Dental Care

The Public Dental Service (Den offentlige tannhelsetjenesten) operates dental clinics providing free dental care principally for these priority groups:

  • Children and youths from birth to the year in which they turn 18 (except for braces)
  • The mentally challenged who live in and outside of institutions
  • The elderly, chronically ill and disabled people who live under the care of a home nurse or in institutions
  • Drug addicts under municipal care

Dental care for adults is otherwise private and fees will be charged for treatment. Dental care for youths aged 19-20 is subsidized by 75%, meaning one has to co-pay 25%. To find dentists in your area, look on Tannlegerinorge (Dentists in Norway), to find one close to you. Offentlige tannleger (state dentists) do accept private patients but they might have a long waiting list since they have priority groups to attend to. Private tannleger (private dentists) are private dentists who usually have a shorter waiting period since they do not treat the patients in the priority groups.

You can check with your insurance company (and/or your company’s HR) if dental charges are covered.

To find a dentist in an emergency, look here. Choose the state you live in to get details of the nearest emergency dentist (tannlegevakt).

There are some exceptions where the cost for some treatments may be partly or fully reimbursed. See Helsenorge for more details.

Note that fees vary from practice to practice.

 

Reviews of doctors and dentists

You can refer to this website for reviews of doctors and dentists. Do note that reviews might not be very comprehensive. Note also that the site is in Norwegian only.

 

MRSA screening

Please note that your dentist might require for you to be screened for MRSA before your dental treatment if in the last 12 months, you have:

  1. received medical or dental treatment outside of Norway
  2. worked in a hospital or clinic outside of Norway
  3. worked in a children’s home or refugee camp outside of Norway
  4. worked in a hospital, nursing home or other institutions outside of Norway
  5. had close contact with MRSA postive people without protective equipment
  6. been out of Norway for longer than 6 weeks AND have had skin or other wound infections, chronic skin diseases or intrusive medical equipment (catheter) through the skin/mucous linings
  7. had tattoos or piercings outside of Norway