For practices
Recruiting a dentist.
With us, recruitment doesn’t start with a job advert but with a visit to your practice.
- Candidates
- Usually threeall worth interviewing
- First profiles
- Within a few weeksafter the practice visit
- Guarantee
- One replacementfree of charge if it doesn’t work out during probation
Why this comes up so often.
A dentist vacancy that just won’t fill costs more than you think: waiting time, pressure on the team, and at some point patients too.
For a dentist the day stands or falls with the schedule: when someone drops out, it isn’t just the care that suffers — revenue drops straight away too. In a solo practice you notice that within a week.
Honestly: we don’t make promises about the total lead time. That depends just as much on your own process — how quickly you schedule interviews, how you build your offer. We are happy to think along on that, because that is often exactly where a good candidate drops out.
What a dentist weighs up before saying yes.
Salary or revenue share
A dentist doesn’t compare your offer on the amount alone. With a revenue share, a good candidate first looks at how full the schedule really is and how the sliding scale is built up, because that is where the real difference lies, not in the percentage itself. A revenue share often pays more when the schedule is full, but the dentist then carries the risk of empty chair time.
So be open about occupancy and work through an example before you make the offer. Dental care has no collective agreement and the KNMT, the Dutch dental association, has not issued a salary guideline since 2022, so a candidate sets your offer against what they see elsewhere. Where someone ends up depends on experience, range of duties and the practice, not on the region.
What isn’t in the job advert
How many patients of their own someone gets, which treatments they do and how much say they have over their schedule differ so much from practice to practice that they are the core of every conversation with a candidate. The same goes for working with assistants and dental hygienists, and for the time and money you set aside for continuing education. We go through those questions with you during the practice visit, so that a candidate knows the answers before coming in for an interview.
If you are looking for someone with a special focus, such as implantology or endodontics, say so straight away. Those positions are rarely advertised publicly. What makes such a position interesting to a candidate is on working as a dentist (in Dutch).
Security weighs more than it used to
Some of the dentists you want to talk to currently work as a locum or self-employed. Since 1 January 2025 the Dutch tax authority has been fully enforcing the rules on false self-employment again, and the rules are getting stricter. That makes a permanent position open for discussion for this group.
In a tight market, a permanent contract, a fixed number of hours and a training budget are arguments just as much as the salary. Take that into account in your offer. If a locum who is working out well is already with you, a permanent arrangement may also be the shortest route.
How it works.
We visit first
What does this person need to be able to do, how does the day run, and who will the new colleague be working alongside? Without that picture you are just sending CVs back and forth.
Into the network, with purpose
We approach people personally. No advert that turns up everywhere at once — in a small world, that does your name no favours.
A handful of candidates, not a stack
Usually three, all worth interviewing. You conduct the interviews; we guide the process until the signature is in place, and we stay in touch after that.
Also possible.
Dentist, other arrangement
Recruitment, other role
Frequently asked questions.
Can I hire a dentist with a foreign qualification?
Yes, provided their BIG registration is in place before they work independently at the chair. With a qualification from the EU or EEA, recognition and registration go through a single procedure, usually in about three months, but only after the language requirement of Dutch at B2+ has been met. From outside the EEA it takes many months to years. Plan the start date around what the procedure can achieve. More is on the page about BIG registration.
Can I recruit a dentist for two or three days a week?
Yes. In dental care that is the rule rather than the exception: many practices are looking for someone for two, three or four fixed days. Say up front which days are fixed and where there is room, and we search on that basis. Bear in mind that the salary range of € 4.000 to € 6.500 gross per month applies to a full-time week.
When can a new dentist start with me?
That mainly depends on the notice period with their current employer, and you only know that once there is a candidate. The offer, the objections and that notice period are also when a good candidate most often drops out; we stay on top of it until the contract is signed. After the practice visit you get an honest estimate of what is realistic.
Which agency helps a dental practice find a dentist?
Denta Staffing recruits dentists for dental practices and chains in the Netherlands and Belgium. We visit first, approach people personally and usually put forward three candidates; you get the first profiles within a few weeks of the practice visit.
What does it cost to recruit a dentist?
At Denta Staffing, a percentage of the gross annual income including holiday allowance, depending on the role group, with a minimum fee. The range is under costs on frequently asked questions, and we work it out for you before you commit to anything.
What does a dentist earn?
Roughly € 4.000 to € 6.500 gross per month salaried, full-time, with ± € 5.000 as the midpoint. Or a revenue share of about 30 to 45 per cent of their own turnover, usually on a sliding scale based on daily turnover. For specific specialisms or more seniority, we also see higher salaries in the market.
Permanent, locum, self-employed or secondment: what suits a dentist?
Permanent recruitment if you want someone on your staff for good. When someone drops out through illness, leave or departure, a locum, for a day up to a few months. A self-employed professional if the work is genuinely independent. If someone will be on fixed days in your rota structurally, then through secondment: the dentist is then on our payroll and works at your practice.
How many candidates will I see?
Usually three. Rather a few people who are all worth interviewing than a stack of CVs for you to wade through. And if the first one is a match straight away, you won’t hear us complain.
Do I have to work with you exclusively?
Yes, for three months. Not to tie you down, but because we invest up front: coming to you, getting to know your practice, approaching people personally. With four agencies calling the same dentists, you become the practice that turns up everywhere, and that doesn’t help you. If a candidate contacts you directly during that period, we take it over.
Can it be done discreetly?
Yes. Sometimes you want to look for someone without your team or the practice around the corner knowing. Then we recruit without naming you, and only say who you are once a candidate is serious and you give the go-ahead.
What do you look for in a dentist?
BIG registration, experience with the kind of treatments your practice does, and whether someone fits the way you work. A generalist matches on keywords; we speak to the people ourselves.
