# District of Columbia dental license requirements > Source-backed dentist licensure pathway, exam, residency, endorsement, reciprocity, and official-board signals for District of Columbia. URL: https://dentovio.com/dental-license-requirements/district-of-columbia Last verified: 2026-07-08 Dentovio is not a dental board. Confirm current application forms, education rules, exam acceptance, score windows, jurisprudence requirements, endorsement eligibility, reciprocity, credentialing, fees, and foreign-trained exceptions directly with DC Board of Dentistry (DC Health, Department of Health). ## Direct answer For dentist license requirements in District of Columbia, Dentovio's sourced licensure record highlights education/pathway language, exam signals, and any residency, endorsement, reciprocity, or credentialing notes it could isolate. Education/pathway signal: Advanced-standing CODA DDS/DMD only. 17 DCMR 4202.1 requires the applicant to have (a) completed a dental education program at a CODA-recognized institution at the time of graduation and (b) received a US (incl. US territories) or Canadian DDS or DMD degree. Exam signal: NBDE Parts I and II or the iNBDE, plus a Board-accepted regional clinical examination (e.g., ADEX; historically NERB/CDCA). WREB retired Dec 31, 2022. Confirm current requirements, application forms, score windows, endorsement eligibility, and foreign-trained exceptions with DC Board of Dentistry (DC Health, Department of Health). ## Education and pathway signal Advanced-standing CODA DDS/DMD only. 17 DCMR 4202.1 requires the applicant to have (a) completed a dental education program at a CODA-recognized institution at the time of graduation and (b) received a US (incl. US territories) or Canadian DDS or DMD degree. A foreign/non-CODA graduate must therefore complete a US/Canadian CODA advanced-standing DDS/DMD. A CODA GPR/AEGD residency alone does NOT satisfy the degree requirement. ## Exam signal NBDE Parts I and II or the iNBDE, plus a Board-accepted regional clinical examination (e.g., ADEX; historically NERB/CDCA). WREB retired Dec 31, 2022. ## Endorsement, reciprocity, or credentials signal Dentovio did not isolate a licensure-by-endorsement, reciprocity, credentialing, or portability signal in this sourced state record. Verify current out-of-state license options directly with the dental board. ## Residency signal No residency-only substitute for the required dental degree was isolated in this sourced state record. ## Notes 17 DCMR 4202.1 language (US/Canadian CODA-recognized DDS/DMD required, degree must be US/US-territory/Canadian issued) was confirmed via secondary indexing of the DC Municipal Regulations; the source PDF (Chapter 42 Dentistry) could not be fully text-extracted, so exam specifics (NBDE vs iNBDE; ADEX vs NERB) should be verified directly on the DC Health application-documents page. Confidence set to medium pending direct read of the regulation PDF. No residency-only pathway found. ## Official sources - - - - - ## Related - [All dental license requirements by state](https://dentovio.com/dental-license-requirements/index.html.md) - [Dental license by state](https://dentovio.com/dental-license-by-state/index.html.md) - [District of Columbia dental license reciprocity](https://dentovio.com/dental-license-reciprocity/district-of-columbia/index.html.md) - [District of Columbia dental licensure exams](https://dentovio.com/dental-licensure-exams/district-of-columbia/index.html.md) - [District of Columbia foreign-trained dentist licensure](https://dentovio.com/foreign-trained-dentist-license/district-of-columbia/index.html.md) - [District of Columbia dental board](https://dentovio.com/dental-boards/district-of-columbia/index.html.md) - [District of Columbia dental license lookup](https://dentovio.com/dental-license-lookup/district-of-columbia/index.html.md) - [District of Columbia dental license renewal](https://dentovio.com/dental-license-renewal/district-of-columbia/index.html.md)