Country guide · Dentistry in Czechia

Study dentistryin Czechia

A 5-year MDDr. taught in English at Palacký University in Olomouc, founded in 1573. The entrance exam is taken online from home and marked instantly, and the English test is built into the fee. ⚠️ Places are counted in tens. Our help is free.

an aerial view of a city with old buildings
A dental chair in a bright treatment room
A dentist examining a patient with an intraoral scanner
gold and white concrete building
A dental student gloving up before a clinic session
Tuscan farmhouse on rolling hills at sunset
Why students choose it

The short version

50 min
per subject, sat online from home with an instant result
15–20
dentistry places a year. This is the number that decides it
€0
what we charge you, ever
The university we work with

Palacký University, Olomouc

Founded in 1573, Palacký is the oldest university in Moravia and the second-oldest in Czechia. Its Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry — the name is not decoration — teaches a 5-year MDDr. in English, with 3,125 international students from 91 countries across the university.

  • ✓
    Sit the exam from your bedroomBiology, Chemistry and your choice of Physics or Maths, 50 minutes per subject, online from home, with the result delivered immediately. No flights, no exam hall.
  • ✓
    The English test is includedThe €80 exam fee covers UPOL's own English assessment, so no IELTS or TOEFL is needed in advance. There is a short motivational interview as part of the process.
  • ✓
    ⚠️ About 15–20 places a yearThis is the single most important fact on the page. Dentistry at UPOL is a very small programme and it fills early — talk to us before you build a plan around it, and have a second country in mind.
  • ✓
    Small groups, real chair timeThe upside of a programme this size: you are not queuing behind a hundred classmates for a dental unit. Clinical contact starts early and stays hands-on.
Start your application →See the university in full
A dental student treating a patient in the university clinic
red and white train beside building
Six reasons

Why this is worth six years of your life

A modern dental surgery with the chair and equipment ready
The reason most people come

An exam you sit at home

Biology, Chemistry and Physics or Maths, fifty minutes each, online, with the result immediately. No exam-day flight, no hall, no waiting weeks to find out — and the English test is inside the fee.

A dental model of teeth used for training
Time

Qualified in five years

The MDDr. runs five years against medicine's six. Czech dentistry has always been a five-year programme, so this is a settled, mature curriculum rather than a recent change.

red and white train beside building
Day to day

A genuine university town

22,764 students in a city of about 100,000. Olomouc is shaped by its university rather than merely containing one, and the clinic, the centre and your flat are all a short tram ride apart.

A dental student in scrubs holding the suction line
The teaching

Founded in 1573

The oldest university in Moravia, with a faculty that has taught dentistry alongside medicine long enough that the clinics and examiners are used to international students.

Tuscan farmhouse on rolling hills at sunset
Weekends

Prague in 2h15

A direct fast train to Prague, and from Prague direct flights to Oslo, London, Istanbul and Dubai. Kraków is 3h28 by rail and Brno about an hour.

Interior of a mosque with patterned carpet and lit carpet.
⭐ If you are Muslim

Al Firdaus

A Muslim community founded in 2009 by Malaysian medical students at Palacký, existing largely to serve international students here — Friday Jumu'ah at 13:30 and weekly halal meat delivered to the dormitory.

Not sure your grades are enough?
Send them over and we will tell you honestly, in a day or two — before you spend anything.
Check if you qualify →
A dental chair in a bright treatment room
15–20
Dentistry places a year at Palacký. It is the smallest programme we work with, and the number that decides everything.
The programme

What five years of dentistry actually looks like

The first two years run the science backbone — anatomy, histology, physiology, biochemistry — with a manual skills track alongside it from the start: the simulation lab, plastic teeth, phantom heads, and a lot of repetition before anyone lets you near a person.

From year three you are treating patients under supervision in the faculty's dental clinics, across conservative dentistry and endodontics, prosthetics, periodontology, oral surgery, paediatric dentistry and orthodontics. With only fifteen to twenty students in a year, chair time is not rationed the way it is on larger programmes.

Say the quiet part out loud: your hands get examined, not just your memory. It is learned rather than innate, and nobody arrives good at it — but it is a different kind of pressure from medicine, and worth weighing before you commit.

The whole programme is taught in English, but Czech language classes run through the early years — your patients in the clinic will not switch languages for you.
A dental student gloving up before a clinic session
A dental model of teeth used for training
A dental chair in a bright treatment room
The honest comparison

Dentistry or medicine? Read this before you choose

Both programmes at Palacký are taught in English, sit the same online entrance exam and lead to an EU-recognised degree. What differs is here.

