Alaska runs its dental licenses on a single statewide clock rather than a birthday or anniversary cycle, which makes planning easier and makes forgetting more expensive. The x-ray side changed hands recently: the Radiological Health Program moved to the Department of Health in 2023, and dental facilities now manage their own device inventory in an online database. This page collects what the state itself publishes, and is honest about the several things it does not.
Key takeaways
- Every Alaska dentist, dental hygienist and dental assistant license runs on a two-year cycle expiring February 28 of odd-numbered years. Dentist specialty licenses and the hygienist local anesthetic and nitrous oxide license types are perpetual and do not renew.
- CE hours are set per cycle and the totals change when your license was issued. For the cycle that ended February 28, 2025, dentists licensed on or before February 28, 2023 owed 32 hours and hygienists owed 20.
- All intraoral and extraoral dental x-ray devices must be registered with the state Radiological Health Program, which moved to the Department of Health in 2023 and runs an online facility and device database.
- Alaska statute lets a dentist delegate the exposure and development of radiographs to a dental assistant under indirect supervision. We did not find a separate state radiology certificate requirement for assistants in the statutes we read.
Rules change, so verify before acting. Everything below was checked against an official Alaska or federal source in September 2026. CE totals in particular are republished each cycle, and the ones we could open describe the cycle that ended February 28, 2025. Confirm the current numbers with the board before you buy CE.
Who regulates what
| Topic | Agency | Official link |
|---|---|---|
| Dentist and hygienist licensure and renewal | Alaska Board of Dental Examiners, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing | Board of Dental Examiners |
| Statutes and regulations for dentistry | Alaska Statutes Title 8, Chapters 32 and 36, plus 12 AAC 28 | Statutes and regulations |
| Renewal forms and CE totals for the current cycle | Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing | Applications and forms |
| Dental x-ray device registration | Alaska Department of Health, Radiological Health Program | Dental x-ray devices |
| Radiation program scope and inspections | Alaska Department of Health, State Public Health Laboratories | Radiological Health |
| Amalgam separators and dental wastewater | US EPA rule, enforced by your local pretreatment control authority | EPA dental effluent guidelines |
License renewal and continuing education
The board's own FAQ states it plainly: all dentist, dental hygiene and dental assisting licenses in Alaska are on a two-year cycle with an expiration date of February 28 of odd-numbered years. Dentist specialty licenses, and the hygienist local anesthetic and nitrous oxide license types, are perpetual and do not require renewal. The renewal form is equally blunt about the consequence: the license lapses after February 28, there is no grace period, and it is illegal to work on a lapsed license.
CE totals are published on the renewal form for each cycle and are prorated by when your license was issued. On the form for the cycle that ran March 1, 2023 through February 28, 2025:
- Dentists: 32 hours if licensed on or before February 28, 2023; 16 hours if licensed between March 1, 2023 and February 28, 2024; none for that renewal only if licensed on or after March 1, 2024.
- Dental hygienists: 20 hours, 10 hours, or none on the same three-tier structure.
Two requirements sit alongside the hour total. Current CPR certification meeting AS 08.36.070 and 12 AAC 28.920 is required, and providers holding a DEA registration owe 2 hours on pain management, opioid use and addiction in the two years preceding the renewal application, per AS 08.36.070(a)(7). The dentist renewal fee on that form was $450 for a full biennial term and $225 prorated, and the division asked for four to six weeks of processing time on a complete application.
Because the hour totals are republished each cycle, do not carry a number forward from a colleague or a CE vendor's page. Pull the current renewal form from the division's applications and forms page in the fall before your February deadline and work from that document.
X-ray equipment: registration and inspection
Alaska's Radiological Health Program registers and maintains inventories of x-ray devices, registers vendors who service them, conducts facility inspections, and handles shielding design review and radiation hazard evaluation. It explicitly does not regulate medical lasers, ultrasound, MRI, tanning beds or transmitter emissions, which saves a phone call when you are trying to figure out who owns a question.
The dental page states that all intraoral and extraoral x-ray devices must be registered, and that facilities manage their own device information through an online radiological health facility and device database. The program also publishes an inspection checklist for dental facilities and a welcome letter for new dental registrants. Both are worth downloading before an inspection rather than after one: the checklist is the best available preview of what an inspector will look for.
The program moved from the former Department of Health and Social Services structure into the Department of Health in 2023 and says on its own page that it remains open to feedback as the transition settles. That is a useful signal for anyone opening a practice: contact information and process details may still be shifting, so email the program directly at the address published on its page rather than relying on an older form.
