Compulsory registration for dental nurses and dental technicians
Compulsory GDC registration for dental nurses and dental technicians comes into effect on 31 July 2008. Registration is already compulsory for: dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, clinical dental technicians and orthodontic therapists.
When you register with us, we license you to work as a dental professional in the UK (provided you are eligible to work in the UK). From 31 July 2008, you won’t be able to work as a dental nurse or dental technician in this country without GDC registration. With the deadline approaching, you should act now to avoid missing this deadline and finding yourself unable to work next summer. Registering is simple: download the application form from this page, complete it and send it back to us with your supporting documents and the registration fee.
Dental nurses and dental technicians who register now will need to pay nothing more until their first annual retention fee is due, in July 2009. To find out more about first registration fees for 2008 click here.
Why have we introduced this requirement?
Put simply, to improve patient protection. To register, you must demonstrate that you are qualified or experienced and that there are no health or character issues that would affect your fitness to work as a dental professional.
When you register, you make a commitment to behave ethically and professionally, and to meet and uphold the standards of the profession outlined in the GDC’s standards guidance. You commit to keeping your knowledge and skills up to date too. All these are important to patients. They will no doubt be important to you too, as a professional. To register benefits everyone, and is something to be proud of.
Registering on the basis of experience - don’t miss out
If you do not hold a formal qualification and want to apply on the basis of your experience you must register before 30 July 2008. After the deadline, the only way on to the Dental Care Professionals Register will be with a qualification.
Find out more about our transitional arrangements for dental nurses and dental technicians here.
Apply for registration
We have created new application forms to simplify and clarify the process for DCPs and their referees. However, if you have one of the original application forms you can still use this.
New forms are available as PDF documents 
for:
View GDC Standards Guidance for Dental Professionals
Health check requirements for registration
You can view current application processing times here.
Attention dentists: are the nurses and technicians you work with registered?
Individual dental nurses and dental technicians are responsible for registering with us. But as a dentist, you will want to be aware that from 31 July 2008 you should only be employing or working with registered dental nurses and dental technicians. So please challenge and encourage unregistered dental care professionals to register now, at the current fee level, so that they do not run the risk of missing the boat and finding themselves unable to work next summer.
If you are not sure whether a dental technician from whom you commission work is registered, you may wish to write to them to remind them that they must register and to inform them that if they do not, you will not be able to commission them for work from 31 July 2008.