Open a Dental Clinic in Norway

Updated on Monday 27th August 2018

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Norway is a country that pays close attention to oral health as, for example, persons with an age below 18 years old benefit from free dental services. Certain types of dental services are also free for adults and they are available for specific medical conditions.

An investor who wants to open a company in Norway that operates as a dental clinic will need to comply with a set of hygiene standards and will need to hire persons who are authorized to perform certain dental treatments. Our team of lawyers in Norway can advise on the main rules of law addressed to this activity.

Requirements for hiring foreign dentists in Norway

When opening a dental clinic in Norway, the investors of the company can easily hire employees outside the country, as long as the minimum legal standards are applicable. For instance, dentists who are authorized for performing dental activities in the European Economic Area (EEA) will not need to provide a Norwegian language proficiency, as stated by the Norwegian Registration Authority for Health Personnel. However, the following do apply:

• as a foreigner who wants to be a dentist in Norway, it is necessary to apply for authorization;
• the authorization does not need to contain information regarding the Norwegian language proficiency;
• still, the dental care personnel does need a certain level of language proficiency, which has to be verified by the employer, who has the main responsibility in this sense;
• foreign companies delivering dental care services are required to keep patient records, which are generally delivered in Norwegian.

The characteristics of the oral healthcare market in Norway

Although the country provides top dental care services through its national health system, a large proportion of the local dentists (68%) work in the private sector. Most of the Norwegian citizens see their dentists on a regular basis (every 1-2 years) by appointing with dental care specialists working in the private sector. Our team of Norwegian lawyers can offer more details on how to register a private dental clinic and how to hire dentists from other countries.

Although most of the services offered by private dental clinics have to be paid by the customers, there are certain medical procedures that can be paid by the social security system. The standards of the oral healthcare services are monitored by several institutions, including the Norwegian Consumer Council, which verifies issues concerning the prices of the services provided by a clinic. Foreign businessmen are invited to contact our law firm in Norway for any other matter related to the registration of a dental clinic in this country.