Number of non-EU dentists in NL doubles in five years

The number of dentists trained outside the EU who are moving to the Netherlands to help fill a chronic national shortage has more than doubled in five years, with recent arrivals coming from countries including Syria, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Iraq.

One in four dentists now working in the country qualified abroad, according to the dentists’ association KNMT, and in Zeeland more than half were trained overseas.

Figures from the Amsterdam dental school ACTA, which runs the admissions process for applicants from outside the EU, show 120 people are sitting its professional competence test this year, compared with 53 in 2021, the current affairs programme Nieuwsuur reported.

In total, 2,287 dentists with a foreign diploma are working in the Netherlands, a number rising by 150 to 200 a year.

Lack of national funding 
The reliance on overseas recruits is partly due to a lack of education funding for Dutch students. Thousands apply but places are very limited. Etienne Verheijck, education director for the ACTA, called that “a policy choice by the education ministry.”

KNMT chair Hans de Vries called it “painful” that motivated young people are rejected by a lottery system, sometimes three times in a row, while the gap is filled from abroad.

The shortage is expected to grow, and the government’s own capacity advisory body has for years urged ministers to open more training places.

Checking your dentist is registered
To work in the Netherlands, dentists with a non-EU diploma must pass a competence test and learn Dutch before they can join the official BIG register of healthcare professionals. Those with an EU diploma need only meet the language requirement.

The healthcare inspectorate IGJ said it regularly receives reports of people performing treatments such as root canals without being registered. De Vries said dentists may work under a registered colleague’s supervision while they qualify, but treating patients unsupervised is improper and potentially unlawful.

Patients can check whether their own dentist appears on the BIG register, which is public and free to search. Dental care in the Netherlands works differently from many other countries, and full practices unable to take on new patients are already a common complaint.