Is a dentist a doctor? Dentists, dental specialties and who else works in a dental surgery

Is a dentist a doctor under Polish law?

A dentist is a doctor: the Act on the Professions of Physician and Dentist (ustawa o zawodach lekarza i lekarza dentysty) calls the profession lekarz dentysta, and its Article 3(1) states that wherever the Act refers to a physician (lekarz) without further qualification, this also means a dentist. The dental profession is therefore a medical profession with a defined scope.

That scope is set out in Article 2(2). A dentist examines the state of a patient’s health, diagnoses and prevents disease, treats, gives advice and issues opinions and certificates concerning diseases of the teeth, the oral cavity, the facial part of the skull and the adjacent areas.

The licence to practise is granted to physicians and dentists alike by the regional medical council (okręgowa rada lekarska), and both groups are listed in the same register of the medical profession’s self-governing body. This article reflects the legal position as of 18 October 2026, and the text of the Act cited is the consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 37.

Dentist or stomatologist: is it the same profession?

A dentist and a stomatologist (stomatolog) belong to the same profession, and its name in Polish law is lekarz dentysta. The word stomatolog comes from the name of the field of medicine, stomatology (stomatologia), and in everyday Polish it is used interchangeably with dentysta, dentist.

Current law uses the name lekarz dentysta, while the former term “lekarz stomatolog” survives in the Act’s transitional provision (Article 66). The short word dentysta, in turn, is used by the act on publicly funded healthcare services where it exempts a dentist’s services from the referral requirement.

For the patient there is no difference: a dentist, a stomatologist and a lekarz dentysta are the same person, with the same education and the same rights to practise. Differences in qualifications come only from specialisation, described later in this article.

Does a dentist hold a doctorate? Professional title and academic degree

A dentist is not automatically a doctor in the academic sense: lekarz dentysta is a professional title, while doktor is an academic degree, which the Law on Higher Education and Science (Prawo o szkolnictwie wyższym i nauce, Article 177) lists alongside the higher degree of doktor habilitowany and the title of professor. Addressing a dentist as “panie doktorze” (Doctor) is a matter of courtesy, not information about a degree.

On a business card or a surgery door, the abbreviation lek. dent. denotes the professional title of dentist. The abbreviation dr n. med. additionally denotes the degree of doctor of medical sciences, obtained after defending a doctoral thesis, and dr hab. the next degree, doktor habilitowany (habilitated doctor).

An academic degree reflects research achievement, while the right to treat patients depends on the licence to practise. Whether a dentist may treat patients, and which specialties they hold, is shown in the medical profession’s register, described in the last part of this article.

How does someone become a dentist in Poland?

A person becomes a dentist after at least five years of single-cycle master’s studies in dentistry (kierunek lekarsko-dentystyczny), a postgraduate internship and a final examination. Only then does the regional medical council grant the licence to practise (Article 5 of the Act). The steps are as follows:

• Studies: at least 5 years and 5000 hours of classes, including two semesters of practical clinical teaching in the 5th year.
• Postgraduate internship: no shorter than 12 months, covering dental surgery, paediatric dentistry, orthodontics, periodontology, prosthetic dentistry, and conservative dentistry with endodontics.
• The Dental Final Examination (Lekarsko-Dentystyczny Egzamin Końcowy, LDEK), passed with a positive result.
• Knowledge of Polish to the extent needed for the work, full legal capacity and a state of health that allows the profession to be practised.
• Specialisation, which is not compulsory: specialist training and the State Specialisation Examination (Państwowy Egzamin Specjalizacyjny, PES), after which the dentist obtains the title of specialist (Article 16).

What are the dental specialties?

The Polish list of dental specialties covers 9 fields: dental surgery, maxillofacial surgery, epidemiology, orthodontics, periodontology, prosthetic dentistry, paediatric dentistry, conservative dentistry with endodontics, and public health. This is laid down in Annex 1 to the Minister of Health’s regulation of 4 May 2023 on the specialisation of physicians and dentists (Dz.U. 2023 item 975).

