The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) has clarified that its new Article 16 ionizing radiation regulations requiring accreditation for dental cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) installations do not apply in New York City (Bronx County, Kings County, New York County, Queens County, Richmond County).  The new CBCT regulations only apply to all other counties outside of New York City.  New York City is governed by Article 175 of the New York City Health Code and Article 175 does not contain a CBCT accreditation requirement.

On July 22, 2026, the NYS Department of Health (DOH) finalized regulations that create new requirements for dentists that use a CBCT machine in their offices.

Note, however, these regulations do NOT apply to dental CBCTs within the City of New York.  Those units are governed by the regulations of the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene.  They do apply everywhere else in the state.

The key part of these regulations can be found here on the NYS website:

https://regs.health.ny.gov/content/section-1665-diagnostic-cone-beam-computed-tomography-cbct

NYSDA’s website helps to summarize these requirements: https://www.nysdental.org/practice-support/nys-regulations-on-cbct

There are two key requirements within the new CBCT regulations that dentists will now need to address.

Quality Assurance/Control:  CBCT owners will now require the services of a medical physicist to perform a Quality Assurance survey as well as Quality Control testing.  These requirements were already in place for practices in the City of New York, but now apply statewide.  Reported costs of such services are between $1,000-$2,000/year.

We have asked the Department of Health to publish a list, by region, of the NYS licensed medical physicists, and place that list on their website alongside their CRESO list.  We have spoken with several firms that perform this work but we do not have a preferred or endorsed firm to suggest at this time.  We will try to identify as many of these groups as possible, to help members fulfill these requirements.  These requirements are in effect immediately.

Accreditation:  NYSDA filed numerous statements during the drafting of these regulations that strongly argued against the need for independent accreditation of CBCT operators.  The Department of Health, nonetheless, chose to include this in the new requirements.

DOH currently recognizes two firms as authorized to satisfy the accreditation requirement under these regulations: IAC and Radsite.  The Department stated that it would accept accrediting bodies accepted by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  IAC and Radsite are both accepted by CMS.  These groups, however, often work with larger healthcare organizations.   We have therefore asked if they could distill their standards in a way that smaller dental practices can more readily achieve accreditation.  We expect to meet with them later this month to further discuss this.

Practices that had their CBCT machines in operation prior to July 22, 2026, will have until January 22, 2028 to choose and complete an accreditation program from one of these two firms.

• IAC  https://intersocietal.org/programs/ct-dental-ct/
• Radsite  https://radsitequality.com/accreditation/cbct-dental/

We will continue to update members on these new requirements as developments occur.