Florida Dental Radiography Certification: Requirements, Training, and How to Get Certified

Who needs dental radiography certification in Florida?

Florida law lets a licensed dentist operate X-ray equipment and read the images, and it lets that dentist direct a dental assistant to operate the equipment and expose images under the dentist's supervision — but only according to rules the Board of Dentistry adopts.^[1] The rule the Board adopted is Rule 64B5-9.011, Radiography Training for Dental Assistants. Under it, a dental assistant may position and expose dental radiographic images only if the assistant is a certified dental radiographer or has graduated from a Board-approved dental assisting school or program.^[2]

So there are two groups. Graduates of a Board-approved dental assisting program are already covered by their education. Everyone else — the assistant who was hired without formal schooling and trained chairside, which describes a large share of the Florida workforce — needs the certificate before taking radiographs on patients without a dentist guiding each exposure as training.

Two clarifications save a lot of confusion. First, Florida does not license dental assistants at all; the Board says so directly.^[3] The radiographer certificate is a narrow, task-specific credential. Second, it is separate from expanded-functions training. Holding one does not give you the other — we cover that in Dental Radiography vs. EFDA: what certification do you need?.

The certification pathway, step by step

The Board of Dentistry lists two training requirements and an application. The order matters, because the clock on the second requirement starts when the first one ends.^[3]

Step 1 — Three months of continuous on-the-job training

You must complete at least three months of continuous on-the-job training, assisting in positioning sensors and in positioning and exposing radiographs, under the direct supervision of a Florida-licensed dentist.^[4] Direct supervision has a defined meaning in Florida: the dentist examines the patient, diagnoses the condition, authorizes the procedure, is on the premises while it is performed, and approves the work before the patient leaves.^[5]

Three details trip people up. The training must be continuous — three months at one stretch, not scattered weeks. It must be radiographic training, not general chairside time. And the dentist attests to it in writing on your application, certifying that you have been in their employ for at least three months of continuous service and received three months of radiographic training.^[4] Volunteer hours and shadowing are not employment, which is why FIDA does not count them toward enrollment.

Step 2 — A Board-approved radiography course, within 12 months

Next is a course approved by the Florida Board of Dentistry. The deadline is the part most people miss: the course must be completed within 12 months of finishing the on-the-job training.^[3] An assistant who trained in the office years ago and never took the course should talk to their dentist about documenting a current three-month training period rather than assuming the old one still counts.

Rule 64B5-9.011 also sets what an approved course has to teach: dental radiography practice and equipment, radiation biology and safety, radiographic anatomy, intraoral and supplemental techniques, image processing, infection control, and hands-on instruction in positioning.^[2] A course that skips the radiation-safety science and only drills positioning is not what the rule describes.

Step 3 — Apply to the Board of Dentistry

With both pieces done, you file the Dental Radiography Certification Application, Form DH-MQA 1202. The current revision is dated 8/2025, and the Board amended the rule in November 2025 to incorporate it, so check that you are not using an old copy from a colleague's drawer.^[2][4]

• Fee: $35.00, non-refundable, payable to the Department of Health by cashier's check or money order.^[4]
• Proof of training: your course completion certificate, plus the supervising dentist's signed attestation of the three months.
• Fingerprints: electronic (Livescan) fingerprinting through an FDLE-approved provider. This is new — it came in with House Bill 975, effective July 1, 2025, and applies to out-of-state applicants too.^[6][4] The application gives the ORI number the Livescan vendor needs; with a wrong or missing ORI the Board never receives your results.
• Timing: Florida law gives the Board 30 days to review an initial application. Once the certificate is issued, the card typically arrives in 10 to 14 days.^[3]

How long does the whole thing take?

For someone starting from zero, plan on roughly five to six months: three months of supervised training that cannot be compressed, several weeks of coursework, and up to about six weeks for the application, fingerprints and mailing. For an assistant who is already in a Florida office and has already done the three months, it is the length of the course plus the Board's processing time.

You can overlap sensibly. Nothing stops you from scheduling Livescan while you finish the course, and your dentist can complete the attestation the day you qualify. What you cannot do is take the course first and the office training afterwards and expect the dates to work — the rule measures the 12 months from the end of the on-the-job training.

What does it cost?

Many Florida dentists pay for the course, because an assistant who can legally take radiographs is worth more to the schedule than the tuition. If you are an assistant, it is a reasonable thing to ask. If you are a dentist, see Does my dental assistant need EFDA, radiography certification, or both?.

Can the course be taken online?

What Florida regulates is whether the course is Board-approved and covers the required content — not the building it is taught in. That is why approved courses come in different formats, including online theory paired with clinical work in the assistant's own office. This suits radiography well, because the applicant is by definition already working under a supervising dentist with the equipment in front of them.

FIDA's Radiography for Dental Personnel course works this way: 14 clock hours over six weeks — eight hours of theory and six lab hours — completed online and self-paced, finishing with a clinical competency capstone performed under your supervising dentist. Whatever provider you choose, confirm its approval yourself; How to choose a Board-approved program shows you how in about five minutes.

After you are certified

• Display it. The rule requires the radiographer certificate to be conspicuously displayed to the public in the dental office where you work.^[2]
• It does not expire. The Board states that the dental radiographer certification does not expire and therefore does not need to be renewed, and it lists no continuing-education requirement for it.^[7]
• It follows you. The certificate is issued to you, not to the practice. Your employer — and any future one — can confirm it through the Department of Health's license verification search.^[8]
• It is not a scope expansion. Certification lets you position and expose images under a dentist's supervision. Interpreting radiographs and diagnosing remain the dentist's responsibility and cannot be delegated.^[9]

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Taking radiographs on the strength of “I've been trained.” In-office training is step one of certification, not a substitute for it. A dentist who delegates the task to an unqualified person is exposed to discipline for it.^[10]
2. Assuming an out-of-state or national credential transfers. Florida's rule describes its own pathway. If you trained elsewhere, call the Board before you assume you are covered.
3. Letting the 12 months run out. Finish the course while your on-the-job training is fresh — for the deadline and for your own retention.
4. Choosing a course by price alone. The only course that counts is a Board-approved one. Verify first, then compare.

Where FIDA fits

The Florida Institute of Dental Assisting is a state-licensed school in Jacksonville, and it appears on the Florida Board of Dentistry's list of approved expanded duty and radiology programs.^[11] Our instructors run an in-person dental assisting diploma program every week, and the radiography course is built from that same teaching. If you have done your three months and want to confirm you qualify, ask Atticus, our admissions advisor, or contact the school — and if radiography is one of two credentials you are weighing, read what an EFDA can do in Florida next.