Background Fourteen per cent of people living with HIV in Australia, as in other countries, are not aware of their infection or their infective status. Dentists have the necessary expertise and are well‐placed for access by those sections of the population who would not normally access screening for HIV.

Methods A national cross‐sectional online survey of 532 Australian dentists was conducted during the period June to October 2013. We surveyed dentists’ understanding and willingness to undertake rapid HIV testing (RHT).

Results The majority of respondents (65.1%) believed that RHT was needed in dental clinics, with approximately two‐thirds of respondents indicating that RHT should be made available immediately. If RHT was to be undertaken in a dental setting, 51.1% of dentists thought that it should be conducted on saliva only, as opposed to blood or blood/saliva. Only 21.9% of dentists would currently be comfortable advising a patient of a reactive (i.e. positive) result indicative of HIV infection, with male dentists (26.1% comfortable) more comfortable than female dentists (17.5% comfortable) (p = 0.009).

Conclusions The majority of respondents were willing to provide RHT in their community settings. However, our data indicate that dentists would need additional training in HIV medicine, test administration and giving reactive results.