What
is Central Regional Dental Testing Service?
The
Central Regional Dental Testing Service, Inc. (CRDTS for short) is a testing
service made up of fifteen State Boards of Dentistry who have joined forces
to develop and administer fair, valid and reliable examinations of competency
to practice dentistry and dental hygiene. The members of CRDTS are the
State Boards of Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas,
Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. (For more information on the State Boards, please visit the
Contact Page.)
Regional
Boards are a relatively recent development in a gradual movement towards
more uniformity in clinical examinations.
CRDTS is one of four regional boards, or regional testing services,
in the country: the Northeast Regional Board-NERB
; the Central Regional Dental Testing Service, Inc.-CRDTS; the Southern Regional
Testing Agency-SRTA; and the Western Regional
Examining Board-WREB.
The
NERB was formed in the middle to late 1960's; CRDTS began in the late
'60's and early '70's; SRTA organized in the early 70's and WREB in the
middle to late '70's. In the 1980's and '90's, there has been renewed
interest in Regional Boards due to a growing demand for greater mobility
or transportability of credentials among dental professionals seeking
to move from one licensing jurisdiction to another.
Part
of the initial motivation to form Regional Boards was an effort to keep
the responsibility for competency assessment in the hands of dental professionals
rather than a government bureaucracy, and to enable State Boards to improve
their testing methodologies. By pooling their resources, states are able
to secure personnel with more expertise in tests and measurements, broaden
the geographic base of the examination and offer the examination in more
modern clinic facilities. The advantage to candidates is access to licensure
in more states through successful completion of a standardized, objective,
valid and reliable examination
CRDTS
participates in the American Board of Dental Examiners, Inc. (hereinafter
abbreviated as ADEX) to develop uniform dental and dental hygiene clinical
examinations. ADEX is a private not-for-profit consortium of Regional
and State Dental Testing Agencies. CRDTS, Inc. has adopted the ADEX examination
as the CRDTS’ examination. Therefore, the CRDTS’ examination
described in this manual includes the content, criteria and scoring methodologies
developed by ADEX.
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Our
Mission and Values
Our
Mission
To provide the dental examination community with test
construction and administrative standardization for national uniform
dental and dental hygiene clinical licensure examinations. These examinations
will demonstrate integrity and fairness in order to assist State Boards
with their mission to protect the health, safety and welfare of the
public by assuring that only competent and qualified individuals are
allowed to practice dentistry and dental hygiene.
Integrated Format: The Integrated Format
is the pre-graduation examination offered to senior dental students
and graduate students of record. The Integrated Format affords candidates
the opportunity to successfully demonstrate critical clinical competence
in basic clinical procedures required by CRDTS recognizing jurisdictions
for licensure. The time-sequencing of this format provides for the opportunity
to remediate when necessary within the dental school curriculum as well
as for timely issuance of licenses upon graduation.
Integrated Format versus Traditional Format:
Both the Integrated Format and Traditional Format examinations are identical
in content, criteria and scoring. The major difference between the two
formats is in the time-sequencing of how the examination is administered.
The Traditional Format examination is administered in its entirety over
the course of three days to all eligible candidates near the end of
the academic year. The Integrated Format examination is administered
in segments over the course of eight months to eligible dental students
during their senior year or graduate program in dental school. There
are separate manuals for each examination, please check the front of
the manual to be sure you’ve received the correct manual and documents.
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Web
Site Contents
- Dental
Exams - Contains information regarding the schedule, application
procedures, exam content, and scoring for the Dental Examination.
Also contains downloadable application materials and a form to use
for requesting application materials through the mail.
- Hygiene
Exams - Contains information regarding the schedule, application
procedures, exam content, and scoring for the Dental Hygiene Examination.
Also contains downloadable application materials and a form to use
for requesting application materials through the mail.
- FAQ
- Frequently Asked Questions and the Answers to them.
- Contacts
- Contact information for our staff, member state boards, dental schools,
dental hygiene programs, and other organizations we work closely with.
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