The domestic route to practising as a dentist in Canada: a DDS or DMD from a CDAC-accredited Canadian program, the Dental Aptitude Test, NDEB certification through the Virtual OSCE, and registration with the dental regulator in the province where you will work. Quebec steps were not verified on an Ordre page.
This guide covers one route only: a Canadian student who earns a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) in Canada, passes the national certification examination, receives the certificate of the National Dental Examining Board of Canada (NDEB), and registers with the dental regulator in the province where they will work. It is not the route for a dentist who trained abroad, and it is not the route to becoming a dental hygienist, a dental assistant, or a dental specialist. Those are separate paths with separate examinations and separate registration. A dentist who trained outside Canada in a program the Commission on Dental Accreditation of Canada does not recognize follows the foreign-dentistry guide linked below. A dental hygienist completes a dental hygiene program and a separate national certification examination, as described in the dental hygienist guide linked below. Do not mix the steps: a hygiene or assisting credential does not license you as a dentist, and a foreign degree does not become a Canadian degree by passing the domestic examination alone.
Two bodies divide the work, and confusing them is the expensive mistake. The National Dental Examining Board of Canada certifies that you meet the national standard of competence. The dental regulator in your province licenses you to practise. The Board states this plainly: the provincial Dental Regulatory Authorities are responsible for issuing dental licences, and once certified, a candidate contacts the authority in the province where they intend to practise. The Virtual OSCE is the national standard of competence for dentists in Canada, leads to NDEB certification, and is required for licensure. The federal occupational profile for National Occupational Classification 31110 (dentists), published through Employment and Social Development Canada's OaSIS, frames the occupation only: dentists diagnose, treat, prevent, and control disorders of the teeth and mouth, and certification by the Board entitles dentists or graduates of approved dental programs to practise dentistry in any province in Canada provided the requirements set out by the provincial and territorial licensing authorities are met. This guide follows the licensing order: degree, NDEB certification, then the provincial regulator.
Step 1: Earn a DDS or DMD from a CDAC-accredited general dentistry program
The entry-to-practice degree is the DDS or the DMD. In Canada, accreditation is determined by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of Canada (CDAC). The Board states that a non-accredited dental program is a dental program that issues a BDS, DDS, or DMD degree, is located outside Canada, and has not been recognized by the Commission. The other side of that definition is the domestic test: the program you enrol in must be recognized by the Commission. The Board's Certification Process page states that all Faculties of Dentistry in Canada are accredited, and directs candidates who are unsure whether a program is accredited to search accredited programs through the links on the Board's website.
The Commission's list of accredited general dentistry (DDS/DMD) and specialty programs, as of March 2026, lists general dentistry programs at Dalhousie University (DDS), McGill University (DMD), Université de Montréal (DMD), Université Laval (DMD), the University of Alberta (DDS), the University of British Columbia (DMD), the University of Manitoba (DMD), the University of Saskatchewan (DMD), the University of Toronto (DDS), and Western University (DDS). The Canadian Dental Association states that most of the 10 Canadian dental schools require DAT scores as part of their admission requirements, which matches the 10 general dentistry programs on the Commission's March 2026 list. This guide names the institutions and degree letters from that list only. It states no admission requirement, prerequisite list, application step, or program detail for any school beyond the two schools in Step 3, because no admission page for any other school could be verified.
Before you enrol, confirm the program's current accreditation status on the Commission's list, and confirm the degree it awards. Accreditation status is updated every December according to the Commission's list, and a status carried from an older list would go stale the moment a program's status changed. A specialty program, a qualifying program, or a bridge training program on the same list is not the same thing as a general dentistry DDS or DMD program, and the Commission's list separates those categories. Do not decide accreditation by country, by degree letter, or by a school's own marketing: the Commission's list is the check that counts.
