Protecting patients

Our key purpose is to ensure patients are protected.

Standards of care

When you make an appointment you expect standards of care, but if your expectations aren't met or if something goes wrong with your treatment, help is available.

Read our publication 'Smile' to find out more about what you should expect from your dental professional:

Smile (732KB, PDF)

Smile is available in six languages

Checking registration

Your dentist or dental care professional should be registered with us. You can check a dental professional's registration by searching our online register.

Finding a specialist

As well as the dental professionals register, we hold lists of dental specialists. Any registered dentist can work in a particular field of dentistry (such as orthodontics or oral surgery), but only those on our specialist lists can call themselves a 'specialist'.

Raising concerns

If you have concerns that lead you to believe that a dental professional should not be treating patients at all, you should get in touch.

Costs of treatment

We do not set treatment costs but you may find useful information on the NHS Choices website or the Department of Health patient information leaflet for patients in England. The Scottish Government website has information for patients in Scotland , NHS Direct Wales for those in Wales and NIDirect in Northern Ireland.

(Please note we are not responsible for the content of these.)