Sixty-three hours over three years works out to 21 a year, which most Arizona dentists handle without breaking a sweat. The part that catches people isn't the volume — it's the four small mandated blocks tucked inside it, and the ethics-or-jurisprudence hour that some dentists assume the state will waive. It won't.
The 63-hour structure
The Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners requires 63 hours of CE every three years for dentists. Inside that total, four topics each carry a 3-hour minimum:
- Opioid education — 3 hours.
- Infectious disease control — 3 hours.
- Ethics or Arizona dental jurisprudence — 3 hours.
- CPR at the healthcare-provider level (or ACLS/PALS) — 3 hours.
That's 12 hours spoken for. The other 51 are clinical and largely your choice.
The jurisprudence option
Arizona lets you satisfy a 3-hour block with either ethics or dental jurisprudence — the laws and rules governing dental practice in the state. A lot of dentists pick jurisprudence because it doubles as a refresher on the regulations they're actually bound by. Jurisprudence requirements show up across professions in Arizona, and they trip people up because they look like coursework but function more like a knowledge check. We dig into that in jurisprudence exams and CE — Arizona psychologists, for instance, face a separate JET tool on top of their ethics hours.
The opioid hour and the federal overlap
The 3-hour opioid education requirement is state CE, due each triennium. Separately, if you're a DEA-registered dentist, you also owe a one-time 8-hour federal training under the MATE Act — and that is not the same thing as your Arizona opioid hours. People conflate them constantly. The piece on how the DEA MATE Act training fits draws the line clearly: one is federal and one-time, the other is state and recurring. Arizona's opioid block sits inside the larger opioid and controlled-substance CME landscape.
CPR is a certification, not just a course
The 3-hour CPR requirement means maintaining current healthcare-provider-level certification, which most dentists already do for their practice. But it's worth confirming yours is current at renewal, because a lapsed card is a compliance gap even if your skills are fine. CPR-as-CE catches dentists in several states — see CPR/BLS as a CE requirement for who needs what.
Triennial pacing
Three-year cycles invite procrastination. Arizona renews dentists at the end of the licensee's birth month, with even-numbered licenses in even years and odd in odd. The danger with any long cycle is the same: you tell yourself there's plenty of time, then scramble in year three. South Dakota dentists get an even longer leash — five years and 100 hours — and the advice there applies here too: pace it, don't coast.
The official rules are on the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners renewal page. For your exact obligations, see our Arizona dentist requirements page or compare dentist CE rules nationwide. If you also hold a sedation permit, note that permit CE is separate — covered in sedation and anesthesia CE for dentists.
White Glove CME maps the 63 hours, slots the four mandated blocks, and flags your CPR and federal MATE obligations — for $99 per license renewal. We plan; we don't grant credit or access your account. Send your renewal date and we'll build it. The pricing page shows what's included.
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