Step 2: Complete pre-dental study and write the Dental Aptitude Test
Dental school in Canada does not start from secondary school alone. The Board's page on considering Canada states that graduates of Canadian dental programs have two to four years of pre-professional post-secondary education and a minimum of a four-year DDS/DMD program, and the occupational profile states the same employment requirement: two to four years of pre-dentistry university studies or, in Quebec, completion of a college program in sciences, and a university degree from a recognized dental program. The Canadian Dental Association states that certain basic pre-dental education courses in maths and sciences must be completed before enrolment, that advanced biology and physics are typically not required, and that the requirements vary from school to school, so applicants must contact the school or schools to determine the specific admission requirements. No single pre-dental course list is stated in this guide, because the Association states the lists differ by school.
The Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) is the shared admission test. The DAT is administered by the Canadian Dental Association to evaluate general academic ability, comprehension of scientific information, two- and three-dimensional visual perception, and manual dexterity, and it helps dental schools select first-year students. The English DAT consists of four components: a Survey of Natural Sciences, a Perceptual Ability Test, a Reading Comprehension Test, and a Manual Dexterity Test. The French DAT consists of three components, with no Reading Comprehension Test. The Association's frequently asked questions page states that the English DAT has 210 questions plus the Manual Dexterity Test, that the French DAT has 160 questions plus the Manual Dexterity Test, that the Survey of Natural Sciences consists of 40 biology and 30 general chemistry questions, that the Perceptual Ability Test consists of 90 questions, and that the Reading Comprehension Test, English only, consists of 50 questions. All DAT test questions are multiple choice, and the DAT is administered at Prometric test centres across Canada. No DAT score, score scale, or school cut score is stated in this guide, and no DAT fee is stated. Register for the DAT online through the Association's DAT website: email or phone requests to register are not accepted. A DAT registration gives a six-month eligibility window in which to write the DAT, and scores are typically available about four weeks after the DAT is written, so register many months before the schools need the scores. Registration for the DAT is not an application to dental school.
Step 3: Apply to dental school — what the two linked admission pages show
Admission requirements, prerequisite courses, application routes, and deadlines sit with each school and are not restated beyond what the two linked pages state below. The two schools are examples verified on their own pages, not a complete account of admission in Canada. For every other school on the Commission's list, confirm the requirements on that school's own admission page for the cycle you intend to apply in, and do not carry a Toronto or British Columbia requirement into another school on assumption.
At the University of Toronto, the Faculty of Dentistry offers the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS). To apply, an applicant must complete three full years of university, with the earliest time to apply being while completing the third year, obtain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale, and complete all required prerequisites at a university. The prerequisite areas are general biochemistry, general mammalian physiology, life sciences courses based in biology, and humanities or social sciences courses, each in the amounts the Faculty states. The applicant must complete the Dental Aptitude Test administered by the Canadian Dental Association or the American Dental Association by the application deadline, with official scores sent directly by the testing association, and the Faculty states that it looks only at the Academic Average and Perceptual Ability sections and uses the highest set of scores if the DAT was completed more than once. The applicant must also complete the Canadian version of the Casper 2 test, which assesses non-cognitive skills and interpersonal characteristics, with results valid for one admissions cycle only. If the applicant attended university in a country where English is not the first language, the applicant must provide results of an English language proficiency examination, with official scores sent by the testing agency directly to the University of Toronto. No prerequisite course list beyond the areas above, no application date, no seat count, no admission statistic, and no fee figure is stated in this guide for Toronto, because the dates on the page linked in Sources belong to a named application cycle and the remaining figures were left out under this guide's figures rule. Confirm the current application window, prerequisite amounts, and test deadlines on the Faculty's own page.
