Several Texas State Board of Dental Examiners members who attended the joint American Board of Dental Examiners (ADEX) and American Association of Dental Boards (AADB) meeting in Grapevine described national exam trends and workforce signals to the full board on Nov. 7.

Board member Margo Melcher said ADEX reported an initial pass rate for dental hygiene candidates of about 99.45 percent from a pool of 5,335 candidates and that overall OSCE pass rates ranged from roughly 77 percent to 99 percent across clinical categories. Melcher said ADEX also expects roughly 15 new or expanded dental schools in the next couple of years, which the meeting estimated could add about 720 new dental students nationally.

Lori Jones, recently elected dental-hygiene representative to the AADB, and other board members said the organizations are aligning some exam components. Jones noted that the perio portion of the dental exam will match the hygiene simulated perio exam beginning in 2026, a change driven in part by workforce survey results showing many dentists perform their own hygiene procedures.

Robert McNeil, a board member who attended, highlighted national discussion about reducing stigmatizing licensure questions on mental health and substance use. McNeil said Texas’ prior changes to its application questions were discussed by other states as a model. Attendees also heard an AI-focused session about using cross-state data for licensing and case processing; Jones said the Federation of State Medical Boards presented on AI usage and that efforts are underway to streamline information sharing with the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Why it matters: The reported changes — exam alignment, new dental programs and evolving licensure screening practices — affect how many new clinicians enter practice, how they are assessed for clinical competence and how boards handle fitness-to-practice issues.

Board members said the ADEX/AADB reports will inform their future work on exam and education-related rules. No formal board action on licensing exams was taken at the Nov. 7 meeting.

Sources: Presentations and discussion at the Nov. 7 meeting of the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners. Direct remarks by Margo Melcher, Lori Jones and Robert McNeil were recorded on the meeting transcript at 00:49:48–00:52:34 and 00:50:13–00:52:34.