Dental licensure reaches a crossroads: the rationale and method for reform.

Following calls to reform the dental licensure process, New York state has adopted an innovative approach that is responsive to the perceived shortcomings of the existing Part III examination. This solution eliminates the legally, psychometrically, and ethically compromised system, replacing it with a requirement that both ensures the public's protection and gives the new dentist additional experience in contemporary procedures in a supervised setting. The best preparation for the practice of dentistry is the practice of dentistry--something so profound and simple; yet it constitutes the core of New York's revolutionary reform.