Standards for dental professionals
Our standards guidance is a code of behaviour that registrants agree to abide by. This is one of the main ways in which we protect patients, but standards also protect you by making it clear what is expected of you as a registrant. Most people feel more confident and perform better when they know what is expected of them.
Standards for dental professionals (PDF, 326kb)
There are six principles around which the guidance is built. These should be at the centre of everything you do as a healthcare professional. They are:
- put patients’ interests first and act to protect them;
- respect patients’ dignity and choices;
- protect the confidentiality of patients’ information;
- co-operate with other members of the dental team and other healthcare colleagues in the interests of patients;
- maintain your professional knowledge and competence; and
- be trustworthy.
Guidance booklets
The core guidance is Standards for dental professionals (2005). This booklet and the supplementary documents which support it are not lists of rules about what you should and shouldn’t do. Instead they set out the principles and values that you should work with when making decisions.
The main booklet is supported by additional documents:
Scope of practice
The newest addition to these is the guidance on Scope of Practice which sets out clearly who can do what in the dental team.
Scope of Practice (PDF, 226kb)
Useful statements
There are also single-issue statements which you may find useful. They set out what we think about:
Contact us
If you have any questions or comments about GDC standards and supporting guidance, email Standards@gdc-uk.org