As a member of the military, Dental Officers practice preventive dentistry and dental treatment for oral diseases, injuries, and defects of the teeth and their supporting structures.

As a member of the military, Dental Officers practice preventive dentistry and dental treatment for oral diseases, injuries, and defects of the teeth and their supporting structures.

As commissioned members of the Royal Canadian Dental Corps, Dental Officers’ primary duty is to practice dentistry in the military setting. They may also be asked to assist other health care professionals when particular skills are required, and to teach subjects in which they have received specialized training.

Work environment

Dental Officers may be posted to a base in Canada or deployed on operations around the world. They work in a fully equipped dental office, which may be in temporary facilities, in a semi-industrial setting or on a ship at sea.

Normally, Dental Officers spend their first four years in a dental clinic in Canada. Initially, they work in a group practice; after a year or two of experience, they could go to a small one-dentist clinic or could be attached to a Field unit.

If you chose a career in theRegular Force, upon completion of all required training, you will be assigned to your first base. While there is some flexibility with regards to postings (relocations), accommodations can’t always be made, and therefore, you can likely expect to move at some point in your career. However, if you decide to join the Primary Reserve Force, you will do so through a specific Reserve unit. Outside of training, your chosen Reserve unit will be your workplace on a part time basis, and you will not be obligated to relocate to a different base. As part of the Primary Reserve Force,



you typically work one night per week and some weekends as a minimum with possibilities of full-time employment.

MAJOR GENEVIÈVE POITRAS: I’m Major Geneviève Poitras from Bathurst, New Brunswick – a Dental Officer at Canadian Forces Health Services Group Headquarters, in Ottawa.

Dental Officers provide care to military patients across Canada, and on deployments and exercises around the world. They serve members of all occupations and work in clinical settings, on naval warships or in mobile dental clinics. On base, Dental Officers see their patients in some of the best-equipped clinics in the country, with state-of-the-art equipment. They work in teams alongside other dentists, dental specialists, hygienists and dental technicians, as well as dedicated support personnel who take care of all the scheduling and paperwork.

POITRAS: One of the huge benefits to being a dentist in the Canadian Forces is – the treatment plan that you devise for your patient, you don’t have to worry about whether the patient can afford it or not. The patient gets the absolute best care.

At home here in Canada, Dental Officers can usually expect to work normal weekday office hours, with regular on-call duties to address dental emergencies at night or on the weekend.

POITRAS: A regular day-to-day for a dentist in the military is: you come in and, typically, for the first hour you see what we call ‘sick parade’,



which are your dental emergencies. After that, you’ll see booked appointments, you’ll see exams, you’ll see restorative, you can do surgery – all scopes of general dentistry.

Dental Officers may also be called upon to provide clinical support to other bases and travel periodically. Military exercises and deployments up to several months out of country in a theatre of operations are also an important part of the job.

There are other opportunities within the military realm, including training in disaster victim identification.

POITRAS: I’m the deputy team lead for the Canadian Forces Forensic Odontology Response Team. We can be called upon at any time to aid in disaster victim identification through dental remains. We have what we call annual collective training, and this where we bring the team together and we use the software that we’re going to deploy with – we practise taking x-rays, we practise taking proper pictures, so that when we deploy, things go flawlessly.

After completing their entry-level occupational training, Dental Officers are typically posted to a large multidisciplinary clinic where they work alongside a team of dental specialists including periodontists, prosthodontists, oral surgeons and comprehensive dentists to continue developing their skills and knowledge.

POITRAS: Following the large specialty care centre, typically you go to a smaller clinic, and this is where you are likely a detachment commander, and you are offered a little bit more leadership chance.

As their career progresses, there are great opportunities to pursue subsidized advanced education in one of several dental specialties including oral and maxillofac

📌 Dental Officer (Canada)
🏢 Canadian Forces
📍 Canada