Wyoming has made two recent changes that pull in opposite directions. In 2022 the Board of Dental Examiners stopped monitoring dental x-ray machine inspections and stopped issuing stickers, moving that responsibility onto the licensee. In 2025 the Legislature voided most covenants not to compete, moving leverage onto the individual practitioner. You now carry more compliance responsibility and more career freedom than you did five years ago.
Key takeaways
- CE is 16 hours every two years for dentists and dental hygienists. For dentists, 3 of those 16 must relate to the responsible prescribing of controlled substances. BLS is required in addition and cannot count toward the 16.
- Licenses renew every two years in odd-numbered years, with the renewal window running October 1 through December 31 and an administrative grace period to March 31, during which you may not practice until the renewal is processed.
- X-ray machines must be inspected at installation and every five years after that, and CT machines every three years. Since January 14, 2022 the Board no longer monitors those inspections or issues stickers. You keep the documentation and produce it only if asked.
- Under the 2025 enrolled act effective July 1, 2025, a covenant not to compete that restricts a person's right to receive compensation for the performance of skilled or unskilled labor is void, subject to listed exceptions, for contracts entered into on or after that date.
Rules change. Everything below was checked against an official Wyoming or federal source in September 2026. The non-compete act is recent enough that Wyoming courts have not worked through its exceptions. Confirm with the board and with counsel before acting on anything here.
Who regulates what
| Topic | Agency | Official link |
|---|---|---|
| Dentist, hygienist and dental assistant credentials | Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners | Licensing overview |
| Continuing education | Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners | CE requirements |
| Renewal and relicensure | Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners | Renewal and relicensure |
| Dental assistant radiograph permits | Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners, Board Rules Chapter 7 | Dental assistant applications |
| Dental x-ray machine inspection | Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners (requirement), qualified inspectors (performance) | X-ray inspection |
| Non-competes | Wyoming Legislature, 2025 Enrolled Act 87 (SF0107) | Enrolled Act 87, covenants not to compete |
| Amalgam separators and dental wastewater | US EPA rule, enforced through your pretreatment control authority | EPA Dental Effluent Guidelines |
| Sales and use tax on equipment | Wyoming Department of Revenue | Wyoming Department of Revenue |
License renewal and continuing education
Wyoming's CE requirement is small by national standards and easy to satisfy, which means the mistakes here are procedural rather than substantive.
- 16 hours every two years for dentists and for dental hygienists.
- 3 of the 16 must relate to the responsible prescribing of controlled substances, for dentists.
- BLS is on top. The board states that required BLS hours cannot count toward the 16.
- No online cap. The board says there is no limit on how many CE hours you may take online, which is unusual and worth knowing if you are in a part of the state where live courses mean a long drive.
- No carryover. Extra hours in one cycle do not roll into the next.
The cycles run on odd years, two calendar years at a time. The current cycle the board lists runs January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027.
Renewal is biennial in odd-numbered years. The window opens October 1 and closes December 31, with notices mailed in October. There is an administrative grace period through March 31 of the following year, but the board is explicit that you may not practice during that extension until the renewal is processed. A grace period for paperwork is not a grace period for practicing. The board also notes that its forms must be printed rather than filled in online, and recommends trackable mail.
Because the forms are paper and the window is fixed, a December submission that gets returned for an error can push you past December 31 and into a period where you technically cannot see patients. Mail in October or early November, and use a method that gives you a delivery record.
Dental assistants and radiograph permits
Wyoming describes itself as a practice act and title protection state. Dental assistants need a permit for two specific functions: taking and exposing radiographs, and placing pit and fissure sealants. Those permits renew separately, and if either has been expired five years or more the board treats the person as a new applicant.
Two details matter for hiring. Effective May 29, 2024 the board no longer pre-approves radiograph courses, and its office will not tell you which training or exam to take. The requirements sit in Chapter 7 of the Board Rules, and it is on you to confirm the course your candidate completed meets them. Processing also takes roughly three to four weeks after the board has a complete application, plus one to three weeks for the review committee. Plan around five to seven weeks, not days.
X-ray equipment: inspection, and who tracks it now
Wyoming handles dental x-ray inspection through the dental board's rules rather than a separate radiation agency, which is unusual. The requirement is clear:
- Inspect at installation, and thereafter every five years for x-ray machines and every three years for computed tomography machines.
- The inspector must be qualified. The rules describe an engineering degree, a biomedical equipment associate degree, or equivalent technical training, plus at least six months of supervised, documented training on inspection and calibration.
- You keep the file. The inspector must provide evidence showing the last inspection date and the next due date, and licensees retain that documentation themselves. It is not submitted to the board unless the board requests it.
The change that matters: effective January 14, 2022, the board is no longer monitoring x-ray machine inspections or issuing stickers. Licensees bear full responsibility for ensuring compliance, and failure to do so is grounds for disciplinary action.
Read those two facts together. Nobody is going to remind you, and the reminder that used to exist (a sticker on the tube head) is gone. A five year interval with no external prompt is exactly the kind of obligation that quietly lapses through one staff turnover. Put the next due date in the same calendar you use for OSHA and spore test reviews, and keep the inspector's report in a file the next office manager will find.
For the general mechanics that apply in other states, see our guide to dental x-ray registration and inspections, plus the equipment pages on intraoral x-ray units, panoramic units and CBCT units.
