What Does One Need to Become a Dentist in Canada?

Becoming a Dentist in Canada

A dentist is a medical professional who helps people in the treatment and prevention of oral diseases. To become a dentist in Canada, you must pass an examination administered by Canada's National Dental Examination Board and then register with the Royal College of Dentists in the area of Canada in which you'll practice. In order to qualify for both of these steps, which are the final steps to becoming a dentist in Canada, there are a number of other things you have to do first.

Your journey to becoming a dentist in Canada will start with receiving your undergraduate (Bachelor's) degree in a relevant area, since a Bachelor's degree is a requirement before you can be admitted to a dental school in Canada.

Getting an Undergraduate Degree

Having attained an undergraduate degree, the next step is to enroll in a Canadian dental school for a four-year program leading to a doctor's degree in dentistry. During the course of your dental school program, you'll have the opportunity to choose whether you want to become a general dentistry practitioner or whether you intend to specialize in a given area of dentistry.

Popular specializations in dentistry include periodontics, orthodontics and endodontics. Others include oral pathology, oral medicine and oral and maxillofacial surgery, to name a few of the numerous specializations in dentistry. If you love young children, you could specialize in pediatric dentistry and work on fixing childhood dental problems.

The Final Phase

In the final phase of your journey toward becoming a dentist in Canada, you'll be required to complete a residency--which is a basically a supervised dental practice in a real hospital or clinic where you get firsthand experience in the treatment of real-life dental problems. After your residency, you can take the aforementioned National Dental Examination Board exam and apply for admission into the Royal College of Dentists and start practicing as a dentist in Canada.

If you're a professional dentist who has just immigrated to Canada and are looking to start a practice, all you need to do (assuming you had qualifications equivalent to a Canadian doctor of dentistry) is take the National Dental Examination Board's exam and apply for registration into the Royal College of Dentists.