RDA exam prep
Study the four exam areas, practice with explained answers, and prepare for a timed sitting. For California RDA candidates with clinical training or chairside experience.
This prep is for Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) candidates taking the Dental Board's combined written exam. Preparing for the dentist exam instead? Use California Dental Law & Ethics Exam Prep; hygienists, see the RDH prep.
Review status: Source-cited, and every in-scope file carries a current exact-digest sign-off by Mahtab Mansour, DDS on 2026-07-25. Dental Procedures uses dental-assisting textbooks and has not been reviewed by a role-qualified assisting educator.
The law, permitted-duties, and infection-control material cites the statute, regulation, or official document it teaches. The recorded reviewer is a dentist, not an RDA or assisting educator. The clinical Dental Procedures material, which is half the official outline, is referenced to dental assisting textbooks rather than to primary sources, and has not been reviewed by a role-qualified assisting educator. Each approval binds to a file's exact content digest, so any later edit clears it and returns that file to pending review. See how Dentovio verifies content.
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Course preview · Laws and Regulations
Untimed
Question 1 of 1
A caller who says he is a patient's employer asks the front desk to confirm whether she really had a root canal yesterday. There is no authorization in the chart. What is correct?
One-time price
$69
Buy once for personal study access. Finish the free 15-question practice test first and the full prep is $49 instead.
Email support@dentovio.com and a real person replies within one business day — including after a failed attempt.
Access to the study materials is provided for 180 days from the date of purchase.
The free 15 questions are drawn from the timed set. The area banks are separate questions. 180 days of access.
Built to the 2023 outline
4
Content areas covered, subareas 1A–4
125
Items on the real exam — 100 of them scored
50%
Of the exam is Dental Procedures alone
180
Days of access
A large share of RDA candidates qualify by work experience or preceptorship rather than school. In the Board's June 2026 report that group passed at 62% against 79% for board-approved-program candidates — an association the report does not explain. This is a written-exam review that organizes the official outline and pins the law to primary sources. It is not a substitute for a board-approved program or for hands-on clinical instruction.
Every rule in the modules cites the section it comes from — the Dental Practice Act, the Board's regulations, 16 CCR §1005, or Cal/OSHA's 8 CCR §5193 — so you can verify anything against the free official text.
No practical exam, one combined written exam, 125 items, criterion-referenced scoring instead of a fixed 75%, and a permitted-duties table restructured on January 1, 2025. The prep flags exactly these traps so older materials do not cost you points.
What's inside
Instead of piecing together the Dental Practice Act, office habit, and outdated PDFs, you move through the same areas the Board tests — from patient assessment (1A, 8%) through laws and regulations (Area 4, 10%).
| Code | Area or subarea | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assessment and Diagnostic Records | 15% |
| 1A | Patient Information and Assessment | 8% |
| 1B | Diagnostic Tests and Records | 7% |
| 2 | Dental Procedures | 50% |
| 2A | Treatment Preparation | 15% |
| 2B | Direct and Indirect Restorations | 10% |
| 2C | Preventative and Aesthetic Procedures | 10% |
| 2D | Patient Education | 10% |
| 2E | Specialty Procedures | 5% |
| 3 | Infection Control and Health and Safety | 25% |
| 3A | Patient Safety and Prevention of Disease Transmission | 15% |
| 3B | Equipment Disinfection and Cross-Contamination Prevention | 10% |
| 4 | Laws and Regulations | 10% |
Review status, plainly
The law, permitted-duties, and infection-control rules trace to a primary source — BPC §1752.1 and §1752.4, the Board's regulations, the permitted-duties table effective January 1, 2025, or the statute each one teaches. The clinical Dental Procedures material, which is half the official outline, is referenced to dental assisting textbooks instead. Source-cited, and every in-scope file carries a current exact-digest sign-off by Mahtab Mansour, DDS on 2026-07-25. The recorded reviewer is a dentist, not an RDA or assisting educator, and no role-qualified assisting educator has reviewed the clinical pedagogy. Review is not a pass guarantee, and there is none.
Read the methodologyWhat to expect at checkout
Product FAQ
10 study modules, 100 area-bank questions, a separate 100-item/144-minute practice set, and 4 review sheets. The free 15 questions are drawn from the timed set; the area banks contain separate questions. Access to the study materials is provided for 180 days from the date of purchase.
A one-time $69. Finish the free practice test first and the price is $49 instead. Access to the study materials is provided for 180 days from the date of purchase.
Partly, and it is worth being precise about which part. The modules follow the official outline, and the law, permitted-duties, and infection-control material is written against statutes, regulations, and Board documents. The clinical Dental Procedures area is half the outline, and this is a text review of it — it does not teach instrument, bur, matrix, radiographic-error, or isolation recognition the way a program and a chairside mentor do. In the Dental Board's June 2026 report, work-experience-pathway candidates passed at 62% against 79% for board-approved-program candidates; the report gives the association and no explanation for it. Use this to organize and review what you already practice, not as a replacement for clinical training.
Source-cited, and every in-scope file carries a current exact-digest sign-off by Mahtab Mansour, DDS on 2026-07-25. Rules also trace to primary sources — BPC §1752.1, the Board's regulations including the permitted-duties table effective January 1, 2025, and the official 2023 examination outline. The recorded reviewer is a dentist rather than an assisting educator; the clinical text remains a review aid, not a replacement for clinical training. Review is not a pass guarantee.
No. Dentovio is an independent publisher. It is not the Dental Board of California, PSI, or an official government service, and all practice questions are original exam-style material — never recalled exam items.
No. Dentovio makes no pass guarantee and no outcome promise. The Board's June 2026 report shows 72% of candidates passing and only 38% of repeat testers passing. What the prep adds is current, source-cited material keyed to the exam as it stands in 2026 — 125 items, criterion-referenced scoring, and the duties rules effective January 1, 2025.
Last verified July 24, 2026. Pass-rate figures come from the Dental Board of California's published examination statistics.
Dentovio is an independent publisher. It is not the Dental Board of California, PSI, or an official government service, and this page is not legal advice.
This page summarizes publicly available California dental assisting law and official examination information as of the last verified date shown. Laws, fees, and exam logistics change. Confirm current requirements with the Dental Board of California and your current PSI candidate bulletin before acting.
This page was drafted with AI assistance, and every rule on it was checked against the primary sources listed here. Review of the currently served study corpus is a separate state: Source-cited, and every in-scope file carries a current exact-digest sign-off by Mahtab Mansour, DDS on 2026-07-25. The recorded reviewer is a dentist, not an RDA or assisting educator.
