12 January 2012

Thousands of dentists reach the end of their CPD cycle

As registered dental professionals, dentists – and indeed all dental care professionals - have a duty to keep their skills and knowledge up to date through Continuing Professional Development (CPD) so they can give patients the best possible treatment and care.

CPD is compulsory and runs in five year cycles, depending on when they first registered with the General Dental Council (GDC). But no matter where they are in their cycle it’s important to keep track of their hours by making an end of year declaration.

More than 11,000 dentist registrants came to the end of their five year cycle on 31 December 2011 and must ensure that they have declared their CPD hours by 28 January 2012.

It is important to remember that CPD is a legal requirement of registration with the GDC and failure to meet the 250 hour requirement could result in registrants being removed from the register and unable to practice.

All dentist registrants (except those whose cycle didn’t start until 1 January 2012) should have recently received a letter reminding them about their end of year declaration which, for the first time, will also give them the opportunity to update CPD hours for previous years as well.

Advice for dentists

The easiest way for you to make an end of year declaration is by logging on to www.egdc-uk.org. If you haven’t got an eGDC account you can register using your ID-verification code, which is included in the declaration letter. Otherwise you can complete the form enclosed with the letter, returning it to the GDC in the freepost envelope by 28 January 2012. Any forms received after this date will not be processed.

You can break down your CPD each year in any way which works for you, but you should spread it out across your cycle as evenly as possible. Only CPD carried out within a cycle can be counted. Any activities carried out before a cycle starts, or after it has ended, cannot be included.