At the University of British Columbia, the Faculty of Dentistry offers the Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD). Admission is based primarily on academic ability and personal qualities as evidenced by pre-dental scholastic records, aptitude tests, individual and group interviews, and a global assessment of the application and the applicant's fit to the program, and fulfilment of the minimum requirements does not guarantee acceptance. To be eligible, an applicant must complete 90 credits, three academic years as a full-time student, at a recognized faculty, or its equivalent, complete the required prerequisite courses, achieve a minimum overall grade point average of 70 percent or 2.8 on a 4.0 grading scale for all college or university work including failed courses, submit a personal statement detailing why the applicant wishes to pursue a career as a dentist, and write the DAT, with Canadian and American DAT scores accepted and DAT results valid for a period the Faculty states on its page. The Faculty states that it will use the best overall test score for applicants who have written the DAT more than once, and that the Manual Dexterity component of the Canadian DAT and the Quantitative Reasoning component of the American DAT are not required. Applicants who received their qualifying degree or completed their education in a country where English is not the primary language must present evidence of proficiency in English. Dental shadowing is not required, although the Faculty states it is highly recommended. No application date, prerequisite course list, seat count, admission statistic, language-test score, or fee figure is stated in this guide for British Columbia, because the dates on the page linked in Sources belong to a named application cycle and the remaining figures were left out under this guide's figures rule. Confirm the current deadlines, required courses, and DAT validity period on the Faculty's own page. The Faculty also states that domestic applicants from Yukon, Nunavut, or the Northwest Territories are considered in-province candidates, and that applications are accepted through ADEA AADSAS.
Step 4: Apply to the NDEB Certification Process and pass the Virtual OSCE
Canadian graduates do not take the Equivalency Process examinations. Those examinations are for graduates of non-accredited programs, and this guide does not describe them beyond that pointer: the foreign-dentistry guide linked below covers them. A Canadian graduate applies directly to the Certification Process.
Eligibility is stated by category on the Board's How to Apply page. A candidate is eligible to participate in the Virtual OSCE if the candidate is within four months of completing an accredited dental program, within four months of completing an accredited degree completion program, received a BDS, DDS, or DMD from an accredited dental program within the last five years, received the degree from an accredited dental program more than five years ago, or successfully completed the NDEB Equivalency Process. A candidate who received the degree more than five years ago must submit a Special Consideration Application, reviewed by the Executive Committee to determine eligibility. For a candidate within four months of completing an accredited dental program, the documents the Board lists are identification, a notarized photocopy of a Canadian provincial or territorial card, a Canadian passport, or a foreign passport meeting the requirements stated there, and the Certification Process form, mailed to the Board office before the application deadline. The candidate's degree and graduation date are verified directly with the university selected during application, with no action required by the candidate unless requested by the Board, and if graduation information is not confirmed at least 15 days before the examination date, the candidate will be notified and may be withdrawn, with withdrawal fees applied. Sign all documentation with the Board in the same manner as the government-issued identification submitted, or the document must be resubmitted.
The Virtual OSCE is a summative examination that assesses the problem-solving and critical decision-making skills required of beginning dental practitioners in Canada. Examination items are based on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of beginning dental practitioners in Canada. The Virtual OSCE consists of 200 questions: 50 standard single-answer multiple-choice questions and 150 case-based questions, which can include photos, radiographs, charts, and other supporting material. The content areas and approximate percentage of questions in each area are in the Virtual OSCE Protocol. The Virtual OSCE can be taken a maximum of three times, and attempts at the earlier Written Examination and OSCE count toward that maximum: a candidate who needs to repeat the Written Examination or the OSCE will not get three fresh attempts at the Virtual OSCE. No Virtual OSCE fee, sitting date, or pass score is stated in this guide. Confirm the current fee, dates, and protocol on the Board's own pages.
An NDEB certificate is issued on successful completion of the Virtual OSCE, after proof of graduation is provided to the Board office. Graduates of Canadian dental programs generally have confirmation of graduation sent directly to the Board by their school, and do not need to send anything unless specifically requested. The certificate is mailed to the address listed in the candidate's NDEBConnect account. The Board states that it does not place limits on the number of certificates that can be issued: the number certified is based on the number of candidates who have fulfilled the requirements. Once the certificate has been issued, contact the Dental Regulatory Authority in the province where you intend to apply for licensure. A regulator's own currency rule still applies on top of the certificate, as British Columbia's three-year rule in Step 6 shows.
Step 5: Ontario — the general certificate, jurisprudence, and the application
Ontario licenses through the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO). All dentists practising in Ontario are members of the College, and a valid certificate of registration is required to perform the procedures authorized to dentists. Apply for a general certificate of registration through the College's online applicant portal, which provides the full instructions and supporting-document lists as part of the application. The application form is only valid for three months once submitted, so do not start it until the documents are ready.
