In this day and age, your expertise as a dental professional will be influenced mostly by the professional development opportunities you take on. Have you graduated from a GDC-recognised dental school, and have you obtained a BDS? Well, per the regulations imposed on UK dentists, your accreditation will remain valid only if you complete your mandatory hours of continuous professional development, or CPD, as it’s commonly known. Are you somewhat short of your required hours, and time is ticking? Well, in that case, like the majority of dental practitioners based in Great Britain, you should at least consider the idea of enrolling in a 12-month dental course that’s accredited by a regulated awarding body, such as EduQual.
Why are dental courses a good idea? Well, it’s quite obvious, isn’t it? You will not exactly be the best dentist in our country if your professional knowledge and skills are stuck in the past. The dentistry field is constantly changing. New, novel treatment techniques are always being developed, and your skills as a medical professional will depend on how well you can adapt to the latest modifications in the field. CPD is required for medical professionals in our country, and covering your mandatory, verifiable CPD hours can only be really accomplished via officially mandated programs.
Most structured dental courses offered in the UK will provide students with verifiable CPD hours, which will count towards their yearly or multi-year dental CPD requirements. Plus, once graduated, students will receive a level-7 diploma in their chosen speciality, which will be accredited by a national awarding body, and it will be equivalent to a Master’s degree. Dental courses can expand on your clinical expertise, are a great way to enhance the services you offer in your practice, and, not least, they are cost-efficient.
CPD For Dentists: What Are the Requirements?
In the UK, continuous professional development is a licensing agreement that’s mandated and enforced by the General Dental Council. Each CPD framework works in five-year cycles, during which you are mandated to complete your mandatory development hours, which will need to expand on your already present knowledge. How many hours are we talking about? Well, per the GDC requirements, as a dentist, you will need to complete at least 100 hours of verifiable CPD hours over a five-year cycle, so around twenty per year.
These development hours must include core subjects relevant to your medical specialisation. For example, medical emergencies should take at least ten hours, while other subjects like disinfection or medical imaging could take around five hours each. What does it mean when we refer to verifiable hours? Well, verifiable CPD for dentists is provided by accredited programs that can present proof of their graduation and that have a structured framework that’s recognised by accreditation boards, such as the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Only verifiable hours count towards your CPD. Plus, in accordance with GDC requirements, no matter how many hours of CPD you have already completed, every two years you must complete at least ten. The activities that count towards your CPD range from workshops and online courses to peer reviews and supervised practice. You can indeed also engage in non-verifiable CPD, which are development activities that don’t provide formal documentation. But, as things stand, non-verifiable CPD for dentists is optional while verifiable CPD is mandated by the GDC.
Why Is Dental CPD a Thing?
It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? CPD is a requirement in all medical fields because scientific advancements and novel treatment techniques are developed year after year. A medical practitioner who graduated and obtained his license twenty years ago cannot simply rely on the information and procedures he learned and practised during his study years. The medical field has advanced since then, and the protection of patients comes in first place.
A medical degree proves you have the right competency to practice in the medical field upon graduation. But if that graduation happened twenty or more years ago, that piece of paper will pretty much be irrelevant now. CPD is a way to keep the skills of medical practitioners current and thus discourage the practice of outdated techniques that could have a negative impact on patients’ safety and well-being. For dentistry in particular, CPD is absolutely crucial, as there is probably no other subcategory of the medical field that has gone through a similar level of development.
With the rise of digital workflows and new material science, the skills required from current-day dentists are totally different from what they were two decades ago. Plus, CPD for dentists, from a legal standpoint, is a way to keep protected from private lawsuits. Was the patient not satisfied with the procedure you performed? Well, if you can’t show proper training for it, you will be vulnerable to legal allegations.
How Is Dental CPD Different?
For the most part, dental CPD and the continuous professional development applicable to other medical fields have a lot of things in common. The goal, after all, is the same. To increase professional competency and sharpen the skills of medical practitioners. But dentistry, while regulated by the GDC, is also more individualistic than other medical professions, as dentist have the freedom to keep track of their CDP via PDP, choose which course/workshop to attend, and provide proof of graduation.
Meanwhile, for GMCs, CPD is often built into employment, as continuous professional development for medical practitioners in the UK is often NHS-based. CPD for dentists is more focused on accumulated, verifiable hours, and the mandated topics, which need to be covered in the 100 hours of verifiable CDC, will be a bit stricter. That said, the impact of CPD on your license as a medical professional will be pretty much the same whether you are a dentist, a GP, or an anaesthesiologist.
CPD in the UK is mandated via structured frameworks; it can be accomplished via accredited courses, and it lies at the basis of our country’s medical competence. Are you short on the required hours, and do you want to complete your dental CPD as fast as possible? In that case, realistically, officially-accredited dental courses will be your best friend.