Length
Dentistry 5 years, medicine 6. Same start, one year apart at the end.
The degree
Dentistry gives you the MDDr., medicine the MUDr. Separate professions, separate regulators — GDC for dentists in the UK, GMC for doctors.
How hard is it to get in
The exam is the same, the scarcity is not. Medicine takes a large international cohort; dentistry takes about 15–20 students a year. That, far more than the paper, is what makes dentistry the harder admission.
Timing matters more
⚠️ Because the programme is so small, dentistry places can be gone while medicine is still open. Apply at the start of the cycle, not the end, and ask us where the numbers stand before you plan.
Cost
€14,000 a year for dentistry against €12,500 for medicine — but five years rather than six, so the whole degree costs less overall.
Torn between the two? Tell us what you want to be doing at 30. We will say honestly which programme we would put you forward for — and whether both are realistic this cycle.
A dental examination with mirror and probe
greyscale photography of skeleton
Living there

Olomouc, and what it costs a dental student

Palacký prices its dormitories per bed per night rather than monthly, and publishes more than one tariff depending on your student category — so treat €140–240 a month as a planning range and get your actual rate confirmed. A room in a private shared flat runs €260–400, a studio €520–680.

Realistic totals: €520–640 a month in a dorm living frugally, €800–960 sharing privately, €1,280–1,640 living alone comfortably. Student transport is about €8 a month, and your ISIC card takes 50% off Czech trains and buses nationwide.

The dentistry-specific cost nobody mentions: your own instrument kit and loupes, plus consumables once clinical work begins. Small next to tuition, but real — budget for it in first year rather than discovering it in third.

⚠️ Olomouc has no airport, and the rail more than covers it: Prague is 2h15 by direct fast train, and Prague flies direct to Oslo, London, Istanbul and Dubai.
a laptop sits on a desk
Market stalls in front of a historic church with spires.
a plate of food on a wooden table
Afterwards

Where an MDDr. from Olomouc lets you practise

Dentistry is one of the professions with automatic recognition across the EU and EEA under Directive 2005/36/EC. Czechia is an EU member state, and the MDDr. sits on the list of qualifications other member states must recognise — that is what makes this route work.

By destination, with the standing caveat that regulators change their rules and we check yours with you before you commit to anything.

Norway
Apply to Helsedirektoratet for autorisasjon as a tannlege. EU/EEA dental qualifications go through the recognition route rather than repeating the degree; language documentation forms part of it.
United Kingdom
Registration is with the General Dental Council, not the GMC. ⚠️ The automatic EU route no longer applies to UK registration the way it did before Brexit — check the GDC's current requirements for an EEA-qualified dentist, and we will go through them with you.
The EU and EEA
Automatic recognition under Directive 2005/36/EC, the same framework our medicine graduates use. Individual countries still ask for local language proficiency.
Elsewhere
Outside Europe you are into national licensing exams — the US, Canada and Australia each run their own. Entirely doable, but plan it from year three rather than from graduation.
A dentist examining a patient with an intraoral scanner
A dentist working on a patient
an aerial view of a city with old buildings
1573
The year Palacký was founded — the oldest university in Moravia and the second-oldest in the country.
See it for yourself

Olomouc from the air

an aerial view of a city with old buildings
Admission

What you actually need, by where you're from

Three subjects online, fifty minutes each, marked instantly, then a short motivational interview. The English test is built into the fee — and with 15–20 places, when you apply matters as much as how you score.

The exam
Biology, Chemistry and either Physics or Maths — the third is your choice. Fifty minutes per subject, taken online from home, result given immediately. Fee €80.
What the fee covers
The €80 includes UPOL's own English test, so no certificate is needed in advance. A short motivational interview is part of the process.
⚠️ The real bottleneck
Not the paper — the 15–20 places. Dentistry can close while medicine is still taking applications, so apply early in the cycle and ask us where the numbers stand before you plan around it.
🇳🇴 Norwegian students
A vitnemål with generell studiekompetanse. No realfag requirement — the exam is the assessment, and we prepare you for all three subjects free.
🇬🇧 UK / 🌍 International students
Any 12-year school-leaving qualification. Documents need translation and, depending on nationality, apostille or superlegalisation. No UCAT.
Attempts
Once per sitting, and UPOL runs several sittings a year — so a sitting that does not go your way is not the end of the cycle, though for dentistry it may be the end of the places.
A dental examination with mirror and probe
We do the paperwork with you, free
Transcripts, translations, the English certificate and the interview practice — all of it, at no cost to you.
Check if you qualify →
The details

Everything on one line

Degree
Dental Medicine (MDDr.)
Duration
5 years
Language
100% English
Entrance exam
Online, 50 min per subject
Subjects
Bio + Chem + Physics or Maths
Places per year
About 15–20
Tuition
€14,000 / year, fixed
Exam fee
€80, English test included
Living costs
≈ €800–960 / month
IELTS?
Not needed — included in the exam
Intake
September
Nearest hub
Prague, 2h15 by direct train
All three side by side

The three places you can study dentistry in English

No university will ever publish this table, because it points at cheaper competitors. We will — it is the honest way to choose.

