[Practicing without a diploma, battling for a license: crossroads in the history of the professionalization of dentistry in Colombia].

This paper addresses the professionalization of dentistry in Colombia during the first half of the twentieth century. To fully comprehend such a process, we must consider the tensions between the practice of non-certified and certified dentistry. As an outcome of such tensions, dentists began to acquire professional autonomy. We analyze applications for license files to practice dentistry without a degree, some of which were of women. The findings show the informal transfer of knowledge outside formal apprenticeship and the unrestricted practice of dentistry by many non-professionals but "permitted" dentists who faced a centralized and powerful professional bureaucracy.