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Hi there, I have some questions regarding my employment prospects as a foreign-trained Dentist.

I am a recent dental graduate from a reputable medical University in India. But I carry a UK passaport and did upto my undergrad studies in Britian. There would be no other city more favourable for me to work then Dubai, I truely honestly love this place. If anyone could help me out would appreciate it very much.

1) Can I work as a foreign-trained Dentist in Dubai?

2) Do I have to obtain a license to practice?

3) Are medical/dental professionals with degrees from India/Pakistan etc. at a disadvantage to say those from Britian or USA.

4) What would be the avg. month salary for someone like me?


Thank-You.

Rizwaan;

1) Yes you can work as a foreign-trained dentist in Dubai

2) Yes you do. The procedure is slightly different in the other Emirates (eg Sharjah) but in Dubai;
- you get a job offer from a prospective employer
- you apply to the Ministry of Health to sit the quarter-yearly professional exam (I haven't done this exam but apparently if you can write your name correctly you should be able to pass the exam)
- you get notified of the exam results and start working

3) Theory-wise it _might_ be true to say that there is a disadvantage to the education on the Indian subcontinent compared with UK/USA, however the experience is usually so much greater that there is no practical disadvantage. Unfortunately the salary will only be 15-30%. But this is due to passport not education, unfortunately.

4) Average monthly starting salary for a recent graduate would be 4-6,000. The typical dental contract would run 3 years. You _could_ double this salary when you renew your contract, or before. Larger organisations typically pay better than smaller practices (although there are exceptions).

My fiancee is a Turkish dentist and will be coming out to Dubai next year as 'Mrs' ... so I've done the research.

HTH - Stuart

Thanks for the input Stuart. But are the salary figues you posted in Dirhams or USD? 4000 Dirhams sounds like very little. And could you recommend any websites or contacts to get started in looking for employment.

btw congratulations Dubai is a great destination for newly-weds!

Rizwaan wrote:Thanks for the input Stuart. But are the salary figues you posted in Dirhams or USD? 4000 Dirhams sounds like very little. And could you recommend any websites or contacts to get started in looking for employment.

btw congratulations Dubai is a great destination for newly-weds!

Sounds more like dollars.... My g/fis a dentist also and she is in Canada and will be moving with me to Dubai once we get married... She is gonna have tgo go through all this stuff too...

I don't know the full scale of dental salaries, however can share the following;
- a friend's wife is a Bombay-trained dentist with 4 years experience (1 year Dubai) and she earns 8,000 dirhams. She thinks she could probably earn up to 10.
- a 10-year-experience American dentist friend is earning 40k + accommodation

You suggest that you are;
a) Indian
b) with little professional experience
c) no experience in the Gulf
... none of these are factors which will increase your salary potential

BUT it does very much depend on who you know. If you get the right job you could easily be earning a very nice salary just four months after graduating!

Check out the gulf news job pages. I suggest using ctrl-f to find dentist in the looooooong texts.

HTH - Stuart

PS. We're figuring that the Mrs will earn up to 10k for the first year and then we're hoping that it'll double. She has six years experience and currently is clinical head of dentistry (9 dentists). Mebbe we're being too conservative in our guess - but I hope at least we won't be disappointed. They've dug up the streets of gold here and converted them to tarmac a long time ago.