Why Should You Invest In Dental Cpd Courses?

By Author: helen johns
Total Articles: 42
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In 2025, your success as a licensed dentist will, for the most part, be determined by the financial effort you put into your continuous educational formation. Do you want to invest in yourself, broaden your techniques, and learn about new dental procedures that you could later incorporate into your practice’s service list? In such a case, you will need to invest in dental CPD, which in the UK is a necessity in order to maintain your dentistry license.

Dental CPD courses are a way for you to keep aware of the modifications happening in the dentistry field, keep your competency at a superior level, get familiar with new techniques and regulations relevant to your patients, and be involved in workshops and conferences held by authorities in the dentistry field. In our country, dental CPD programs are compulsory and their validation is verified by the GDC. The theory behind it is simple. As the medical field is expanding and dentistry techniques become more complex, so should the general knowledge of dentists who practice in this field.

The last thing you want as a patient is to use the services of a medical professional ...
... who last freshened its theoretical and practical skills more than ten years ago. Dental CPD courses are designed to maintain the professional standards expected from dentists in our country. Moreover, UK dentists are required to complete at least 100 hours of verified dental CPD (https://londondentalinstitute.com/dental-cpd-courses/) every five years. It’s a lot, yes, but it is necessary in order to give patients the best services available in the industry and keep up with medical breakthroughs that might also be accompanied by financial benefits for the dental practices that make use of them.

A Necessity for a Constantly Evolving Field

In the UK, the requirements for the minimum dental CPD imposed on dentists are laid out in the GDC Rules Order of Council 2017 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/966). According to the specifications laid out there, all dental care professionals active in the UK must follow a five-year cycle of continuous professional development with a minimum of ten hours in a two-year period. The idea behind such an approach is for the CPC to be spread evenly over a five-year period. Plus, in accordance with the Rules Order of Council 2017, the CDP must be verified and therefore pass certain criteria related to relevance and content presented to students.

UK-based dentists are required to submit an annual CPD declaration that attests to their compliance with the GDC regulations. Basically, dentists at the ned of the year must declare that they participated in classes, programs and external workshops recognised by the General Dental Council. Like other national bodies, the GDC might occasionally perform audits to determine the verifiability of the submitted statements, and if something is not exactly right, they can invite the dental practitioner to supply evidence of CPD courses participation, with a grace period of 28 days.

The dentist didn’t comply? In that case, they will be allowed up to eight weeks (https://www.gdc-uk.org/docs/default-source/education-and-cpd/cpd/enhanced-cpd-scheme-2018/continuing-professional-development-for-dental-professionals-2008.pdf) to finish their dental CPD courses, provided they present a good reason for not finishing them in the required time frame, with the caveat that the extension request cannot be submitted after the five-year period has already passed. However, if they still don’t complete them, the GDC benefits from the authority to suspend the dentist’s practice license and erase their name from the register. In other words, they can suspend them.

What Dental CPD Courses Can You Pursue?

It depends on what you’re looking for. Are you interested in expanding your experience as an orthodontist? In that case, an option to consider is to go for a 12-month course in Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopaedics, which will be equivalent to a Master’s Degree. Do you want to focus on decorative dentistry and restorative procedures? Then, going for a course in Aesthetic & Restorative Dentistry will be worthwhile.

Are you looking to expand on your services list and specialise in tooth implants? If so, you should focus your time on dental CPD courses fixated on Dental Implantology and Oral Surgery. The benefits of these courses are multiple. For one thing, they are designed to surpass the GDC’s requirements for minimum CPD duration. Secondly, they are cost-efficient, flexible, benefit from online modules and are a fantastic way to form connections with industry professionals.

All these courses will be available on VLEs, which will allow students to replay video modules and track progress, while for hands-on approaches, some courses will give students a simulation kit, which will be delivered to their doorstep. Long-term CPD courses are equivalent to a level 7 diploma, are attested by the SAB, and they represent a fantastic solution if you want to expand on your professional development without investing a fortune in offline weekend workshops.

How Can They Be a Wise Financial Investment?

Really, it all boils down to the extra services you can add to your practice. Let’s say, for example, you complete a CPD course in implantology, and at the end of it, you obtain a level 7 diploma recognised by the Scottish Accreditation Board that will be equivalent to a Master’s Degree. You could, in theory, add treatments like implant-supported bridges, bone grafting procedures and implant restorations, all of which will start from around £2,000.

Moreover, a wider set of commercialised dental services will translate into better patient retention and give you an advantage compared to your industry rivals. Postgraduate courses and diplomas will increase the trust that patients put in your services, reduce the number of external referrals you give, enhance the ROI of your commercialised dental treatments and contribute positively to your dental practice expansion perspectives. Plus, you don’t really have a choice. Dental CPD programs are a necessity in the UK, and their completion is required in order to maintain your license. Maybe it would be easier if this were not the case, but alas, everything is done in order to maintain the utmost care of our clients.