Question:
I am attending 9-th semester of Medical Faculty Dentistry Section in
Kosova-Yugoslavia. After that I finish my studies, I would like to go in
USA or Canada.
Does anybody know if I can work as a dentist in USA or Canada?
Are there any procedures, or programs for foreign Doctors-Dentists?
does anyone have any informations, or any address where I can ask....
Answer:
my good friend has a ph.d. from U of Manitoba and a Harvard ortho certificate.
He did dental school in Brazil. In general, unless he goes back to basic
dental school for two years in the US, he will not get a US license except
possibly in NY state (?) or California (?).
To work in Canada you first have to be accepted as a landed immigrant, then
submit a transcript of your European qualifications to one of the dental
schools or professional bodies here and then go back to school to complete
the areas of study or clinical requirements that you are told you need prior
to working on people here. The dentists that I work for came from Hungary
and it took several years of additional study before they could open a
practice. This time period could also be because they had to hold down jobs
and support a family while studying but it still remains that there is stuff
covered here in dental school that is different to that covered in Europe.
Now is this state bound licence to practice to retain the dentists in a
certain state or to protect other dentists form coming there?
I agree it is very weird since it probalby would be a lot easier for a
dentist from Pennsylvania to adjust to the situation and work as a dentist
in Missouri than it is for a dentists from Finland to adjust to things in
Portugal (where (s)he can go and work without any extra licence).
It may seem unfair at first blush but...
while I have the highest regard for northern European dental schools especially
those in Scandanavia. I have no idea about the quality of dentistry taught at
the Uof Moscow, or U of Bosnia, of even the U of Manila or the U of Brazilia.
That is why a dentist from one of those countries has to do 2 years of
additional training before we let him work on our neighbors and fellow
citizens. Not unfair at all.
Even my friend does not think it is unfair although he would prfer it
otherwise.
One of the reasons he wants to stay in this country is because he feels he will
wither professionally in Brazil. It is just not the same down there as up
here.
Sorry to be elitist, but if everything was the same everywhere, half the world
would not want to come here.
