Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an important part of your job as a dentist or dental care professional. You can get CPD hours by attending a variety of educational events, such as lectures and webinars. Read our guide to the UK dental CPD requirements to make sure that you are on the right path for building upon your hours and submitting them to the GDC.
How many hours CPD does a dentist, dental nurse or DCP need?
Dentists need to complete 100 hours of CPD every five years, therapists, hygienists, ortho therapists and CDTs must complete 75 hours every five years, and nurses, and technicians must complete 50 hours every five years. You also must complete at least 10 hours across any two-year period.
If you are coming towards the end of a two-year period and you haven’t completed the 10 hours yet, don’t worry! Many dental webinars award CPD and can be watched from the comfort of your home or practice. Find a webinar to watch here.
The GDC development outcomes
There are four development outcomes published by the General Dental Council (GDC), and your verifiable CPD activity must work towards one of these outcomes. Let’s break them down a little:
Outcome A: Effective communication with patients, the dental team, and others across dentistry, including when obtaining consent, dealing with complaints, and raising concerns when patients are at risk. [1]
Courses or webinars you might find to meet this outcome include topics such as communication skills, consent, how to handle complaints, how to raise concerns and safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.
Outcome B: Effective management of self and effective management of others or effective work with others in the dental team, in the interests of patients, providing constructive leadership where appropriate. [2]
Here, you might learn about effective practice management, business management, team working or leadership skills to meet this objective.
Outcome C: Maintenance and development of knowledge and skill within your field(s) of practice. [3]
This may be described as the broadest outcome with the most possibilities. You can meet this objective with a course on clinical or technical areas of study, including upskilling opportunities and CPD specific for your daily role. Some topics you might like to consider include radiography, cross infection control, medical emergencies and CPR, and emerging technologies and treatments.
Outcome D: Maintenance of skills, behaviours and attitudes which maintain patient confidence in you and the dental profession and put patients’ interests first. [4]
This outcome will include training on ethical and legal issues, professional behaviours, and equality and diversity training.
What do I need to prove my attendance?
Once you have completed a verifiable CPD activity, you will receive a certificate as proof. Since the guidelines changed in 2018, the requirements of the certificate changed as well. Make sure to check your certificates to confirm they include all of the required elements:
- CPD subject
- Learning content or topics exposed
- Aims and objectives
- The anticipated GDC development outcome
- The date of the activity
- The number of hours of CPD
- Your name and GDC registration number
- Confirmation that the CPD has been quality assured, and the person or body responsible
- Confirmation that the certificate is accurate and complete
Your Personal Development Plan and activity log
To support you in your training, you must keep a Personal Development Plan (PDP), and an activity log up to date. This is a log of all the verifiable CPD that you have completed.
Top tip: Non-verifiable CPD should not be included in your activity log but is recommended for general learning. Be careful to check your activity has verifiable CPD.
You should however include a reflective element into your log.
When you request CPD for a Henry Schein run course, we include reflective questions in our mandatory feedback form, which you can copy straight into your activity log. Request a certificate for one of our courses here.
Your PDP is your plan for your learning over the next 5 years. It must include:
1) The CPD you plan to undertake during your cycle, which must include CPD that is relevant to your current or intended field(s) of practice
2) The anticipated development outcomes that will link to each activity
3) The timeframes within which you expect to complete your CPD over your cycle [5]
It is recommended that you include CPD to cover all four GDC development outcomes, however this is not compulsory.
Examples of a PDP can be found on the GDC’s website.
The template provided by the GDC includes two parts: a field of practice form to help you analyse your professional practice, which supports you in deciding for which topics are you going to complete CPD, and the plan itself, which helps you plan your activities in a meaningful and targeted way.
I’ve not been able to complete 100 hours CPD within the 5-year cycle – what do I do?
If something has happened which means you were unable to complete the required number of hours within the 5 years, you can apply for a grace period of 56 days.
The request for this needs to be submitted within the last 6 months of your CPD cycle. The GDC will then assess the exceptional circumstance which prevented you from completing the CPD.
For more information
Find out more about the GDC’s CPD requirements on the authority’s website here.
Have a look at Henry Schein Dental’s website to see how we can help you develop your skills and build upon your CPD hours. Find all our courses here.
Information as of June 2022
Information taken from www.gdc-uk.org/education-cpd/cpd/enhanced-cpd-scheme-2018. Accessed on 30 May 2022.