Standards for dental professionals

Our standards guidance is a code of behaviour that registrants agree to abide by. This is one of the main ways in which we protect patients, but standards also protect you by making it clear what is expected of you as a registrant.

Standards for dental professionals (326kb, PDF)

Image of the Standards for dental professionals booklet

There are six principles around which the guidance is built. These should be at the centre of everything you do as a healthcare professional. They are:

put patients’ interests first and act to protect them,
respect patients’ dignity and choices,
protect the confidentiality of patients’ information,
co-operate with other members of the dental team and other healthcare colleagues in the interests of patients,
maintain your professional knowledge and competence, and
be trustworthy.

Guidance booklets

The core guidance is Standards for dental professionals (2005). This booklet and the supplementary documents set out the principles and values that you should work with when making decisions.

The main booklet is supported by additional documents:

Principles of patient consent (304kb, PDF)

Principles of patient of confidentiality (300kb, PDF)

Principles of dental team working (314kb, PDF)

Principles of complaints handling (301kb, PDF)

Principles of raising concerns (283kb, PDF)

Principles of management responsibility (159kb, PDF)

Principles of ethical advertising (190kb, PDF) ^NEW!

Scope of practice

The newest addition to these is the guidance on Scope of Practice which sets out clearly who can do what in the dental team.

Scope of practice (226kb, PDF)

Have your say on the review of Standards and Scope of Practice

We are currently reviewing both the Standards guidance and the Scope of Practice document and are in the process of gathering evidence. Find out more:

Standards review
Scope of Practice review