If you’re working as a dental nurse or dental technician, you have to be registered with the GDC or in training – whatever your job title. The titles “dental nurse”, “dental surgery assistant”, “dental technician” and “dental technologist” are protected by law. So if you’re not registered with the GDC and you use one of these titles, or any other title which misleadingly implies that you are, you risk prosecution in a criminal court. But that doesn’t mean that an unregistered person can just use a different job title and continue to do the work of a dental nurse or dental technician – at least, not without risking the registration of whoever is employing them. Unregistered dental nurses and dental technicians are effectively outlawed by GDC standards which make it clear that registrants – professionals who are literally signed up to the high standards set in the UK for their profession – must employ and work with appropriately registered people. If a registered dentist or dental technician employs someone to work as a dental nurse or dental technician they have a duty to ensure that that person is registered or in training. If they don’t, they risk losing their own registration. An unregistered dental nurse or dental technician is therefore a contradiction in terms. If they do find someone who is prepared to employ them as a dental nurse or dental technician, that person could in turn find their own livelihood at risk as a result of GDC fitness to practise proceedings. The bottom line is, dental nurses and dental technicians need to be registered or in training.

Put very simply, we introduced compulsory registration for patient protection, so that patients can have confidence that all members of the team are properly trained and working to the same high standards set by the GDC.

Patients can also be assured that if there is a serious problem and a dentist or a dental care professional is not meeting the standards expected of them, there’s a fair way of looking into this.

Registration is not a club to join or ignore if you feel like it. As a dental nurse or dental technician who no doubt cares about standards and doing a job well, we hope you want to belong to a profession which is being properly regulated and in which standards are safeguarded, and if you regard that as a benefit that’s great. But it is actually not about benefits for anyone other than patients.

If you have not already got an application form please download one from this website or request one by calling 0845 222 4141 (UK local rate) or by emailing GDCregistration@gdc-uk.org.

You then need to complete you application form and send it to us, along with copies of supporting documents and the registration fee. When completing your application form please remember to provide proof of your: identity; qualification (if applicable); and change of name (if different to that on your qualification certificate).

And don’t forget to complete the health declaration.

The health certificate only needs to be completed if you work with patients, in which case it will show that you are fit to practise.

This must be completed by a dentist if she/he has worked with you for over a year, or by a medical practitioner who is not a member of your family.

We advise you to contact your awarding body to request a duplicate certificate or a letter confirming that you have gained the qualification. The letter should contain the details that would have been on the certificate.

All dental nurses and dental technicians must now be registered with the GDC.

Student dental nurses and dental technicians who are working towards a registrable qualification do not need to register with the GDC until they have finished their studies. Please remember, though, that you will need to register as soon as you have qualified.

Dental nurses and dental technicians are in training if they are studying for a registrable qualification in their field.

Student dental nurses

The Council has agreed, as a result of the Scope of Practice consultation undertaken in early 2008, that student dental nurses are those that:

1. Are employed by a practice and enrolled on a training course but waiting for the course to start; or
2. Are employed by a practice and waiting for enrolment for a training programme to open; or
3. Have passed the examination for the National Certificate but are still completing the 24 months’ chairside experience needed to get their certificate.

In all the above cases:
a. Before the student dental nurse undertakes any duties in the practice he or she must receive an appropriate induction, which must include confidentiality and health and safety in the practice;
b. The student dental nurse must keep a log book of the training they receive in the practice;
c. The student dental nurse must not undertake exposure prone procedures, including cleaning instruments, until they have received their appropriate vaccinations as required in the area where they practice.

A named supervising registrant must take responsibility for supervising a dental nurse in training. By undertaking this responsibility, the supervising registrant agrees to be accountable for the work of the student dental nurse.

Student dental technicians

Student dental technicians who are employed by a laboratory or practice and enrolled on training course leading to registration which has yet to start can be defined as ‘in training’.

Technicians who are employed by a laboratory or practice with a view to enrolling on a training course for which enrolment has not yet opened can also be defined as ‘in training’.

In both these cases:
a. Before the student dental technician undertakes any duties in the laboratory or practice he or she must receive an appropriate induction, which must include confidentiality and health and safety in the practice and immunisation (if appropriate, e.g. in a clinical setting);
b. The student dental technician must keep a log book of the training they receive in the laboratory practice.

A named supervising registrant must take responsibility for supervising a student dental technician. By undertaking this responsibility, the supervising registrant agrees to be accountable for the work of the student dental technician.

