Dental Assistant (ZFA)

For the visa for vocational training, you normally need German at B1, and you also need a specific training place. The training place itself is chosen by the practice, because practices select their trainees by their own criteria. The course helps you practise the kind of German you hear and use at the start of ZFA training.

By law, no specific school qualification is required for the ZFA Ausbildung. You still need a training contract with a dental practice, and each practice decides whom it takes by its own criteria.

The monthly gross training pay in dental practices depends on the federal state. The orientation values are €875 to €1,200 in year 1, €1,000 to €1,250 in year 2, and €1,075 to €1,350 in year 3.

Usually no. The ZFA profession is not regulated, so with a dental-assistant qualification from abroad you do not need professional recognition to work in Germany, but an equivalence assessment at the dental chamber can still help employers judge your qualification.

In the course, you follow Malika from Casablanca to Munich as she starts her ZFA training at a dental practice. You go with her through the application, preparing to leave, arriving in Germany and daily work in the practice, including receiving patients, examinations, hygiene, fillings, root canals, surgery and emergencies, prophylaxis, X-rays and teamwork. You listen to conversations, learn the words and practise pronunciation in short units.

You learn practical words from the dental practice such as die Füllung (filling), die Sonde (probe), der Mundspiegel (mouth mirror), die Spritze (syringe), die Pinzette (tweezers), der Bohrer (drill), das Winkelstück (contra-angle handpiece) and die Karteikarte (patient record card). In the course, you hear these words in conversations and practise saying them yourself.