The general certificate applicant requirements, as the College states them, are: a university degree in dentistry proving successful completion of an education in dental studies of at least four years; holding a certificate of the NDEB, issued before January 1994, or successful completion of the NDEB examination; no break of more than three years in regular practice in Canada, the United States, Australia, Ireland, or New Zealand since getting the NDEB certificate or obtaining a licence to practise without restriction in Canada; the ability to speak and write English or French with reasonable fluency; successful completion of the RCDSO Jurisprudence and Ethics course, with results valid for three years from completion; Canadian citizenship, permanent residence, or authorization under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to work in a health profession in Canada; no current or past discipline, suspension, licence revocation, or finding of professional misconduct, incompetence, or incapacity if licensed and practised elsewhere; a name on the application matching the name on the dental degree, with name-change documentation if it does not; and no criminal charge or conviction in any Canadian or international jurisdiction. Applicant fees include a non-refundable application fee, a registration fee, and the current annual licence fee, and payment must be received before the College can issue the licence. No fee figure is stated in this guide: the College publishes a fee table prorated by registration date on its own page, and the figures on the page linked in Sources are left out under this guide's figures rule. All general licences expire on December 31 each year and must be renewed by December 15. Confirm the current fee table and requirements on the College's page before applying, because the College states that applications are governed by the regulations, by-laws, and policies in place at submission.
Step 6: British Columbia — the general licence, the three-year rule, and the one-attempt application
British Columbia licenses through the BC College of Oral Health Professionals (BCCOHP). The general licence category is for dentists who will be practising as general dentists or practitioners. The general licence requirements are a degree or equivalent qualification from an accredited general dentistry program or equivalent general dentistry program, and successful completion of the NDEB examinations no more than three years before the date of the application for licence to BCCOHP. If the NDEB examinations were completed more than three years ago, and the applicant is not currently licensed or registered in another Canadian jurisdiction, the applicant may have to complete an equivalency determination process, and College staff will reach out with further information after receipt and review of the application. There are no licence conditions on the general licence category as stated on the page linked in Sources.
The online application must be completed in one attempt: if the applicant logs out or closes the browser, a partially completed application will not be saved, although documents can be uploaded after the application is completed. The general application processing time is eight weeks, and a criminal record check may take four weeks, so submit the initial payment and notarized copies of two pieces of government-issued photo identification as soon as possible. The application asks for contact information, government-issued photo identification, dental education details including institution, graduation or conferral date, and degree received, NDEB certification information, the names of other jurisdictions registered with and the dates, and professional liability insurance information. Required documents include a notarized statutory declaration, a notarized photo identification form with notarized photocopies of two pieces of photo identification, a notarized or certified copy of the education degree or diploma, a notarized or certified copy of the NDEB certificate, certificates or letters of standing from jurisdictions currently or previously licensed or registered with, and name-change documents if required. A standing certificate must be delivered directly to the College from the licensing body in a sealed envelope, is valid for up to 60 days from the date signed, and a new certificate is required if the licensing process is not completed within 60 days. A separate licence fee payment is required near the end of the process, once the College confirms the application is complete, and no fee figure is stated in this guide because the fee sits on the College's Schedule A. Once the licence fee has been processed, a confirmation email follows within three to five business days, and the applicant cannot practise until receiving the licence confirmation email.
Step 7: Alberta — the new-graduate application, the Ethics and Jurisprudence examination, and the checks
Alberta licenses through the College of Dental Surgeons of Alberta (CDSA). The College's new-graduate general dentist application is for dentists who have recently completed a university dental program and have not been registered in any other jurisdiction within Canada, North America, or internationally. Dentists requesting registration as a general dentist for private practice, fee-for-service dentistry, must complete the requirements of the NDEB and the CDSA. The applicant cannot practise dentistry in Alberta until approved and the CDSA registration process is complete.