CountryUniversityEntrance examTuition / yearPlaces a yearGetting to Oslo
🇸🇰 SlovakiaUPJŠ KošiceBiology + Chemistry only€13,500Far fewer than medicine — ask usVia Warsaw or Vienna
🇨🇿 CzechiaYou are herePalacký OlomoucOnline, instant result€14,000About 15–20 a yearVia Prague, 2h15 by train
🇱🇻 LatviaRSU RigaNone — grades decide€15,50032 per intake, twice a yearDirect, 1h30
Slovakia
UPJŠ Košice
Entrance exam
Biology + Chemistry only
Tuition / year
€13,500
Places a year
Far fewer than medicine — ask us
Getting to Oslo
Via Warsaw or Vienna
CzechiaYou are here
Palacký Olomouc
Entrance exam
Online, instant result
Tuition / year
€14,000
Places a year
About 15–20 a year
Getting to Oslo
Via Prague, 2h15 by train
Latvia
RSU Riga
Entrance exam
None — grades decide
Tuition / year
€15,500
Places a year
32 per intake, twice a year
Getting to Oslo
Direct, 1h30

These are the only three universities we work with that teach dentistry in English: UMCH Hamburg has no dental school, and our agreements with NCU Bydgoszcz and UNIC Nicosia cover medicine only. Tuition is the published annual rate for students starting in 2026/27 and we confirm your exact figure in writing before you commit.

Questions

The things people actually ask us

Can I study dentistry in Czechia in English?
Yes. Palacký University in Olomouc teaches a 5-year Dental Medicine programme leading to the MDDr. degree entirely in English, in its Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. It is one of only three universities we work with that teaches dentistry in English — the others are UPJŠ in Košice and Rīga Stradiņš University in Riga.
How many dentistry places are there at Palacký?
About 15 to 20 a year, which is the single most important fact about applying here. Medicine takes a large international cohort; dentistry does not. Places can be gone while medicine is still open, so apply at the start of the cycle and ask us where the numbers stand before you build a plan around it.
How does the entrance exam work?
Biology, Chemistry and your choice of Physics or Maths, 50 minutes per subject, taken online from home, with the result delivered immediately. The €80 fee also covers UPOL's own English test, and there is a short motivational interview as part of the process.
How long is dentistry in Czechia?
Five years, leading to the MDDr. Czech dentistry has always been a five-year programme, so this is a settled curriculum rather than a recent change — you qualify a year before the medicine students who started alongside you.
How much does dentistry cost at UPOL?
€14,000 a year, fixed for the whole degree once you enrol. Over five years that totals less than the six-year medicine programme beside it at €12,500. Living in Olomouc runs about €800–960 a month sharing a flat, or €520–640 in a dormitory living frugally.
Do I need IELTS?
No certificate is needed in advance. UPOL's own English assessment is included in the €80 exam fee, so your English is tested as part of the process rather than beforehand.
Is the MDDr. recognised in Norway and the UK?
Czechia is an EU member state and dentistry has automatic recognition under EU Directive 2005/36/EC — the route Norwegian graduates use to apply to Helsedirektoratet for autorisasjon as a tannlege. UK registration is with the General Dental Council rather than the GMC, and its requirements for EEA-qualified dentists changed after Brexit, so we go through the current rules with you.
Is there halal food and a mosque in Olomouc?
Yes, and it is unusually well organised for a city this size. Al Firdaus, the Olomouc Muslim community, was founded in 2009 by Malaysian medical students at Palacký and exists mainly to serve international students. It holds Friday Jumu'ah at 13:30 with separate prayer rooms for brothers and sisters, and runs weekly halal meat orders from a certified butcher in Brno, collected at the dormitory on Sunday.
How do I get home if Olomouc has no airport?
By direct fast train to Prague in 2h15, and Prague flies direct to Oslo, London, Istanbul and Dubai. Ostrava also has direct service to London Stansted. For a Norwegian student that is one flight and one direct train.
What does Medently charge?
Nothing, ever. We are paid by the universities, not by you — the exam preparation, the document work and the application itself cost you nothing on top of the university's own fees.
a large building with a clock at the top of it
A dental model of teeth used for training
gold and white concrete building
A dental student in scrubs holding the suction line
people relaxing and biking in sunny park
A modern dental surgery with the chair and equipment ready
brown liquid on clear glass mug
A young woman having her teeth checked by a dentist
Market stalls in front of a historic church with spires.
A dental student treating a patient in the university clinic

Fifteen to twenty places. Apply early.

An online exam you sit at home, an instant result, and five years to qualify. Send us your grades and we will tell you honestly whether this cycle is realistic.

Start free →
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