You must complete, and keep records of, at least 250 hours of CPD over five years. A minimum of 75 of these hours must consist of verifiable CPD. Every year we will write to you and ask you to tell us how many hours of verifiable and general CPD you have completed. At the end of your five year cycle we will write again and ask you for the final verifiable and general total for your five year cycle. If you do not comply with your CPD requirements or if you are audited, you may be asked to supply documentary evidence that you have complied with the whole of your requirements.

This is CPD which meets all of the GDC’s educational criteria and where your participation can be verified by an appropriate third party. The educational criteria are:

1. the activity must have concise educational aims and objectives;

2. the activity must have clear anticipated outcomes; and

3. there must be an opportunity for you to give feedback on what you think of it.
It is your responsibility to check with the course provider that the activity meets the educational criteria and to get a certificate. If you don’t, you can’t count the activity as verifiable.

Activities which are of benefit to your continuing professional development but which are self-directed or which do not satisfy all of the verifiable CPD criteria can be recorded as general (non-verifiable) CPD. This will typically involve activities such as journal reading, attending staff briefings as well as any research you may do that will contribute towards your professional development.

The purpose of the CPD policy is to maintain public confidence in the Dentist Register by ensuring it is a list of Dentists who have not only acquired the qualifications needed to work, but who also continually update their skills in order to give their patients the best possible treatment and care. All Dentists who are on the Register are entitled to work as a Dentist (whether or not they choose to exercise that right) and so must necessarily keep up to date.

Although some registrants may choose to specialise in a limited field of dentistry such as the making and fixing of dentures, the requirement to carry out CPD remains the same. All registrants are encouraged to plan their own professional development and in doing so take into consideration the areas and issues that they may need to be made aware of in order to update or refresh their skills.

The GDC recommends that all Dentists carry out CPD in recommended core subjects. We recommend that you do CPD in medical emergencies every year. The recommended core subjects and suggested minimum number of verifiable hours per CPD cycle that Dentists should spend on them are: • medical emergencies (at least 10 hours per CPD cycle) • disinfection and decontamination (at least 5 hours per CPD cycle) • radiography and radiation protection (at least 5 hours per CPD cycle) In addition, the GDC recommends that Dentists working in a clinical environment carry out CPD (verifiable or general) to make sure they are up to date in: • legal and ethical issues • handling complaints We also recommend that all Dentists use a personal development plan so that patients and Dentists themselves benefit as much as possible from their CPD. Beyond the core activities, you will need to use your professional judgement about what activities are appropriate to, and contribute towards, your CPD. We recommend that you use a personal development plan to help you decide what CPD to do. There may be contractual obligations that you need to fulfil, particularly if you work in the NHS, and these may include CPD activities in some of the core areas we have specified i.e. radiation protection or CPR/first aid activities. You will need to make sure that you are fulfilling any such contractual obligations as well as meeting the legal requirements.

If you joined the register on or after 2006 you will need to include the core areas in your CPD from the beginning of your first CPD cycle. If you were on the register before 2006 the core subjects need to be included in your second cycle. You cannot count CPD you did before your compulsory start-date towards the first five-year cycle.

No. You can only count activities done within the five-year cycle. The start and end dates are fixed and you can only count CPD completed within them.

No. You will automatically join a CPD cycle. We will write to you in advance of your start date to formally notify you of your requirements.

The GDC does not approve or accredit CPD activities. The GDC does not wish to limit the choices available to Dentists. If a course meets the educational criteria and you have a certificate or verification from a third party, then you can count it as verifiable, but it is up to you to check this with the course provider and you must decide if the educational criteria have been met.

Yes. It is your responsibility to record your CPD. If you are asked to submit your records to the GDC, you should provide certificates for all the CPD you claim as verifiable. Without this evidence, you can not record the activity as verifiable.

Yes. It should confirm the course details, hours of CPD activity, and be signed by a third party. You must remember to keep your copy as this will act as your proof.

You could monitor what reading you undertake over a short period, perhaps one-week, and take a judgement as to whether that was typical. This information could then be used to summarise your monthly reading, for example, the BDJ together with other journals could contribute 10 hours of general CPD per month, perhaps more. It might be useful to use your notes to record articles of particular interest, and use your CPD record as a reference source. This is not necessary if you are able to meet the CPD requirements entirely through verifiable activity.

