(a) The board shall issue a license to practice dentistry to an applicant who meets the following requirements:

(1) Is at least 18 years of age;

(2) Is of good moral character;

(3) Is a graduate of and has a diploma from a school accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation or equivalently approved dental college, school, or dental department of a university as determined by the board;

(4) Has passed a national board examination as given by the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations and a clinical examination administered by the Commission on Dental Competency Assessments, the Central Regional Dental Testing Service, the Council of Interstate Testing Agencies, the Southern Regional Testing Agency, or the Western Regional Examining Board, or the successor to any of those entities, which demonstrates competency, and passed each individual component with no compensatory scoring in:

(A) Endodontics, including access opening of a posterior tooth and access, canal instrumentation, and obturation of an anterior tooth;

(B) Fixed prosthodontics, including an anterior crown preparation and two posterior crown preparations involving a fixed partial denture factor;

(C) Periodontics, including scaling and root planing in a patient-based clinical setting;

(D) Restorative, including a class II amalgam or composite preparation and restoration and a class III composite preparation and restoration in a patient-based clinical setting; and

(E) The board may consider clinical examinations taken prior to July 1, 2019, or individual state clinical examinations as equivalent which demonstrates competency.

(5) Has not been found guilty of cheating, deception, or fraud in the examination or any part of the application;

(6) Has paid the application fee specified by rule; and

(7) Not be an alcohol or drug abuser, as these terms are defined in §27-1A-11 of this code: Provided, That an applicant in an active recovery process, which may, in the discretion of the board, be evidenced by participation in a 12-step program or other similar group or process, may be considered.

(b) A dentist may not represent to the public that he or she is a specialist in any branch of dentistry or limit his or her practice to any branch of dentistry unless first issued a certificate of qualification in that branch of dentistry by the board.

(c) A license to practice dentistry issued by the board shall for all purposes be considered a license issued under this section: Provided, That a person holding a license shall renew the license.