Vermont Dental Hygienist license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

Vermont dental hygienists must complete 18 contact hours of continuing education every two years to renew their license with the Vermont Board of Dental Examiners, Office of Professional Regulation, Vermont Secretary of State. Dental hygiene licenses are renewed every two years on a schedule determined by the Office of Professional Regulation. No continuing education reporting is required at the first biennial renewal date following licensure. To renew, a dental hygienist must meet the active practice requirements the Board sets by rule and document the required continuing professional education completed during the two year licensing period preceding renewal. Vermont also mandates specific subjects. Emergency office procedures course: required every renewal cycle. The first renewal is exempt.

Vermont Dental Hygienist renewal and continuing education rules

"Not stated" means the board's pages and rules we read do not address it. We do not fill in typical values.

26 V.S.A. 661(f) requires a dental hygienist to document completion of no fewer than 18 hours of Board approved continuing professional education, which shall include an emergency office procedures course, during the two year licensing period preceding renewal, and to meet active practice requirements set by Board rule. The 18 hours is a hygienist figure written in its own subsection; the same section sets 30 hours for dentists in 661(d)(1) and 20 hours for dental therapists in 661(e), and 18 is not a ratio of either. 26 V.S.A. 661(b) states that no continuing education reporting is required at the first biennial renewal after licensure, and 661(c) lets the Board waive continuing education for licensees on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. The Board's forms and instructions page states that synchronous virtual courses, meaning live or interactive rather than pre-recorded, qualify as live in-person training and will be accepted for renewal. No CPR or BLS requirement, self study cap, carryover rule, documentation retention period or audit process appears in the statute; those would sit in the Board's administrative rules, which Vermont publishes only as a PDF that was not opened.

Required CE topics for Vermont dental hygienists

State-specific subject mandates. Where a mandate applies only to some licensees, the scope is listed.

Documentation and audit

Common questions

How many CE hours does a Vermont RDH need to renew?

Vermont dental hygienists must complete 18 contact hours of continuing education every two years to renew their license with the Vermont Board of Dental Examiners, Office of Professional Regulation, Vermont Secretary of State. 26 V.S.A. 661(f) requires a dental hygienist to document completion of no fewer than 18 hours of Board approved continuing professional education, which shall include an emergency office procedures course, during the two year licensing period preceding renewal, and to meet active practice requirements set by Board rule. The 18 hours is a hygienist figure written in its own subsection; the same section sets 30 hours for dentists in 661(d)(1) and 20 hours for dental therapists in 661(e), and 18 is not a ratio of either. 26 V.S.A. 661(b) states that no continuing education reporting is required at the first biennial renewal after licensure, and 661(c) lets the Board waive continuing education for licensees on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. The Board's forms and instructions page states that synchronous virtual courses, meaning live or interactive rather than pre-recorded, qualify as live in-person training and will be accepted for renewal. No CPR or BLS requirement, self study cap, carryover rule, documentation retention period or audit process appears in the statute; those would sit in the Board's administrative rules, which Vermont publishes only as a PDF that was not opened.

How often does a Vermont RDH license need to be renewed?

Dental Hygienist licenses in Vermont renew every two years. Dental hygiene licenses are renewed every two years on a schedule determined by the Office of Professional Regulation. No continuing education reporting is required at the first biennial renewal date following licensure. To renew, a dental hygienist must meet the active practice requirements the Board sets by rule and document the required continuing professional education completed during the two year licensing period preceding renewal.

What specific CE topics are required for Vermont dental hygienists?

Emergency office procedures course: required every renewal cycle. Citations: emergency office procedures course (26 V.S.A. 661(f)).

Do Vermont dental hygienists have to submit CE certificates at renewal?

Proof of completion must be submitted with the renewal. The statute requires Board approved continuing professional education and requires the hygienist to document completion at renewal. The Board's forms and instructions page states that synchronous virtual courses count as live in-person training. Which sponsors the Board approves is set in the Board's administrative rules, which are published only as a PDF and were not read.

Is the first Vermont RDH renewal exempt from CE?

Yes. Vermont does not require continuing education for a RDH's first renewal.

Sources

Last verified September 8, 2026. Every value above was read from one of these.

• 26 V.S.A. 661, Renewal of license (Vermont Statutes Online, Vermont General Assembly)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 8, 2026
• Dental Examiners, Vermont Office of Professional RegulationState board page, accessed September 8, 2026
• Dental Examiner Statutes, Rules and Resources, Vermont Office of Professional RegulationState board page, accessed September 8, 2026
• Dental Examiner Forms and Instructions, Vermont Office of Professional RegulationState board page, accessed September 8, 2026

One board, the Vermont Board of Dental Examiners, covers dentists, dental therapists, dental hygienists and dental assistants, and 26 V.S.A. 661 gives each a separate subsection with its own hour total. The 18 hour hygienist figure and the emergency office procedures requirement were read in subsection (f) on the Vermont General Assembly's own statutes site. Note for link checking: legislature.vermont.gov currently presents an incomplete TLS certificate chain, so strict clients reject it; the page returns HTTP 200 and the text was read from it. The exact renewal date is not published in HTML anywhere that was found. The Board's administrative rules, effective 10/15/2025, and the Office of Professional Regulation's renewal fees and dates schedule are PDFs on outside.vermont.gov and neither was opened, so self study caps, CPR requirements, retention and audit are left null and the renewal basis is recorded as other with no fixed date. The host outside.vermont.gov responded normally today rather than with the 503 seen earlier in the week, but its documents are PDFs and the no-download rule still applies.