How can dentists work in Hong Kong？

In the current environment, “Involution” has become a key word that almost every dentist cannot avoid.

On the one hand, the saturation of domestic dentists has increased year by year, the competition for the establishment of public hospitals is fierce, and private clinics have high customer costs and fall into a price war; On the other hand, the long-term training, high-intensity workload and initial salary are not proportional. Many young dentists have their own skills, but it is difficult to achieve a leap in self-worth and economic return under the limitations of the platform.

However, in Hong Kong, which is only one river away from Shenzhen, the dental industry presents a very different picture. Today, we will dismantle a high-value and rewarding way to break the career ceiling for our colleagues who are eager to break the career ceiling.

Compared with the fierce competition in the mainland, Hong Kong’s dental medical resources have been in short supply for a long time. Hong Kong people attach great importance to oral health, and the number of dentists trained by local colleges and universities is far from meeting the huge social needs.

This extreme imbalance between supply and demand has directly pushed up the salaries and social status of dentists.

In Hong Kong, dentists are recognized as the “gold collar” class. At present, the starting salary of newly recruited registered dentists in public hospitals in Hong Kong (such as the Department of health and the hospital authority) is as high as 70000+Hong Kong dollars per month. With the growth of seniority, promotion or transfer to private medical institutions, self employment, monthly income is not capped.

In addition to excellent economic returns, dentists in Hong Kong can also enjoy a highly standardized practice environment, a perfect continuing education system and an international professional platform. For dentists in the mainland and overseas, this is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to realize professional dignity and wealth freedom at the same time.

The only way for non Hong Kong undergraduate dentists (including mainland and overseas graduates) to legally practice and register as basic dentists in Hong Kong is to pass the licensing examination hosted by the Hong Kong Dental Council (dchk).

In order to help you eliminate the information gap, according to the latest guidelines on the official website of the Hong Kong Dental Council, we have sorted out the registration conditions, the core examination structure and the latest examination arrangements for 2026 as follows:

The applicant must meet the following two mandatory indicators when submitting the application:

1. educational system and training requirements: you must successfully complete at least 4 years of full-time dental training (the full-time training must be of the type approved by the committee, and the clinical internship during the academic period is usually included, and the domestic full-time undergraduate degree is sufficient).

2. degree and character requirements: hold a dental degree or dental qualification accepted by the committee, and have good character. Practitioners should provide the certificate of good standing issued by all practicing units/dental governance institutions, and the issuance period should not exceed 3 months.

💡  Language tip: the Hong Kong dental licensing examination is not an English only examination. In order to take care of candidates from different backgrounds, the examination papers and questions are provided in both Chinese and English, which greatly reduces the language understanding threshold of mainland doctors.

The licensing examination is divided into three separate parts, all of which are held in Hong Kong. Candidates must pass in order to unlock the next stage:

Part1: written test

Question structure: it is composed of Volume 1 and Volume 2, all of which are multiple-choice questions of one out of five.

Assessment scope: extremely wide. It covers core general practice fields such as applied basic science (such as anatomy and physiology), dentistry related internal and external medicine, dental pharmacology and therapeutics, medical emergencies, oral and maxillofacial surgery, pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, dental restoration, Periodontology, preventive dentistry and prosthodontics.

Part2: practical test

Assessment core: dexterity of manual operation and clinical professional operation ability.

Test content: in the simulation laboratory or using the model head. It usually includes prosthodontics (designing removable partial dentures and drawing), preserving Dentistry (preparing teeth or crowns on the model head, root canal therapy), pediatric dentistry, and oral and maxillofacial surgery (local anesthesia theory, tooth extraction appliance operation, etc.).

Part 3: clinical examination

Assessment core: the decision-making ability to apply professional knowledge to real/simulated clinical scenarios.

Examination form: covering pediatric dentistry and orthodontics (multiple-choice questions combined with case analysis), preservation Dentistry/periodontal disease/restorative dentistry (in the form of structural simulated clinical oral examination, the examiner will ask in-depth questions for specific cases).

The Dental Council of Hong Kong has a very strict fault tolerance mechanism: if a candidate fails to pass the licensing examination 5 times in any part (Part1, part2 or Part3), the Council may restrict or deprive him of the qualification to re-enter. Therefore, the cost of naked examination or blind trial and error is very high, and every opportunity must be well prepared.

According to the latest announcement on the official website, the licensing trial is usually held twice a year. The tentative time nodes for the first sitting in 2026 are as follows:

At present, the first part 1 test in 2026 has been successfully completed, and we will update the test date in the second half of the year after the official announcement.

Note: after passing all the three-part examinations, the applicant must complete the 12-month pre registration internship/assessment period (assessment period) after passing the examinations. Only after successfully passing the examinations and obtaining the certificate of experience can he be officially registered as a licensed dentist in Hong Kong.

Due to the fact that the assessment of the Hong Kong dental licensing examination is biased towards the internationally accepted evidence-based medicine standard and the flexible questions, many mainland doctors have no clinical skills, but they are very likely to fail in the written examination of Part1 because they are not familiar with the underlying question logic and Hong Kong data of the Hong Kong examiner. Under the pressure of five test restrictions, systematic and efficient accurate review is the only positive solution.

In order to help colleagues who are determined to practice in Hong Kong to safely cross the first hurdle, Chenghei education has launched the “Hong Kong dental license part1 live training course” for three consecutive years!

Combined with our core advantages, we provide you with comprehensive customs clearance guarantee:

👨‍⚕️ In person teaching by Hong Kong registered dentists: dentists with local practice experience in Hong Kong will personally teach, share first-hand work experience and practical methods in Hong Kong, and lead you directly to the examiner’s underlying logic. There are Chinese and English bilingual courses in different languages, providing optional courses for dentists with different language habits.

📚 The whole course covers 60 class hours and intensive lectures: systematically sort out all written examination subjects, covering every core test site of the examination outline, without leaving a knowledge blind spot.

💻 Live+playback, free learning: designed for in-service doctors and students. There is no need to worry about missing the live broadcast. Unlimited free playback is provided after class to review and consolidate anytime and anywhere.

📝 Six core supporting services:

• exclusive Q&A before and after class

• high frequency professional vocabulary

• real topic simulation exercises over the years

• the teacher refined review notes

• recall question bank of past candidates

🛡️ Strong guarantee: if you fail the exam, you can learn again for free! All subjects that fail in this period can participate in the next training for free until they pass.

With the new round of examination registration channel about to open, it is now in the golden entrance period. In order to ensure the quality of teaching and the effect of interactive Q&A, the enrollment of this special training class is strictly controlled.

At present, the course is in the limited time discount stage, and the number of preferential places is already small! Once the quota is full, the original price will be automatically restored.

Break the involution, change the track and get back the initiative of career. Welcome to contact us backstage.