UK dental schools are providing sound training for the dentists of tomorrow, a new report from the General Dental Council (GDC) confirms.

Around 700 new dentists graduate from UK dental schools every year. This month, the GDC has published the General Report on its latest round of quality assurance visits to the schools. The report highlights the GDC’s key findings and provides a unique snapshot of the current state of UK undergraduate dental education. It identifies examples of good educational practice at the UK’s 13 dental schools and also makes recommendations for further developing the delivery of dental education.

Hew Mathewson, President of the GDC said:

“High quality dental education is vital in ensuring that patients in the UK receive high quality dental care. The first five years are crucial in determining a dentist’s knowledge, skills and attitudes for a lifetime in practice. That is why the GDC invests substantial resources in inspecting dental education centres and why we have the power to intervene if standards are unsatisfactory. The General Report on the GDC visitation programme provides an important overview of the UK dental education system and is essential reading for all those who have an interest in the training of the dentists of the future.”

A GDC inspection panel, co-chaired by Professor John Murray and Professor Colin Smith, visited all thirteen dental schools in the UK between October 2003 and July 2005. The panel’s job was to check that GDC standards for training future dentists, as set out in the GDC’s guidance document The First Five Years, are being implemented. The inspectors looked at the undergraduate dental programme and also the running of the final examination at each school. They met academic and clinical staff and dental students, and looked at the provision of clinical and educational facilities.

The inspectors found that all UK dental schools are, on the whole, meeting the GDC’s expectations of undergraduate dental education. The report emphasises and welcomes:

• The high level of commitment evident amongst dental school staff,
• The opportunities outreach teaching is giving dental students to treat patients in a general practice setting, and
• The high quality student support systems in place at all schools.

John Murray commented:

"Our report highlights developments in dental education over the last ten years. We were pleased to see schools adopting innovative teaching approaches, including outreach teaching, and were impressed by the dedication shown by academic and hospital staff. Students we met during the visits were bright, articulate and aware of their professional responsibilities. They were appreciative of the support they received from staff. ”

The report also highlights some areas of serious concern. The inspectors warn that there is an urgent need for substantial additional funding if high quality dental training is to be sustained. In particular, they found that:

• Many dental teaching hospitals are in need of a major upgrade, and
• Greater investment is needed in academic staffing to ensure there is a sufficient complement of teachers to deliver the training programmes.

The GDC is calling on the Departments of Health, the higher education funding councils, NHS agencies, and others with a role in supporting dental education, to address these concerns as a matter of urgency.

Colin Smith said:

“Imagination and innovation were evident in many programmes despite difficulties in finding or retaining appropriately qualified teachers for some disciplines and often in the face of less than ideal physical facilities and inadequate numbers of dental nurses. Sizeable new investment is urgently required to support and sustain undergraduate dental education, not only to allow dental schools to cope with additional numbers of students but also to ensure that all students continue to receive sufficient training in the provision of high quality patient care."

The report includes a number of recommendations to the dental schools themselves for further improving the quality of undergraduate dental education. Key recommendations include:

• Ensuring there are adequate opportunities for student dentists to learn and work alongside other members of the dental team,
• Reviewing the teaching of conscious sedation to increase students’ hands-on experience before graduation,
• Ensuring that teaching of law, ethics and professionalism is embedded throughout the five-year programme, and
• Investing in laboratories for clinical skills and science teaching to support the teaching of dental students and dental care professionals.

The GDC will introduce regular paper-based monitoring to check how the schools are addressing the recommendations made to them. This will include evaluation of outreach teaching as it is further developed.

Ends

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Notes to Editors:

1. The GDC has statutory responsibility for ensuring high standards of pre-registration and post-registration education for all groups of dental professionals. In relation to dentists’ pre-registration education, the GDC organises regular cycles of visits to all UK dental schools to check the standards of the UK dental degree programme.

2. The GDC’s document, The First Five Years: A Framework for Undergraduate Dental Education, sets the benchmark for the training of future dentists. Dental schools are measured against this document during the GDC’s inspection visits. The First Five Years can be downloaded from this website.

3. The 2003-2005 dental school visits were conducted by teams drawn from a panel of 21 inspectors, made up of general dental practitioners, dental academics, lay members, and one dental care professional. The General Report of their visits is published on this website. Hard copies of the document are also available from Pravat Bhattacharyya in the GDC’s Education Directorate (email: Pbhattacharyya@gdc-uk.org, phone: 020 7887 3889).

4. A photo of the panel of inspectors is available on request.

5. In addition to the general report, individual reports of the visits to each of the dental schools were produced and are also published on this website.

6. The GDC has now begun a major exercise to inspect all UK training programmes for dental care professionals (DCPs) which lead to registration with the GDC. The GDC expects to make 40-50 quality assurance visits to DCP education during 2006 – 2009.