Pathways for gaining registration as a dental technician in New Zealand

To apply to register as an oral health practitioner under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, you must meet these criteria:

• you must be fit for registration
• you must have a prescribed qualification
• if you don’t have a prescribed qualification, you must have a qualification that’s assessed as being equivalent to, or as satisfactory as, a prescribed qualification for your scope of practice
• you must be competent to practise within that scope of practice.

Your qualifications may be recognised in New Zealand

You can apply for registration as a dental technician if you have a prescribed qualification. 

Registering with a prescribed qualification

A prescribed qualification is one that has been through a formal accreditation process to verify that it is of an appropriate quality and standard, either by us or another jurisdiction whose accreditation processes are recognised by us.  Prescribed qualifications are gazetted against the relevant scope of practice. 

To see if your qualification has been prescribed, refer to the list below.

Prescribed qualifications for dental technicians

If your qualification is not prescribed, you have two choices

If your qualification is not prescribed, you can either:

• sit an examination
• apply to have your overseas, non-prescribed qualifications, training and experience assessed.

You can sit an examination

If you want to register as a dental technician, and you do not have a prescribed qualification, you can sit the New Zealand Dental Technology Registration Examination. The examination is a week-long examination testing both scientific knowledge and practical skills.

The New Zealand Dental Technology Registration Examination

You can submit your overseas, non-prescribed qualifications, training and experience to be assessed

If you do not have an overseas prescribed qualification, but believe your qualifications, training and experience are equivalent to a prescribed qualification for dental technology, you can apply for individual assessment.

Individual assessment of qualifications and experience

Registration fees

Please see our fees page for the applicable fees.