Voluntary Recertification

Voluntary Recertification Online Test
- enter here

Voluntary recertification does not require a trip to St. Louis. Lifetime Diplomates who volunteer for recertification must complete the following steps:

1. Submit one Case Report treated to board standards from the personal practice of the Diplomate. Any case that meets the criteria of the First Recertification Exam is acceptable.


2. Either, prepare treatment plans for two cases provided by the Board on a secured area of the ABO website;
   Or, score ten of your own consecutively finished cases using the ABO Grading System for Casts and Radiographs.

You will receive contents for one case report notebook with forms, instructions, a measuring gauge, and a password and instructions to enter the Online Test on this webpage. As a not-for-profit organization, it is necessary to charge a nominal fee for this process. Once you are recertified, you will receive a certificate indicating your accomplishment.

All materials must reach the ABO central office by February 1.

To register for voluntary recertification, download ABO Clinical Exam Registration (pdf), or contact the ABO central office.

In February 1999, in order to establish guidelines and procedures relative to the recertifying process, all current ABO directors were required to complete a recertification examination. This examination, while voluntary, required that each director present one case report of a patient who had been recently treated and to treatment plan a case they had not seen previously. The current directors were examined by former ABO directors. In February 2000, all former directors who continued as examiners and each newly appointed director were required to recertify in the same manner.

At present, the ABO is encouraging all Diplomates who are not required to recertify to do so voluntarily. While the ABO feels that a recertification examination should not be as extensive as the initial Clinical Examination, the Board does believe that such examination must involve diagnosis and treatment planning of clinical records, and have structured the Voluntary Recertification Exam accordingly.