INBDE: the two-day national board for dentists

The Integrated National Board Dental Examination, written by the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations — six sections over two days, a content model that crosses clinical work with the science under it, and what an RDHPass module would have to reproduce before we would sell it.

Who sits this exam

Dental students and graduates seeking licensure in the United States, including dentists trained abroad. It replaced the two-part national board and is the written examination almost every state now asks a dentist for — separately from that state's own laws-and-rules paper, which in Florida is a different exam with a different bank.

Format

Two testing days close together at one center, each day made of sections that run on their own clock. Every figure below was read in the JCNDE's own candidate guide, and the row says which page it came from.

Verified exam facts, each with the official page it was read from.
Fact	What it says	Source
Questions	500 multiple-choice items over two days of testing, which must fall within seven days of each other at the same test center	JCNDE · INBDE Candidate Guide
Sections and time	Six 105-minute sections, four on the first day and two on the second: 300 standalone items and 60 case-based items on day one, 140 case-based items on day two, with optional breaks between them	JCNDE · INBDE Candidate Guide
Delivery	Computer-based, in English, at a test center	JCNDE · Integrated National Board Dental Examination

What is on it

The INBDE does not ask you to name a fact and move on. Every item sits at the crossing of a clinical situation and a foundation science, which is why studying it by subject alone leaves gaps: the specification is a grid, not a list.

Verified exam facts, each with the official page it was read from.
Fact	What it says	Source
Content model	The Domain of Dentistry: 56 Clinical Content areas crossed with 10 Foundation Knowledge areas, so an item is placed by what it asks about and by the science it draws on	JCNDE · INBDE Candidate Guide
Clinical components	Diagnosis and treatment planning 36%, oral health management 42%, and practice and profession 22%, each crossed with every foundation knowledge area	JCNDE · INBDE Candidate Guide

How it is scored

One overall scale score decides pass or fail across both days. Subarea scales come with the report and are worth reading before a retake, but they do not change the verdict.

Verified exam facts, each with the official page it was read from.
Fact	What it says	Source
Scoring	Pass/fail, decided by an overall scale score from 49 to 99 with 75 as the minimum passing score. Subarea scales are reported but do not decide the result	JCNDE · INBDE Candidate Guide

Register and pay

Registration is with the JCNDE and is independent of RDHPass. Fees, eligibility and the rules for candidates from programs outside the accreditation system are in the candidate guide linked in the sources below; read them there, because they are re-issued.

Verified exam facts, each with the official page it was read from.
Fact	What it says	Source
Exam fee	$890, or $1,080 for the INBDE and the DLOSCE together; a $435 processing fee applies to candidates from programs not accredited by CODA	JCNDE · INBDE Candidate Guide
Where to register	With the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations, at jcnde.ada.org	JCNDE · Integrated National Board Dental Examination

What an RDHPass module would have to do

We will not open a module we cannot simulate honestly. This is the list we hold ourselves to, written down before the module exists so it can be checked against what ships.

Sections with their own clocks, sat across two days, that resume exactly where you left them.
Sampling against the clinical-content by foundation-knowledge grid, so a mock is short of neither half of the specification.
Patient boxes: a case shown once and referred to by every item that hangs off it, never an item quoting a chart that is not on screen.
A score report that reads like the real one — an overall scale plus the subarea scales — and never claims to predict the official standard.
Our own case media, authored by us and labelled as ours, because the examination's images and patient boxes are its property.

Official sources

Facts verified September 6, 2026 on the official pages linked above.

Coming soon

This module is not built yet

The guide above is finished and every number in it was read on the examiner's own page — the module is not. Leave your address and we will write once, the day it opens. Which module we build next is decided by how many people ask for it here.

The other exams we cover

RDHPass is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Florida Board of Dentistry, the Florida Department of Health, ADEX (formerly CDCA-WREB-CITA) or the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations, and it does not give legal advice. Requirements change — always confirm them on the official sites.