The following are activities that you might consider counting towards your CPD. The list is not exhaustive. • Courses and lectures • Vocational Training or General Professional Training study days • Educational elements of professional and specialist society meetings • Peer review and clinical audit • Distance learning • Multimedia learning • Staff training • Background research • Private study • Journal reading • Attendance at conferences In each case, ask yourself “Does this activity contribute towards my continuing professional development?” If you can answer yes then you can record the activity. Then ask yourself “Does this activity meet the verifiable CPD criteria?” Use your professional judgement. If the verifiable CPD criteria has been met and a certificate confirms your participation, then you can record the activity as verifiable CPD. Otherwise, you can still record it as general CPD. It would make sense to record the two categories of CPD activity separately, perhaps using two GDC recording forms. The recording form can then be used as a check e.g. ‘this is recorded as verifiable CPD so I should have a certificate for it.’

You must use your professional judgement to determine which activities have a relevance to the practice of dentistry. Activities such as tutorials, didactic teaching and formal clinical training sessions are likely to count as verifiable CPD but you will have to check that all the verifiable CPD criteria are met.

Yes. If the activity meets the educational criteria for verifiable CPD and you get a certificate from the course provider proving the number of hours of activity, however if the hours are recorded as units: third party confirmation of how the units translate to hours must be provided.

Yes (but refer to the verifiable CPD criteria, which will need to be met if you are to count these activities as verifiable CPD).

No. Your nearest postgraduate office will have a list of both publicly-funded and private courses. Courses are also advertised in professional journals, and information may be available from your local branch of the BDA. Specialist societies and the Royal Colleges will also run courses.

You should try your nearest postgraduate office for verifiable activities. If you do not live near a postgraduate office you may find that your local BDA branch will provide verifiable activities. Alternatively, some companies are offering verifiable CPD on the internet and on CD-Rom. You may be able to join other Dentists in your area to develop your own CPD activities such as study group activities which could count as verifiable CPD. Some journals also offer verifiable CPD activities.

The GDC recommends that a Dentist should retain their UK registration even if they intend to take a break from Dental work or work abroad. If the ‘break’ is for less than a whole calendar year (January to December) then it will be more expensive to allow your registration with the GDC to lapse as an additional restoration fee would be due. Whatever you decide, the CPD “clock” will continue. In other words, if you leave the Register and wish to restore in the future, you will be asked to show CPD, up to a maximum of 250 hours, in order to be able to restore. The restoration requirements are explained in detail in our guidance ‘Continuing professional development for Dentists’.

Yes. Completing the online form does not replace your requirement to hold onto your paper certificate. You can still be audited and if so then required to submit your paper evidence.

No, as soon as you have entered your hours they will be stored on our systems. There is no need to provide a paper return in addition to entering your hours online.

Yes you are able to edit any of the hours you have stated for previous years before the end of your five year cycle.

Check your records once again and if the evidence shows that there are hours missing, feel free to edit.

If you do not wish to use CPD online, you are still able to provide a CPD return via a paper form. A copy of the form will be sent to you at your registered address. Please do not send your CPD records, such as certificates or course attendance documentation to us unless you are asked to do so. At the end of your five year cycle you may be selected at random and asked to produce your CPD records, including documentary proof of your verifiable CPD for audit.

CPD is a compulsory part of registration with the GDC. If you do not comply you will be removed from the register. This means you will not be able to work as a dentist anywhere in the UK.

The GDC recommends that you try to do 75 hours of CPD a year and CPD online has been created to help you plan and achieve this. Inputting or doing all your CPD in one year, whether at the beginning or at the end of your cycle, will not demonstrate that you have kept up to date with your continuing professional development.

No. You will only have to comply and input the maximum amount of hours that your title demands of you: For example if you are registered as a Dentist (250 hours) and a Dental Care Professional (150 hours) you will only have to input and comply with the maximum hours of 250.

No. Our registration teams will also amend and maintain all registrants continuing professional development as normal.

You will simply log in through the usual egdc log in. There are no new requirements for online CPD.

No. You can only count activities done within your present five year cycle. The start and end dates are fixed and you can only count CPD within them.