An orthodontist, a periodontist or a dental surgeon is therefore a dentist, and a specialist in a given field is someone who has completed specialist training and passed the PES. A periodontist treats diseases of the gums and the periodontium, including periodontitis (paradontoza in everyday Polish). Implantology, aesthetic dentistry and endodontics on its own are not on the list as separate specialties.

Maxillofacial surgery, epidemiology and public health appear both on the list for physicians and on the list for dentists. The table shows what each field deals with and the matters that typically bring a patient to it.

Is a prosthodontist a doctor, and who is a dental technician?

A protetyk (prosthodontist) in a dental surgery is a dentist who plans the restoration, prepares the teeth, takes impressions or scans and fits the finished work; a specialist is someone with a specialisation in prosthetic dentistry. A dental technician is not a doctor: technicians make crowns, bridges, dentures and splints in a dental laboratory.

Dental technician is an occupation in the classification of vocational education occupations (code 321402) and is not one of the professions covered by the 2023 Act on certain medical professions. Under the EU Medical Devices Regulation, a crown or a denture from a laboratory is a custom-made device, that is, one made to the prescription of an authorised person, in practice a dentist.

The name can be confusing for one more reason: a protetyk słuchu (hearing aid specialist) is a separate medical profession, concerned with hearing tests and hearing aids, not with teeth.

Who are the dental hygienist and the dental assistant?

Dental hygienists and dental assistants work in medical professions, but they are not doctors; both professions are described in the Act of 17 August 2023 on certain medical professions. A hygienist deals with the prevention of oral diseases and health education and takes part in treatment, while an assistant helps the dentist and keeps the surgery ready for work (Article 13).

The detailed list of professional activities from 2025 allows a hygienist, on the instruction and under the supervision of a dentist, to carry out, among other things, removal of tartar and deposits, air polishing, fissure sealing and fluoride varnishing, and measurement of gum pocket depth. An assistant prepares the workstation and, on the dentist’s instruction, the materials and medicines, and also disinfects and sterilises equipment.

A separate medical profession under the same Act is the radiographer (elektroradiolog), whose work includes diagnostic imaging. General anaesthesia, on the other hand, is provided by an anaesthesiologist, a physician with a specialisation in anaesthesiology and intensive care, not by a dentist.

How can you check whether a dentist is licensed to practise?

You can check a dentist’s licence to practise in the Central Register of Physicians and Dentists (Centralny Rejestr Lekarzy i Lekarzy Dentystów), which the Supreme Medical Chamber (Naczelna Izba Lekarska) publishes online precisely so that patients can check a doctor’s details. Enter the first name and surname or the licence number (numer prawa wykonywania zawodu, PWZ); the register shows the status of the licence and the specialties held.

The PWZ number has 7 digits, includes a check digit and does not reveal whether the holder is a physician or a dentist. The same check can be made in the mojeIKP app, in the Health (Zdrowie) category, with the button “Zweryfikuj pracownika medycznego” (verify a healthcare worker).

Hygienists, dental assistants and radiographers are entered in a different register, the Central Register of Persons Authorised to Practise a Medical Profession (Centralny Rejestr Osób Uprawnionych do Wykonywania Zawodu Medycznego), kept by the Minister of Health.

How it works at DentalBlue

At DentalBlue in Białystok, the clinical team is made up of dentists, dental assistants and hygienists, and treatment under general anaesthesia is provided by the clinic’s own anaesthesiology department, with two anaesthesiologists and anaesthesia nurses. X-rays, from intraoral images to cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), are taken by radiographers in the clinic’s own radiology unit.

In the clinic’s price list, a dental consultation, a periodontal consultation, a prosthetic consultation and an orthodontic consultation each cost 300 zł. The final scope and cost are set at the consultation, and prices may change.