All application information and supporting documents must be supplied electronically to the CDSA, including notarized or certified documents, and documents are received, reviewed, and processed in the order received. Official transcripts from each post-secondary institution related to dental education must be emailed directly from the source, must list courses taken, grades obtained, and the degree or diploma awarded where applicable, and documents not in English must be accompanied by certified translations; undergraduate transcripts are not required. The applicant must supply a completed application form, a notarized or certified copy of government-issued photo identification, a notarized statutory declaration, a notarized or certified copy of the dental degree or diploma earned, a criminal record check and vulnerable sector check from within the last 12 months with the consent form allowing receipt of the information by the CDSA, a copy of the NDEB certificate or a letter of successful completion requested from the NDEB to be supplied directly to the CDSA, and proof of current HCP/CPR including AED or equivalent certification. Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in speaking, listening, writing, and reading in English, satisfied by official dental school or postgraduate transcripts completed in English, a letter or certificate of standing from a jurisdiction describing its English language requirement, or official English language test results; no test score is stated in this guide. The applicant must complete the CDSA examination on Ethics and Jurisprudence, with examination dates provided after the application is submitted. Professional liability insurance is included in the issuance of the CDSA practice permit. No application fee, registration fee, practice permit fee, or other fee figure is stated in this guide: the figures on the form linked in Sources are left out under this guide's figures rule. Confirm the current form, examination arrangements, and fee schedule on the College's own pages before applying.
Step 8: The other provinces and the territories — confirm on the regulator's page
Every other province licenses through its own dental regulator, and the NDEB certificate is the shared input. The Board states that the provincial Dental Regulatory Authorities are responsible for issuing dental licences, and the occupational profile states that certification by the Board entitles dentists or graduates of approved dental programs to practise dentistry in any province in Canada provided the requirements set out by the provincial and territorial licensing authorities are met, and that licensing by a provincial or territorial regulatory body is required. That general statement is all this guide claims for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. No province-specific jurisprudence, criminal record check, language, practical training, or licence application step is stated for those provinces in this guide, because no page for those regulators could be verified. Read the page of the regulator where you will work before you pay anything province-specific, and do not carry an Ontario, British Columbia, or Alberta requirement into another province on assumption. The differences are real even where the national steps look identical, as the Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta sections above show. The same check applies, more strictly, to the territories, as the sixth frequently asked question states.
Step 9: Quebec — no Ordre step verified
Quebec is the province where this guide claims the least, and that is deliberate. No Ordre des dentistes du Québec page could be verified, so no domestic-graduate permit, language, jurisprudence, or registration step for Quebec is stated here, and no Quebec fee, examination, or practical-training figure is stated. If Quebec is your destination, start with the Ordre's own pages, confirm the permit, language, and registration steps that apply to a Quebec graduate, and do not buy a Certification Process application, an examination sitting, or a provincial application for Quebec on the assumption that the Ontario, British Columbia, or Alberta tail applies. If you graduated from a dental program in Quebec and hold the NDEB certificate, confirm with the Ordre how your diploma and certificate will be treated and what language evidence it requires. The provinces list in this guide's frontmatter includes Quebec because no page verified that Quebec follows a different national route for domestic graduates; inclusion in that list is not a claim that the steps in this guide apply unchanged in Quebec.
Figures this guide does not state
This guide states no tuition fee, no NDEB, DAT, university, or regulator fee, and no language-test fee, because the fee figures on official pages change by sitting, cycle, and schedule, and the figures stated on the linked pages are left out under this guide's rule against stating a figure without an official source. It states no salary or wage figure for dentists in any province. It states no DAT score, score scale, school cut score, or average score, and no Virtual OSCE pass score or pass rate, because no pass rate is stated on an official page as the governing figure for a domestic applicant, and score figures are left out. It states no seat count, quota, application count, or admission statistic for any school, because the seat and admission figures on the school pages differ between pages and cycles. It states no program duration beyond the degree-length requirements quoted from the Board and the Ontario regulator, no examination sitting date, and no application deadline, because those sit on each school's, the Board's, the Association's, and the regulator's own pages and change by cycle. It states no licensing steps for Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, or Nunavut beyond the general statements and the registrar checks above, because no regulator page for those jurisdictions could be verified. Where a figure is left out, the guide points to the page that owns it instead of carrying a secondary source's number. Confirm every fee, deadline, attempt rule, and validity period on the regulator, Board, Association, Commission, or school page that owns it, on the day you apply or pay.
Related guides: