Live vs Home Study CE: What Your Board Actually Accepts
It is the question we are asked more than any other: will my board actually accept this?
The short answer is yes — home study CE is accepted for license renewal in all 50 states. The longer answer, and the one that actually matters when you are planning a renewal, is that many states limit how many of your hours may come from home study. Getting that limit wrong is one of the few ways to complete your CE properly and still have a problem at renewal.
The three categories boards care about
Terminology varies by state, but boards generally sort CE into three buckets:
- Live, in-person. A lecture, hands-on workshop or conference where you are physically present. Some states call this “live”, some “classroom”.
- Live, interactive remote. A scheduled webinar where you can ask questions in real time. Many states began treating this as equivalent to in-person during 2020 and kept the change; some did not.
- Home study / self-study. Material you complete on your own schedule with an assessment at the end. That is what we provide. Some boards use the phrase “self-instruction” or “non-live”.
The distinction that trips people up is the second one. A live webinar is not always home study, and a recorded webinar is almost never live — even though both arrive through a browser.
Why the caps exist
Boards are not sceptical of home study content. They cap it because CE serves two purposes: keeping practitioners current, and keeping them connected to a professional community. Live attendance is the crude proxy for the second one. That is the whole reasoning, and it explains why caps tend to sit around half your total requirement rather than somewhere restrictive.
A handful of states apply no cap at all. Several apply a cap to some license types but not others — it is common for hygienists and assistants to face different rules from dentists in the same state.
How to check your own limit in two minutes
- Find your state on our CE requirements pages, which set out the hours required, the renewal cycle and any mandatory subjects.
- Check the home study or self-study limit specifically, not just the total.
- Confirm against your board's own website. Boards are the final authority, they update rules between cycles, and no third party — us included — should be your last word on this.
What to look for in a home study provider
Acceptance depends far more on the provider's accreditation than on the delivery format. Look for:
- AGD PACE approval — recognized nationally, and required by some boards outright.
- ADA CERP recognition — also recognized nationally, and the other credential boards look for.
- State-specific provider registration where your state requires it. Florida and California both maintain their own provider lists.
- A certificate that carries the provider identifiers, because that is what an auditor asks to see.
Home Study Solutions is an AGD PACE approved provider and ADA CERP recognized, and is registered as a provider in Florida and California. Every certificate we issue carries those identifiers, stays in your account permanently, and can be reprinted whenever you need it.
ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in
identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or
endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by
boards of dentistry.
The formal continuing education programs of this program provider are accepted by Academy of
General Dentistry (AGD) for Fellowship/Mastership credit.
The practical approach
Most practitioners we deal with use a simple split: satisfy the live-hours portion at a conference or study club they were attending anyway, and clear the remaining hours — the mandatory subjects especially — through home study, at whatever hour of the day actually suits them. It is the cheapest and least disruptive way to meet the requirement, and it front-loads the compulsory material so nothing is left to chance in the final month.
Common questions
Is online dental CE accepted in all 50 states?
Home study CE from an accredited provider is accepted in every state, but many states limit what proportion of your total hours may come from home study. Check your state's limit as well as its total.
Does a live webinar count as home study?
Usually not, if it is scheduled and interactive — many boards treat that as live CE. A recorded webinar you watch on your own schedule is normally home study. Definitions vary, so check your board's wording.
What happens if I exceed my state's home study limit?
Hours above the cap typically do not count toward that renewal, which can leave you short even though you completed the CE. This is why checking the cap matters as much as checking the total.
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