Description
If you wish to practise the dental profession in the Federal Republic of Germany, you generally require a license to practice dentistry.
If you have not completed your training in a member state of the European Union or a signatory state to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or Switzerland, you can also be granted a permit to practise dentistry temporarily upon application. The permit may be limited to certain activities and employment positions. It may only be granted on a revocable basis and only for a maximum total duration of two years. In exceptional cases, the permit may be extended beyond this period. In Bavaria, the government of Upper Bavaria is responsible for issuing the license for work in the administrative districts of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Swabia and Upper Palatinate, as well as the government of Lower Franconia for work in the administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia.
If you have completed your training in an EU/EEA country or Switzerland, you will generally not be granted a license. Instead, you must apply for a license to practice immediately. An exception applies if there is a special interest in obtaining a license with regard to the intended dental activity.
In certain cases, nationals of an EU/EEA state or Switzerland may practice the dental profession in the Federal Republic of Germany without a license to practice dentistry or without a permit to temporarily practice dentistry, provided that they are temporarily and occasionally active as providers of services within the meaning of Article 57 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. However, you are subject to a registration obligation. The competent government (see above) will inform you whether you require a permit.
Prerequisites
In principle, the most important requirement is that you can prove that you have completed full dental training in accordance with the law of the country in which you completed your training.
Further requirements are
- that you have not been guilty of any conduct that makes you unworthy or unreliable to practise the medical profession (reliability),
- you are not medically unfit to practise the profession of dentist (medical fitness) and
- you have the knowledge of the German language required for practicing the profession (language skills).
Special notes
The granting of a license to practice medicine or a professional permit requires, among other things, that you have the necessary knowledge of the German language to practice your profession. The 87th Conference of Health Ministers in 2014 agreed in a key points paper on the requirements for knowledge of the German language and how this knowledge can be demonstrated. The following applies:
1. the required German language skills are deemed to be proven for applicants for whom the licensing authority determines without doubt that German is spoken and written fluently (e.g. as a native language) or that the completion of medical, dental, pharmaceutical or psychotherapeutic training (proof of training) was obtained in German.
2. proof of the required German language skills is generally deemed to have been provided if the applicant has completed at least ten years of general schooling at a German-speaking school or has completed at least three years of vocational training in German.
3. if proof is not deemed to have been provided in accordance with 1. or 2. above, the language skills required for practicing the profession shall be deemed to have been proven by submission of a certificate of successful completion of the specialist language test at the Bavarian State Chamber of Dentists.
4 Specialist language tests taken at the Bavarian State Chamber of Dentists or the competent authority of another state, as well as specialist language tests from other examination institutions, are recognized as proof, provided that it is guaranteed that the examination there is equivalent to the specialist language test at the Bavarian State Chamber of Dentists. Whether this requirement is met in individual cases must be clarified in advance with the responsible professional licensing office.
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