The purpose of the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination is to assist state boards in determining qualifications of dental hygienists who seek licensure to practice dental hygiene. The Examination assesses the ability to understand important information from basic biomedical, dental, and dental hygiene sciences.

The National Board Dental Hygiene Examination is intended to fulfill or partially fulfill the written examination requirement, but acceptance of National Board scores is completely at the discretion of the individual state. A state may place any limit on acceptance of National Board scores that it deems appropriate. For example, some states accept National Board scores only if earned within the last 10 or 15 years.