All pre-existing QA program requirements and assessments are ending on December 31, 2025. The information below about the outgoing program is being maintained into January 2026 to support those with cycles ending on December 31, 2025.

Dental Therapist Quality Assurance Requirements

One of the three main ways BCCOHP protects the public is by ensuring that all regulated oral health professionals are supported in the provision of safe oral health care throughout their careers. This work is carried out through our Quality Assurance Program (QAP).

Modernized QAP coming April 2026

BCCOHP is establishing a single, modernized QAP for all oral health professionals. The program will be implemented in April 2026.

All pre-existing program requirements and assessments are ending on December 31, 2025. To support this transition:

Oral health professionals with QA cycles ending December 31, 2025, are the final cohorts required to complete the pre-existing program requirements.
Effective January 1, 2026, no further reporting of pre-existing QA activities or assessments will be required.
Assignment of new QA cycles will be deferred until the launch of the modernized QAP.

What this means for dental therapists with cycles ending December 31, 2025:

You are required to complete all Continuing Education (CE) and Continuous Practice (CP) hour requirements before the end of this cycle.
These requirements must be met in order to renew your registration.

Professional development during the transition

Although reporting of pre-existing QA activities will not be required between January and April 2026, oral health professionals are encouraged to continue engaging in professional development that:

Ensures patient safety
Upholds professional responsibility
Maintains professional competence as set out in the Professional Standards for the Oral Health Team

Professional Standard 2.7 requires oral health professionals to maintain current knowledge, skills, and abilities. To meet this standard, you must demonstrate that:

2.7.1 You remain current and keep your knowledge, skills and abilities up to date throughout your professional career
2.7.2 You use your professional judgment and reflect on patient outcomes to identify potential gaps or deficiencies in your knowledge, skills and ability and take steps to address them

Quality Assurance Project Update

Our work to establish a modernized quality assurance program for all oral health professionals has been a key initiative since BCCOHP’s creation through amalgamation in 2022.

The quality assurance programs developed by the legacy colleges that came together remained in place upon amalgamation and will be replaced in April 2026 by a single, modernized QAP.

Learn more about the QAP modernization project here >>

Note: The information below contains details about the outgoing/pre-existing Quality Assurance Program and is being maintained here to support those with cycles ending on December 31, 2025, in being able to confirm that they have fulfilled all applicable remaining requirements.

Current/outgoing QA Program (ending on December 31, 2025)

As detailed above, all pre-existing QA program requirements and assessments are ending on December 31, 2025. The information below is being maintained until January 2026 to support those with cycles ending on December 31, 2025.

BCCOHP’s outgoing QA program for dental therapists has two main components:

continuing education (number of credits required to hold practising registration)
continuous practice (number of practice hours required to hold practising registration)

Your QA cycle was assigned at the date of registration and ran on a three-year calendar cycle.

Below is a summary of QA requirements for dental therapists. General information about continuing education and continuous practice can be found in the sidebar.

Continuing Education Credit Categories

Following are descriptions of the categories under which dental therapists may earn CE credits and the maximum number of credits allowed in each category over a three-year QA cycle.

Category/ Modality	Description	Max Credits Per Cycle
Category/ Modality	Description	Dental therapists
Clinical Dental	Relates directly to the provision of patient care and treatment	No limit
Dental Practice Management	Relates directly to the operation and management of a dental practice (does not include courses related to personal financial or retirement planning, or marketing products or services to patients)	18
Dental/ Medical Emergencies	First aid, CPR, ACLS, and management of dental/medical emergencies	12
Non-Clinical Dental	Topics that are applicable to the registrant’s practice of dentistry	12
Other Dental	E.g. CDA modules, lecturers/ presenters/mentors/supervisors, university/college courses, examinations, publication authorship, and learning contract/directed study	Variable See pages 6-7 of Continuing Education Requirements (PDF) document

Note: There are credit limits associated with the various CE learning categories and modalities. For more information, read the Continuing Education Requirements (PDF) document.

Dental therapists are encouraged to review the eligibility criteria for continuing education credits, which is available here.

Continuing Education Requirements

Dental therapists are required to maintain a minimum number of hours of mandatory continuing education (CE) in order to renew registration to practise each year.

Your QA cycle was assigned at the date of registration and ran on a three-year calendar cycle, e.g. January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2022.

Minimum required credits during a three-year QA cycle: 75 credits (one hour = 1 credit)

Detailed requirements, including course eligibility, are outlined in the Continuing Education Requirements (PDF) document.

Continuous Practice Requirements

Dental therapists must achieve at least 900 practice hours within their QA cycle in order to renew their registration as a practising dental therapist.

Acceptable continuous practice hours include the provision of clinical dental treatment, employment as a dental educator or dental researcher, or enrollment in a dental education program.

To meet the continuous practice requirement, dental therapists must work approximately 25 hours per month (within their QA cycle).