All GDC registrants need to make sure there are adequate and appropriate arrangements in place so that patients can claim any compensation they may be entitled to. The only appropriate arrangements recognised by the GDC are: dental defence organisation membership (whether their own membership or employer’s membership); professional indemnity insurance held individually or by their employer; and NHS indemnity. Anyone relying on arrangements made by their employer without arranging either a policy of their own or joining a defence organisation, has a responsibility to check the position with their employer. There is further information about professional indemnity on this website.

All registrants have an individual responsibility to ensure they have adequate indemnity cover. Many practices may have indemnity that will adequately cover their dental nurses, but it is the responsibility of the Dental nurse to be sure this is the case. Talk to your employer and be sure you are adequately covered. If you find that you are not, you should take steps to get appropriate cover.

For further information on indemnity, please refer to our indemnity FAQs on this website.

The decision on whether a qualification should be registrable in the long term or only during transition was based on whether or not the qualification was still being awarded. The qualifications that are still awarded will be eligible for first registration, whereas those that are no longer awarded were only registrable until 30 July 2008.

The GDC consulted with all DCP groups when compiling the lists of qualifications and the curricula for each group which are set out in the Developing the Dental Team document. A working group for each DCP category was set up in order to identify and set the criteria. Developing the Dental Team outlines the criteria that all registrable qualifications must meet in order to gain GDC approval and is available on our website.

We welcome submissions from any education provider wishing to provide new qualifications for DCPs. Providers must demonstrate that the programme they are proposing meet the criteria outlined in Developing the Dental Team.

The amount of experience required was suggested by the expert working group which began the planning for DCP registration.

The length of experience required for Dental Technicians was increased from six years in ten to seven years in ten following representations made by Dental Technology bodies.

As a dental nurse or dental technician you have a personal responsibility to register with us. Any GDC registrant employing unregistered dental nurses or dental technicians from now on is risking their own registration.

Unfortunately we are unable to answer this question at present. The GDC will make this information public as soon as it is available.

Yes, registration fees can be claimed against tax.

CPD is the responsibility of each individual registrant. Employers should understand that CPD will be compulsory and should encourage and support you in undertaking it. CPD does not need to be expensive and does not always have to mean attending structured courses. Although there are not many courses for DCPs at the moment, we expect that to change, as it did when we introduced compulsory CPD for dentists. CPD can be undertaken through reading, discussion groups and on-line learning. Some kinds of on-line learning can count as verifiable CPD. You might find that your professional association – if you are a member – has ways of helping you to meet your CPD requirements.

Following the opening of the Dental Care Professionals Register in July 2006 all registered dental professionals can take part in ‘the business of dentistry’. This means that registered dental care professionals can own their own practices, go into partnerships with each other or dentists, and employ other members of the dental team. Registered dental care professionals and dentists all count towards the professional majority required on the board of directors of a Dental Body Corporate.

All dental nurses and dental technicians that you employ or manage must now be registered with us. Trainee dental nurses and dental technicians who are working towards a registrable qualification don’t need to register with the GDC until they have finished their studies. Please remember, though, that they will need to register as soon as they have qualified.

If you are a registered dentist or dental care professional and you employ or manage an unregistered person to work as a dental nurse or dental technician (whatever job title you give them), you will be liable to fitness to practise proceedings, putting your own livelihood and business in jeopardy. And if the actions of an unregistered worker cause harm, you will carry the can for their mistakes. If you employ registered dental nurses or dental technicians, on the other hand, you need to follow the GDC’s guidance on management responsibilities, but your registered staff will be individually responsible to the GDC for their conduct and standards.

All dental nurses and dental technicians that you employ or manage must be registered with us. Dental nurses and dental technicians who hold EEA nationality, or can derive EEA rights from a family member, and who hold a qualification from an EEA state or who hold a qualification from an non-EEA member state but have worked in an EEA member state for two years, may be able to apply for an assessment of their qualification and skills for registration with us. If a dental nurses or dental technician falls into this category they should contact our Registration Team on 020 7344 3741 for further information.

In addition we are working on implementing new routes to registration for dental nurses and dental technicians who do not have a UK qualification or are eligible to apply for an assessment. We are aiming to implement these new routes to registration later this year.

There are many ways of sharing your views with us - and we want to hear from you.

Responding to our public consultations is one way of making your views known. We post all our consultations on our website and also publicise them though the professional associations and the dental media.

You don’t have to wait for a consultation to get in touch. We genuinely want to hear what you think about our policies and our processes – what you think about how we do things. Please get in touch with your views (phone 0845 222 4141 (UK local rate) or email information@gdc-uk.org).

We also have regular meetings with the associations representing your profession, so you can share your views through them if you’d prefer.

And if you want to get actively involved, there are opportunities.

