New Hampshire is a small state with a split regulatory map. Your license and your continuing education sit with the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. Your x-ray machines answer to a program inside the Department of Health and Human Services. Your amalgam wastewater is governed by a federal rule enforced by whoever runs your sewer system. And your non-compete is governed by an employment statute that says nothing about dentistry, next to a separate statute that voids physician non-competes and pointedly does not cover you. This page tells you which door to knock on, and gives you the facts we could confirm from the agencies' own pages in September 2026.
Key takeaways
- Dentists need 40 continuing education units per biennium, at least 30 of them in clinical dental care subjects, with a minimum of 2 in infection control. Hygienists need 20 CEUs per two year period, at least 15 clinical and at least 2 in infection control.
- Participatory clinical and laboratory courses earn 2 CEUs per hour of attendance. Lectures, seminars and meetings earn 1 CEU per hour.
- X-ray machines register with the DHHS Radiation Machines Program, not with the dental board. The registrant, not the equipment vendor, is responsible for keeping a shielding evaluation and a scaled drawing on file.
- RSA 329:31-a voids restrictive covenants for physicians. It applies to physicians only. Dentists are not covered, so a New Hampshire dentist non-compete is judged on the general law.
- RSA 275:70 requires an employer to hand a prospective employee a copy of any non-compete before the employee accepts the job offer. A non-compete that was not disclosed that way is unenforceable.
Rules change. Every item below was checked against an official New Hampshire or federal source in September 2026. Fees, deadlines and CE rules change without much warning, and some New Hampshire pages would not load for us at all. Confirm with the agency directly before you act on anything here.
Who regulates what
| Topic | Agency | Official link |
|---|---|---|
| Dentist and hygienist licensure | NH Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, Board of Dental Examiners | Board of Dental Examiners |
| Continuing education | OPLC, Board of Dental Examiners | Education and training requirements |
| Dental assistant and hygienist duties | Board rules, Chapter Den 300 and Den 400 | Den 100 to Den 500 rules |
| X-ray machine registration and inspection | NH DHHS, Radiological Health Section, Radiation Machines Program | Radiation Machines Program |
| Dental x-ray inspection expectations | NH DHHS Radiological Health Section | Dental X-Ray Inspection Guide |
| Amalgam separators and dental wastewater | US EPA rule, enforced through your local pretreatment control authority | EPA Dental Effluent Guidelines |
| Non-compete disclosure | NH statute, Title XXIII Labor | RSA 275:70 |
| Physician restrictive covenants (for contrast) | NH statute, Title XXX | RSA 329:31-a |
License renewal and continuing education
The board publishes its CE requirement as a two year total. Dentists need 40 CEUs per biennium, with at least 30 of those in clinical dental care subjects. Basic life support for healthcare providers counts inside that clinical block. A minimum of 2 CEUs must be in infection control. Dental hygienists need 20 CEUs per two year period, with at least 15 clinical (again including BLS-HCP) and at least 2 in infection control.
The credit math is worth knowing before you buy CE. One CEU is granted for each hour of attendance at a lecture, seminar or meeting. Two CEUs are granted for each hour of attendance at a clinical or laboratory participatory course. A full day of hands-on work can therefore close out a large share of your requirement, while a full day of lecture cannot.
Prescribers have an extra obligation. A dentist who holds a DEA number and prescribes Schedule II through IV controlled substances must complete 3 board-approved CEUs in pain management and addiction disorder per biennium, or pass an approved online examination in place of the coursework. The board lists acceptable courses on its education and training page.
Build your CE plan around the 30 hour clinical floor rather than the 40 hour total. Practice management, coding and marketing courses are the ones most likely to fall outside the clinical block, and a licensee who buys the cheap seats at a trade show can end up 40 hours in and still short.
X-ray equipment: registration and inspection
The DHHS Radiation Machines Program registers every x-ray machine in the state, along with the businesses and individuals that service them. Registrants receive registration certificates and inspection reports from the program. The governing rules are the He-P 4040 through 4061 series covering possession and use of radiation-producing equipment.
The department's Dental X-Ray Inspection Guide is the document to hand a new office manager, because it is written as a checklist of what an inspector will look for:
- A current registration.
- A written radiation protection program with a named radiation safety officer, and documented annual reviews going back three years.
- A scaled drawing and a shielding evaluation showing machine locations, how adjacent areas are used, and shielding thicknesses. The guide states plainly that maintaining those records is the registrant's responsibility, not the installer's.
- Documented operator training appropriate to the equipment. For hand-held units, training must be documented and operators must wear both a lead apron and an extremity dosimeter.
- Records: full dosimetry history, x-ray logs in the patient file or in digital storage, and service records covering maintenance, calibration and installation.
On who may push the button, the board rules allow a dental assistant to qualify in dental radiology by completing an expanded duty course that includes paralleling and bisecting techniques, and the duty is performed only under the direct supervision of a licensed dentist. Direct supervision is the operative phrase. It is not a credential a new hire brings with them from another state without checking.