Buying and selling used equipment in Wyoming
Ask for the inspection file, because it is the only record
In most states you can call a radiation agency and ask what is registered at an address. In Wyoming, the documentation lives with the licensee, which makes the seller's file the primary evidence and makes its absence a genuine red flag.
When you are buying a practice or a single used machine, ask for the last inspection report for every tube and check three things: the inspector's qualifications, the date of the last inspection, and the date the next one is due. A used unit with no inspection history is not unbuyable, but Wyoming requires an inspection at installation regardless of the machine's history, so price that in.
Amalgam separators and wastewater
The federal EPA dental rule at 40 CFR Part 441 applies. If you place or remove amalgam and discharge to a publicly owned treatment works, you need a compliant amalgam separator, you follow the best management practices (no discharging scrap amalgam, and restrictions on certain line cleaners), and you file a one-time compliance report with your pretreatment control authority. EPA routes reports to a state agency in only a handful of states, and Wyoming is not one of them, so your control authority is almost certainly the municipal wastewater utility. Rural practices on septic should ask EPA's regional office how the rule applies, since it is written around discharges to a treatment works. See amalgam separators.
Lead, chemicals and processor rooms
Lead foil, lead aprons, spent fixer and developer and lead-lined cabinetry need a licensed waste vendor and manifests you keep. In a state with long distances between vendors, line this up before demolition. See dental waste disposal and disconnecting dental equipment safely. Before you commit, run the pre-purchase equipment checklist, read the hidden costs of buying used equipment, and budget freight using our guide to shipping dental equipment.
Non-competes and employment
Wyoming changed its rule in 2025. The enrolled act (Senate File 0107, Enrolled Act 87) makes void any covenant not to compete that restricts the right of any person to receive compensation for the performance of skilled or unskilled labor. It took effect July 1, 2025 and applies to contracts entered into on or after that date, leaving prior agreements alone.
The exceptions are where the work is:
- Sale of a business or asset purchase, so a covenant tied to selling a practice is treated differently from one tied to employment.
- Trade secret protection.
- Recovery of relocation and training expenses, on a sliding scale: up to 100 percent if the employee leaves in less than two years, 66 percent between two and three years, and 33 percent between three and four years.
- Executive and management personnel, officers, and employees who constitute professional staff to executive and management personnel.
The act also contains a specific physician provision: it voids non-compete provisions in physician employment agreements, and it protects a physician who discloses their continuing practice and new contact information to a patient with a rare disorder they previously treated, with no liability for the physician or the employer.
Note the gap that creates for dentistry. A dentist is not a physician, so the physician-specific language is not your provision. You are relying on the general rule, which voids covenants not to compete broadly. The argument an employer will make is that an associate dentist falls inside the executive, management or professional staff exception. Whether that is right is not settled, and it is the single question to put to a Wyoming employment attorney before you sign or before you enforce.
The sliding scale on training and relocation expense recovery deserves attention too, because it is likely to show up in place of the covenants it replaced. If a Wyoming offer letter now includes a repayment schedule for CE, relocation or sign-on money, read it as the retention mechanism it is and negotiate it the way you would have negotiated a radius.
At the federal level, the FTC's non-compete rule is not in effect. The Commission announced on September 5, 2025 that it would dismiss its appeals and accede to the vacatur of the rule, so state law controls. See our national overview of non-compete agreements for dentists, the associate contract red flags guide, and the contract review checklist.
What we could not confirm
- Whether an associate dentist falls within the 2025 act's exception for professional staff. The act does not define it in a way that settles the dental case.
- Whether Wyoming requires dental x-ray machines to be registered with any state agency in addition to the board's inspection requirement. The board publishes the inspection rule; we did not find a separate state registration program for dental machines.
- Inspection fees. Wyoming uses private qualified inspectors and the board publishes no fee schedule.
- The fee and renewal period for a dental assistant radiograph permit. The board publishes relicensure fees of $370 for dentists and $190 for hygienists but we did not confirm assistant permit amounts.
- Specific training requirements for a radiograph permit. They sit in Chapter 7 of the Board Rules, and the board stopped pre-approving courses on May 29, 2024.
- Sales and use tax treatment of dental equipment, including private party purchases. Confirm with the Wyoming Department of Revenue and your CPA.
- Wyoming limits on non-dentist ownership of a dental practice. Confirm with a dental-specific attorney.
Where to verify
- Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners: licensing overview, continuing education, renewal and relicensure, dental assistant applications, and x-ray inspection
- Wyoming Legislature: 2025 Enrolled Act 87, covenants not to compete
- US Environmental Protection Agency: dental effluent guidelines, 40 CFR Part 441
- Federal Trade Commission: September 2025 statement on the non-compete rule
- Wyoming Department of Revenue: revenue.wyo.gov
Putting it to work
Build a single Wyoming compliance calendar with four entries: the biennial CE deadline in odd years, the October 1 renewal window, the next x-ray inspection due date for every tube (because nobody else is tracking it), and each assistant's radiograph permit expiration. That calendar is now the only system standing between your practice and a disciplinary issue on the imaging side.
On the contract side, an agreement signed before July 1, 2025 is not touched by the new act. If you are signing now, the question is whether the professional staff exception reaches an associate dentist. Ask a Wyoming employment attorney that specifically, and watch for expense repayment schedules stepping in where non-competes used to be.
Related reading: non-compete agreements for dentists, x-ray registration and inspections, the compliance chapter of the operations guide, 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.