Dental nurses and technicians now sit on a range of our policy committees and working groups, including our Registration Committee, and we have recently recruited dental nurses and dental technicians as members of our Fitness to Practise Panel.

The new fully appointed Council, which we expect to be in place in 2008 (new legislation is needed for this) will have four DCP members. DCPs from all registrant groups will be able to apply for the jobs. Members won’t be appointed to represent particular groups, as all Council members are there to work on behalf of the public, but will be chosen to ensure there is the right mix of skills and experience on the Council. Does this sound like you? Why not apply when the time comes?

We made changes to the health check requirements for registrant applicants in November 2006. The changes recognise that the roles of some members of the dental team are more exposure-prone than others and therefore carry different degrees of risk for patients:

Dental technicians who do not work in a clinical environment do not need to provide a health certificate. You still have to make a self-declaration about your health and confirm that you do not have any clinical contact with patients.

If you do come into contact with patients, however occasionally this may be, you do have to provide a health certificate as part of your registration application. This health certificate can be completed by either an employing or supervising dentist or a doctor.

A Clinical Dental Technician should only be working as part of a GDC approved course and as such indemnity should be covered by the training provider.

Dentists have a responsibility to make sure that the dental technicians they are working with are registered. Dentists are putting their own registration at risk if they work with unregistered colleagues.

The GDC does not have the power to protect the UK technology industry from foreign competition, any more than we have the power to stop patients seeking dental care abroad.

We make it very clear to GDC registrants, including dentists, clinical dental technicians and dental technicians that they need to understand and comply with their responsibilities under the laws and regulations governing their business, which in this case include the medical devices regulations. Individual dentists, clinical technicians and dental technicians are accountable to the GDC for fulfilling these responsibilities, regardless of whether they are ‘GDC rules’ or simply part of the law of the land.

The two years' chair-side experience is part of the requirement to complete the National Certificate. So, even though you have passed your exam, the fact that you are still doing your two years in the practice means that you are still a student dental nurse and can therefore work as a dental nurse. When you have completed your two years and have got your certificate, you will need to register with us straight away.

Yes, a student dental nurse is entitled to continue working while waiting to re-sit their exam. They will continue to be deemed ‘in training’. It would be advisable to keep a training log during this period to demonstrate what efforts are being made to improve the candidate’s chances of passing the exam.

For a student dental nurse ‘in training’, the GDC’s policy is:

a. before the student dental nurse undertakes any duties in the practice he or she must receive an appropriate induction, which must include confidentiality and health and safety in the practice;

b. the student dental nurse must keep a log book of the training they receive in the practice;

c. the student dental nurse must not undertake exposure prone procedures, including cleaning instruments, until they have received the appropriate vaccinations as required in the location where they practice.

A named supervising registrant must take responsibility for supervising a student dental nurse. By undertaking this responsibility, the supervising registrant agrees to be accountable for the work of the student dental nurse.

They should make every effort possible, and be able to demonstrate that they have made the effort to get on the next available course. Our advice would be to get onto a waiting list and request a letter that states you are on a waiting list. In the meantime, they should make sure that they have had a thorough induction (see above).

As mentioned above, the GDC’s policy is that student dental nurses who are employed by a practice with a view to enrolling on a training course for which enrolment has not yet opened can also be defined as ‘in training’.

In this situation, our policy is that:


a. before the student dental nurse undertakes any duties in the practice he or she must receive an appropriate induction, which must include confidentiality and health and safety in the practice;

b. the student dental nurse must keep a log book of the training they receive in the practice;

c. the student dental nurse must not undertake exposure prone procedures, including cleaning instruments, until they have received appropriate vaccinations as required in the location where they practice.

A named supervising registrant must take responsibility for supervising a student dental nurse in training. By undertaking this responsibility, the supervising registrant agrees to be accountable for the work of the student dental nurse.

Dentists as team leaders are responsible for ensuring their student dental nurse has had the appropriate induction, vaccinations and is enrolled on a GDC approved training programme. See also question 2 above.

Our policy is that dental nurses who have passed their National Certificate examination but are still undertaking the 24 months’ chair side experience required for full qualification are considered ‘in training’ until they receive their qualification.

Dental nurses who are employed by a practice with a view to enrolling on a training course for which enrolment has not yet opened can be defined as ‘in training’.

In both these cases:

1.before the student dental nurse undertakes any duties in the practice he or she must receive an appropriate induction, which must include confidentiality and health and safety in the practice;

2.the student dental nurse must keep a log book of the training they receive in the practice;

3.the student dental nurse must not undertake exposure prone procedures, including cleaning instruments, until they have received appropriate vaccinations as required in the location where they practice.

A proper induction must cover health and safety and confidentiality. They should also have the necessary immunisation.