Who may take radiographs
Alaska statute handles this through delegation rather than a separate credential. AS 08.36.346(a)(1) permits a dentist to delegate the exposure and development of radiographs to a dental assistant under indirect supervision. Hygienists may perform delegated procedures under AS 08.32.110(a)(1)(F), and AS 08.32.115(a)(7) specifically allows the exposure and development of radiographs under a collaborative agreement. We did not find a radiology-specific certificate requirement for dental assistants in the statute sections we read, but the board's regulations in 12 AAC 28 are the place to confirm it.
For the general mechanics, see our national guide to dental x-ray registration and inspections, plus the equipment pages on intraoral x-ray units and panoramic units.
Buying and selling used equipment in Alaska
The device database is the paper trail
Because facilities maintain their own device records, the registry is only as accurate as the last person who updated it. In a practice purchase, ask the seller to pull their current facility and device record and compare it line by line against the machines actually in the building. A registry listing a panoramic unit that was scrapped four years ago tells you something about how the rest of the compliance file was kept.
Freight is the hidden cost here more than anywhere else
Alaska is the state where the shipping math changes the buy decision. A used chair or a used pan that pencils out at a Lower 48 auction price can stop making sense once barge or air freight, crating, and the cost of getting a technician on site are added. Price the landed cost, not the hammer price, and get an installation quote before you bid. Our guides to shipping dental equipment and the hidden costs of buying used cover the categories people forget.
Parts and service availability
The same logic applies to service. Before buying an unusual brand or an older imaging platform, confirm that someone within reasonable travel distance works on it and that parts are still available. See parts availability and the pre-purchase equipment checklist.
Amalgam separators and wastewater
The federal EPA dental rule at 40 CFR Part 441 applies to dental dischargers that place or remove amalgam and send wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works. It requires a compliant amalgam separator, best management practices (no flushing scrap amalgam, no oxidizing line cleaners), and a one-time compliance report filed with your pretreatment control authority. In Alaska, the relevant authority is your local wastewater utility, and communities that are not on a POTW raise their own questions. Call the utility and ask what it expects from an incoming owner. See amalgam separators and dental waste disposal.
Non-competes and employment
Alaska does not appear to have a dentistry-specific or health care specific non-compete statute of the kind Texas and Colorado enacted recently. We did not locate an official Alaska source setting numerical limits on duration, geography or buyout price for a dentist's covenant not to compete, which means enforceability is a question of general Alaska contract law and case law rather than a statutory checklist.
Practically, that puts the burden on the drafting. Ask an Alaska employment attorney how state courts have treated the reasonableness of duration and geographic scope, whether they will narrow an overbroad covenant or void it outright, and what happens if the practice terminates the associate. Geography matters unusually much here: a twenty-five mile radius means something very different in Anchorage than it does on the road system or in a community reachable only by air.
At the federal level, the FTC's non-compete rule is not in effect. The Commission voted on September 5, 2025 to dismiss its appeals and accede to the vacatur, so state law governs. See our national overview of non-compete agreements for dentists and the associate contract red flags guide.
What we could not confirm
- The CE hour totals for the current licensing cycle. The renewal forms we could open cover the cycle that ended February 28, 2025.
- Whether Alaska requires a separate radiology credential for dental assistants. The statutes allow delegation under indirect supervision, but we did not read the board's regulations in 12 AAC 28 in full.
- Alaska x-ray registration fees, if any. The Radiological Health Program does not publish a fee schedule on its pages.
- How often Alaska inspects dental x-ray facilities. The program publishes a dental inspection checklist but not an interval.
- Any Alaska statute governing non-compete agreements for dentists.
- Alaska limits on non-dentist ownership of a dental practice. Confirm with a dental-specific attorney.
- Tax treatment of equipment purchases. Alaska has no statewide sales tax but local jurisdictions levy their own, so ask your CPA about the borough or city where the equipment lands.
Where to verify
- Alaska Board of Dental Examiners: board home, FAQ, and statutes and regulations
- Renewal forms: dental license renewal and dental hygiene license renewal
- Alaska Department of Health: dental x-ray devices and the Radiological Health Program
- US Environmental Protection Agency: dental effluent guidelines, 40 CFR Part 441
- Federal Trade Commission: September 2025 statement on the non-compete rule
Putting it to work
Put February 28 of the next odd-numbered year in your calendar twice: once in the fall, to pull the current renewal form and read that cycle's CE totals, and once thirty days out. On the equipment side, keep your device registry current in the state database and treat the dental inspection checklist as your internal audit tool. And if you are buying used, price the freight and the service call before you price the machine.
Related reading: x-ray registration and inspections, shipping dental equipment, the pre-purchase equipment checklist, and the rest of the state resources directory.
This guide is educational content and does not constitute legal, financial, tax, or clinical advice. Laws and regulations vary by state and change over time. Consult your own dental-specific attorney, CPA, and state dental board before acting.