restoration on a patient.
B. Periodontal: Demonstration of periodontal skills on a patient, includes definitive debridement (root planing, deep scaling of subgingival calculus, etc).
C. Endodontic: Demonstration of endodontic skills on specified teeth.
D. Prosthodontic: Demonstration of prosthetic skills, includes preparation for a 3-unit fixed partial denture and a single-unit anterior ceramic crown on a specified model.

The above is just a very brief summary of the different sections of the Florida dental clinical exam, you will need to read the candidate information booklet very carefully for all the needed details and criteria.

III. Diagnostic Skills Examination:

This examination is administered in Prometric Testing Centers and assesses your ability to diagnose conditions within the human oral cavity and its adjacent tissues and structures from photographs, slides, radiographs, or models. A final grade of 75 or better is required to pass this examination.