How to get a license for a dental office? Our experience

In the practice of our company for licensing dental offices, a separate line of work is obtaining permits for dental offices. Although in everyday communication the concepts of a dentist and a tooth doctor are synonymous, from a legal and practical point of view there is a big difference between them, which should be taken into account when providing medical services, obtaining licenses and other permits.

Today we’ll talk about how to get a doctor’s license for private medical practice in Ukraine.

What are the tooth doctor’s rights?

As mentioned above, the tooth doctor is not a dentist. The characteristics of his/her position are found in the order of the Ministry of Health No. 117 dated March 29, 2002 (hereinafter - Order No. 117) and we conclude that, first of all, these medical specialists are junior and they are not considered medical personnel, hence, there are a number of limitations.

• So, the tasks and responsibilities of tooth doctors come down to:
• (primary) examination of the oral cavity ;
• defining methods for further research;
• selection of medications, preparation of medicinal mixtures and pastes;
• assisting and diagnosing emergency situations.

From this list, it becomes clear that the tooth doctor is extremely limited in the procedures that he/she can carry out, but we are not talking about treatment at all.

The current legislation does not contain an accurate time sheet of equipment for a tooth doctor, but practical experience says that it is basically identical to the equipment of a dentist, except for those devices that are used for treatment.

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Can a dental doctor work by him/herself or as an assistant?

Compared with other junior specialists, for example, a nurse who works under the guidance of doctors, such requirements do not apply to a tooth doctor. Therefore, he/she can work both in tandem with the dentist, and on his/her own.

Does he/she need a license?

Even in a significantly reduced form, the list of the procedures carried out by a tooth doctor refers to medical care and services, and therefore there IS a need to obtain a license. This need is confirmed not only by the requirements of the law, but also by a large number of customers for whom we have obtained a license in the specialty of a dentist.

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Can I take a dentist on the staff?

A common question regarding tooth doctors is whether it is possible to register them as dentists in their employment record books. Technically, of course, there is such an opportunity, but this is not a legal way. And when obtaining a license, this is generally impossible due to the fact that you need to specify the details of educational documents. At the same time, in practice, many of the tooth doctors carry out full-fledged medical practice without paying attention to restrictions. Having a medical license can help minimize the potential negative consequences of such a practice.

In addition, this is not the first time we have faced a situation where a tooth doctor gets him/herself registered as a sole trader and hires the respective medical staff (dentists of various specializations) and works with them in pairs. Thus, in the license of the tooth doctor there will be a medical dental specialty, which allows full treatment and such a solution is completely legal.

Conclusions

Tooth doctors are an extensive group of specialists in the field of dentistry who, due to the current regulation, are severely limited in the provision of medical services. At the same time, due to reductions, reorganizations, etc. a significant amount of them are available. For further practice, such doctors need to obtain their own license, which can be limited only by them or they can include full-fledged dental specialties, which will require them to hire respective personnel.