Sound and relevant training is essential for members of the dental team to provide patients with good care and treatment.  One of our principal functions is to scrutinise the content and quality of education provided for those training to be dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) in the UK. 

Requirements

We publish requirements on the content and range of UK undergraduate dental degree and DCP education programmes. All courses of instruction for GDC registrants must meet these requirements and have our approval.

• The First Five Years sets out the Council's requirements on the content and scope of the five-year programme for dental (dentist) undergraduates.
• Developing the Dental Team sets out curricular requirements for qualifications which will lead to GDC registration for each of the six groups of DCPs.

Inspections

UK Dental Schools

We organise regular cycles of inspections to all UK dental schools to check the standards of the UK dental degree programmes. After each cycle, a General Report is published which sets out the main findings from the inspections.

UK DCP Schools

We also inspect existing and new DCP education providers. For each inspection visit, Inspectors produce reports on their findings which will contain recommendations for improvement.

Postgraduate Dental Education

As part of our role in monitoring the continuum of education throughout a dentist's career, we also scrutinise postgraduate dental education by organising a programme of inspections to sample the extensive range of education available to dentists seeking further training and qualifications.

Copies of Inspection Reports are available on this site.

Implantology 
The Council's Education Committee has issued an interim policy statement in the light of concerns raised with us about the practice of implant dentistry by general dental practitioners.