How to Open a Dental Office or Clinic: License and Requirements

Many dentists, after several years of working “for someone else,” come to the idea of opening their own dental office or even a full-fledged clinic. They have experience, patients, and motivation. It may seem that all that remains is to find premises and buy a dental chair. But this is exactly where the most interesting part begins.

Dentistry in Ukraine is a licensed type of medical activity, which means the state imposes significantly higher requirements on it than on an ordinary small business. It is not enough to simply register as an individual entrepreneur and rent premises for dentistry. Before accepting the first patient, you need to go through business registration, obtain a Ministry of Health license, comply with dozens of technical standards, and this is still not the full list.

The cost of a mistake here is high. Working without a license means fines and forced closure. Choosing premises without taking into account the State Building Standards for dentists may result in a ban on carrying out activities.

This article is a guide for those who want to open a dental business and do it correctly from the very beginning. We will analyze each stage: from choosing the form of ownership and licensing a dentist’s activity to opening.

You might also like: Leasing Premises for Medical Practice: Ministry of Health Requirements and Lease Agreement

Individual Entrepreneur or LLC: What Suits a Dentist

The first legal decision you will need to make is how to register the dental business. This is where most doctors face the same question: individual entrepreneur or LLC? The answer depends on the scale, plans, and how many people will be involved in the business.

Individual Entrepreneur: The Most Common Choice

The vast majority of doctors who open their own dental office register as individual entrepreneurs. This is simpler, cheaper, and requires significantly less administrative effort. A dentist registered as an individual entrepreneur can independently obtain a medical practice license, keep simplified accounting, and make operational decisions quickly without meetings and protocols.

Which individual entrepreneur group is suitable for a dentist? The optimal choice is the third group of the single tax system with a rate of 5% of income, or 3% if registered as a VAT payer. This allows legal work with individuals without cash register limits and keeps the tax burden at a reasonable level.

It is important to remember that an individual entrepreneur is liable for obligations with all of their property. This is the main risk of this form.

LLC: When the Business Is Bigger Than One Dental Chair

If you plan to open a dental clinic with several doctors of different profiles, such as surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, and so on, attract an investor, or divide the business between partners, a limited liability company is a better fit. An LLC protects the owners’ personal property: in case of problems, liability is limited to the amount of the authorized capital. At the same time, the administrative burden is significantly higher: charter, meeting minutes, and more complex reporting.

It should be taken into account that a dental practice license for an LLC is issued to the legal entity, and the staff must include a doctor with the appropriate qualification of medical director who actually manages the medical activity.

KVED for a Dentist: Do Not Forget the Correct Code

A nuance that is often not given enough attention when registering a business is the choice of types of economic activity. The main KVED for a dental office is 86.23, “Dental Practice.” Additionally, depending on the list of services, it is worth considering the following KVED codes:

• 86.21, “General Medical Practice”;
• 86.90, “Other Human Health Activities.”

An incorrectly specified or missing KVED may become formal grounds for refusing a license or may cause complications during inspections.

Registering a Dentist’s Business: Step-by-Step Procedure

Registering your own dental business is the first official step, after which you stop being just a dentist and become an entrepreneur.

Step 1. Prepare the Documents

To register as an individual entrepreneur dentist, you will need a minimum set of documents:

• passport of a citizen of Ukraine;
• taxpayer registration number, also known as individual tax number.

If you are registering an LLC for dentistry, you will additionally need the charter, information about the founders, and a legal address.

Step 2. Choose the Registration Method

Today, there are three ways to submit documents:

• Through the Diia app, which is the fastest option. Registration takes literally a few minutes online, and signing is done using an electronic signature, QES, or through BankID.
• Through a state registrar, meaning a personal visit to an administrative services center. This option is suitable for those who do not have a QES or who want to handle everything in person.
• Through a notary, which is the most common option, especially for an LLC.

Step 3. Registration and Obtaining an Extract

The state registrar enters the relevant information into the Unified State Register. After the procedure is completed, you receive an extract that officially confirms your status as a business entity. This document is the basis for completing all subsequent stages of legalizing your activity.

Step 4. Registration with the Tax Authorities

Registration with the tax service at the place of your registration takes place automatically immediately after the data is entered into the register. No additional visits or applications are required. However, if you plan to choose the simplified taxation system for your dental office, you must submit a single tax application on time. This can be done either during the initial registration or within ten days after it is completed.

Step 5. Opening a Bank Account

Formally, an entrepreneur may also use a regular personal card account. However, for a dental office, it is recommended to open a separate business account immediately. This simplifies accounting, reduces risks during inspections, and looks professional to counterparties.

Step 6. Cash Register

Since dental services fall under the category of paid medical services, the use of a classic hardware cash register or a modern software cash register is an unconditional legal requirement. A software cash register for dentistry can be connected free of charge through the “Kasa” app from the State Tax Service or through one of the commercial solutions.

You might also like: Anesthesia in Dentistry: Is a License Required?

Licensing Dental Practice: Who Obtains It, What Documents Are Needed, and Timelines

If business registration is the formal start, then a Ministry of Health license for dental practice is the actual permission to work. Without it, any medical activity is illegal, even if your office is perfectly equipped and there is a queue of patients at the door.

Who Must Obtain a License to Carry Out Medical Practice in Dentistry

If you plan to provide medical services, obtaining a license is mandatory. The license is issued both to legal entities, regardless of their organizational and legal form, and to individual entrepreneurs. As individual entrepreneurs, licenses may be obtained by doctors who carry out private medical practice within the limits of their professional competence.

What Documents Are Needed to Obtain a Dentist’s License

To obtain a license, the entity submits an application for a license to the Ministry of Health licensing department, information on the condition of the material and technical base and the availability of personnel, indicating their educational and qualification level, as well as a list of documents attached to the application.