For the general mechanics that apply everywhere, see our 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 New Hampshire
The shielding file is an asset, and it is usually missing
Because New Hampshire puts the scaled drawing and shielding evaluation on the registrant, that paperwork is a real item of value in a practice purchase. Ask for it in writing during due diligence. If the seller cannot produce it, you are buying the cost of having a physicist produce one, and you are buying it on the inspector's timeline rather than your own. The same goes for three years of documented radiation protection program reviews and the dosimetry history.
Register what comes in, close out what goes out
If you buy a used intraoral unit, pan or CBCT and install it, that is a new machine at your facility and the program needs to know. If you sell or scrap a unit, tell them that too. A registration that still lists equipment you no longer own is a compliance problem that costs you nothing to fix now and a great deal of explaining later. The department does not publish its fee schedule or its dental inspection interval on the pages we could open, so ask the program directly what a registration change costs and when your next inspection is likely.
Amalgam separators and wastewater
There is no separate New Hampshire separator rule to chase. The federal EPA dental effluent 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, the best management practices (no flushing scrap amalgam, no bleach or other oxidizing line cleaners), and a one-time compliance report filed with your pretreatment control authority, which is usually your local sewer utility. EPA does not address what happens at a change of ownership, so call the utility and ask what they want from the incoming owner at closing. Our guide to amalgam separators covers sizing and recycling records.
Lead, chemicals and old processors
Clearing out a darkroom means lead foil, lead aprons, spent fixer and developer, and sometimes a lead-lined cabinet. Use a licensed waste vendor and keep the manifests. Our overview of dental waste disposal walks through each stream, and disconnecting dental equipment safely covers removal. Before you wire money on any used imaging unit, run the pre-purchase equipment checklist and read the hidden costs of buying used equipment.
Non-competes and employment
Two New Hampshire statutes matter here, and the gap between them is the story.
RSA 329:31-a makes a restrictive covenant void and unenforceable when it is part of a partnership, employment or other professional relationship with a physician licensed by the board of medicine, insofar as it restricts that physician from practicing medicine in a geographic area for a period after the relationship ends. It is written around physicians and the practice of medicine. Dentistry is licensed under a different chapter, and the statute does not reach it. A New Hampshire dentist who assumes the physician protection applies to them is making an expensive assumption.
RSA 275:70 is the statute that does apply to you, and it is procedural rather than substantive. An employer that requires a non-compete from a prospective employee must give that person a copy of the agreement before the employee accepts the offer of employment. A non-compete that was not disclosed as the section requires is not enforceable. The section leaves other clauses alone: confidentiality, nondisclosure, trade secret protection and intellectual property assignment provisions survive independently.
Read RSA 275:70 as a sequencing rule. If an associate signs an offer letter on Monday and first sees the restrictive covenant in the employment agreement on their start date, the covenant is exposed. Owners should hand the full agreement, restrictive covenant included, with the offer. Associates should keep the dated email that shows when they first received it.
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 court decisions vacating the rule, so state law governs. Our national overview of non-compete agreements for dentists covers how these clauses are drafted, and the associate contract red flags guide covers what else to read in the same document. Application to your specific contract is a question for a New Hampshire employment attorney.
What we could not confirm
- The New Hampshire x-ray registration fee schedule and the renewal deadline. The Radiation Machines Program does not publish either on its landing page.
- How often New Hampshire inspects dental x-ray facilities. The department's own dental guide says an inspector will verify machine performance but does not state an interval.
- The dental license renewal expiration date pattern. The board publishes the CE requirement as a biennial total but we could not open a page stating the renewal date, and OPLC's continuing education page returned an error for us repeatedly.
- Whether New Hampshire imposes any tax on a private-party purchase of dental equipment. Confirm with the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration and your CPA before you assume a used purchase is tax-free.
- New Hampshire limits on non-dentist ownership of a dental practice. Read the dental practice statute and board rules with a dental-specific attorney before structuring anything.
Where to verify
- NH Office of Professional Licensure and Certification: Board of Dental Examiners and education and training requirements
- New Hampshire administrative rules: Chapters Den 100 through Den 500
- NH DHHS Radiological Health: Radiation Machines Program and the Dental X-Ray Inspection Guide
- New Hampshire statutes: RSA 275:70, noncompete agreements and RSA 329:31-a, physician restrictive covenants
- US Environmental Protection Agency: dental effluent guidelines, 40 CFR Part 441
- Federal Trade Commission: September 2025 statement acceding to vacatur of the non-compete rule
Putting it to work
If you are buying a New Hampshire practice, ask for three documents nobody will offer you: the current radiation machine registration with its equipment list, the scaled drawing and shielding evaluation, and three years of radiation protection program reviews. Those are the items the state has already told you an inspector expects, and they are the items sellers most often cannot find. If you are hiring, hand the restrictive covenant with the offer letter rather than with the onboarding packet, because RSA 275:70 turns that sequence into an enforceability question.
Related reading: our national guide to x-ray registration and inspections, the pre-purchase equipment checklist, the associate contract review checklist, and the compliance chapter in the practice operations guide. You can also browse 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.