It’s now been over a year and a half since the General Dental Council (GDC) published its new guidance on continuing professional development (CPD) for dental professionals. By law, we all have to undertake a minimum of 250 hours of CPD every five years, and 75 of these hours have to be ‘verifiable’ (for dental care professionals (DCPs), 150 and 50 hours respectively). The GDC has made clear that registrants need to make sure that their CPD activity is both relevant and of good quality.
So whilst the market for CPD is now very busy, dentists, dental nurses, dental therapists and dental hygienists are all faced with the challenge of ensuring that the CPD they undertake is worthwhile. Whilst online courses have their place, hands-on training remains hugely important.
UCL Eastman Dental Institute, with its dedicated CPD department, offers a large range of options to help dental professionals fulfil their CPD needs.
Verifiable CPD as part of a degree qualification
The Institute offers degree programmes designed especially for part-time study in aesthetic dentistry, dental sedation and pain management, endodontic practice, implant dentistry, paediatric dentistry, restorative dental practice and special care dentistry.
All of these involve substantial hands-on training in London as with full-time programmes, but instead of requiring a full-time commitment, the restricted number of contact days allows dentists to gain a degree qualification whilst continuing to work in practice. Indeed most of these programmes involve the student’s practise in providing patient case studies.
Varying in length from one to four years, any single one of these degrees will supply the entire verifiable CPD requirement of a dentist’s five year cycle, with the high quality of teaching you would expect from a prestigious dental school.
Hands-on short courses from one to 12 days
For dentists who want to top-up their CPD with a shorter course, the institute also offers a wide selection of hands-on short courses. Mostly taught by teachers from the institute’s degree programmes and using the same facilities, these courses offer a more bite-sized education on specific topics.
Currently available topics include aesthetic dentistry, dental hypnosis, dental microscopy, endodontics, implant dentistry, periodontology, restorative dentistry and sports dentistry, with more being added all the time. In addition, a suite of overseas registration examination revision courses allow overseas dentists to start gathering CPD as they prepare for registration.
And of course it’s not just dentists – with the GDC now requiring DCPs to gather verifiable CPD, the institute is preparing an increased range of courses for dental nurses and the whole dental team, and via collaboration with the British Association of Dental Therapists will soon introduce a new range of courses specifically for dental therapists and dental hygienists.
Quality postgraduate education
UCL Eastman Dental Institute is dedicated to postgraduate education, and aims to help dental professionals make the most of their CPD training. From short courses to full degrees, whatever area you wish to focus on, the institute offers substance and quality.
To find out more, visit www.ucl.ac.uk/eastman.