A broad list of documents is required to complete the information form:

• document confirming ownership or a lease agreement for the premises;
• documents confirming the doctor’s education and qualifications, such as a diploma, specialist certificate, and certificate of advanced training;
• agreement for the removal of medical waste;
• conclusion on the premises confirming the availability of access for persons with limited mobility, and so on.

Please note! Dentistry is not one specialty, but several. The license may cover therapeutic dentistry, surgical dentistry, prosthetic dentistry, orthodontics, and so on. If you plan to provide services in several areas at once, each specialty must be declared separately.

How Much Does a Dentistry License Cost and How Long Does It Take?

The state fee for issuing a license is one subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons as of the date when the licensing decision is made. The decision to issue the license is made within 10 business days from the date the Ministry receives the documents. The license is valid indefinitely.

You might also like: Medical Waste Processing Agreement: A Mandatory MoH Requirement from 2026

Premises Requirements: Sanitary Standards, Approvals, and Permits

Many future dental office owners underestimate this stage. They find a suitable premises, sign a lease agreement, and only then discover that it does not meet the required standards. To prevent this, it is important to review the premises requirements in advance.

Medical practice may be carried out exclusively in non-residential premises. If you have an apartment on the ground floor, it must first be transferred to the non-residential fund, and only after that can you begin the licensing procedure.

Dental premises may be located in residential and public buildings, provided that certain requirements are met: placement on the main facade with a separate entrance, compliance with fire safety and sanitary standards, and accessibility requirements.

As for the required area of a dental office:

• at least 14 square meters must be allocated for one dental chair;
• at least 10 additional square meters must be added for each additional chair.

In addition to the dental office itself, auxiliary areas must also be arranged.

A sterilization room is mandatory for all dental specialties: therapeutic dentistry, surgical dentistry, prosthetic dentistry, and orthodontics. It may be shared by several offices if you have more than one chair, but its availability is a mandatory condition for obtaining a license.

Requirements for dental offices are primarily regulated by DBN V.2.2-10:2022 “Healthcare Facilities. Main Provisions.”

Please note! To use a dental visiograph, it is sufficient to enter the equipment into the Register of Persons Responsible for Placing Medical Devices on the Market and register it with the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection. However, installing a computed tomography scanner or panoramic X-ray requires obtaining an additional license from the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine.

Employment Relations: Qualification Requirements

The staff of a dental clinic must include at least one dentist who meets the following requirements:

• has a diploma in “Dentistry”;
• has a specialist doctor certificate.

The documents accepted as proof of qualification include:

• a state-issued higher education document;
• a specialist doctor certificate;
• a certificate of assignment or confirmation of a qualification category;
• a certificate of advanced training

Special attention should be paid to the job title. The position must be indicated in accordance with the Handbook of Qualification Characteristics of Professions. The designation “dentist” is considered incorrect. The correct job title is “dental therapist,” “dental surgeon,” and so on, depending on the specialization.

Please note! Medical workers are required to regularly complete advanced training courses. The certificate of advanced training must be renewed every 5 years. Without a valid document, a doctor has no right to practice. However, during martial law, the validity periods of such certificates are automatically extended, so this issue is temporarily suspended for now.

You might also like: Liability for Illegal Medical Practice

Legal Document Management in a Dental Clinic: List of Documents

After opening, your main obligation becomes maintaining medical documentation. This is not a formality, but the only way to protect yourself in the event of a conflict with a patient.

1. Medical record, form 043/o: this must be completed in detail after each appointment. It is the main document recording the scope and quality of the care provided. We recommend a hybrid model: keep records in an electronic system, but additionally print out the treatment diary and obtain the patient’s signature on the paper copy.
2. Informed voluntary consent, form 003-6/o: this is your main proof that the patient was aware of possible complications, such as allergies or instrument breakage in a canal.
3. Medical services agreement: it should clearly specify the subject of the service, the cost, and the warranty terms, in particular the warranty period and the grounds for refusing free retreatment.
4. Personal data protection: you work with information about patients’ health status, which is classified by law as sensitive data. This requires the clinic to develop an internal Regulation on the Processing and Protection of Personal Data.

Please note! There is a separate nuance here: marketing. If you plan to publish “before and after” treatment photos on social media or on your website, standard consent to data processing is not enough. You need separate permission from the patient to use their image for advertising purposes. Without such a document, any patient may demand the photo be removed a year later and claim monetary compensation for violation of privacy.

The eHealth System: Digitalization as a Legal Requirement

In accordance with Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 126 dated February 16, 2022, all healthcare institutions, including dental clinics, are required to register in the electronic healthcare system, eHealth. Registration is carried out exclusively through an accredited medical information system and is a mandatory condition for issuing electronic prescriptions for antibiotics, creating e-referrals, and, if necessary, concluding an agreement with the National Health Service of Ukraine.

Legal Support for a Dental Business: From Office to Clinic

Opening a dental clinic or dental office is a process where the number of actions is not what matters most. What matters is the correct sequence. Mistakes usually appear either at the licensing stage or during inspections. We get involved exactly where these risks can be eliminated before they arise.

What our work includes:

• selecting the optimal form of operation, individual entrepreneur or LLC, taking your situation into account;
• registering the business with the correct KVED codes;
• preparing the document package for obtaining a Ministry of Health license;
• checking the premises for compliance with the requirements before submitting documents;
• supporting the licensing process until the result is achieved;
• preparing HR and internal documents for risk-free operation during inspections.

We work in a way that prevents the need to “finish something later” after submission or to explain your activity to supervisory authorities.

Want to understand whether you are ready to open your own dental office or clinic now? Leave a request or call us. We will analyze your situation and tell you what needs to be corrected or finalized before launch.