About this event
Dental Terminology is a solo written test for the Secondary and Postsecondary/Collegiate divisions, sponsored by the American Dental Education Association. Questions come from the Dental Terminology textbook (Dofka) and Wheeler's Dental Anatomy, Physiology and Occlusion. Almost a third of the test covers general dentistry and the dental specialties; the rest is split evenly across instruments, pharmacology and pain management, emergency care, restorations, head and neck anatomy, radiography, and lab materials. The test is 50 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes. Two sets of five fill-in-the-blank tiebreaker questions are printed in the booklet; they are only scored when competitors tie, and the term must be spelled correctly to count. New for 2026-27, the tiebreaker shrank from twenty questions to ten.
Test day
What to expect
60 minutes, 50 questions
You have 60 minutes for 50 questions written from the event's published test plan. Official format: 50-question test, 60 minutes, plus two sets of five fill-in-the-blank tiebreakers.
Written from the test plan
Questions follow the event's published test plan, section by section, and are written from the listed reference texts. Practice questions here are drawn in the same proportions.
How you advance
How many advance from regionals to states and on to the International Leadership Conference (ILC) depends on your association's rules. Study the official test plan: it lists each section and its share of the test.
What's on the test
Study resources
Bookmark to saveCurated by ChapterPrep. Free unless noted. External links open in a new tab.