New plans to be published to improve regulation for patients and dental professionals

The plans – expected to be published on January 26 – cover work that is already under way as well as new proposals. They are intended to ensure we are putting patient safety at the heart of everything we do and that the public has confidence in dental services. Making it work will need everyone – the dental profession itself, regulators, educators and the many other organisations and individuals involved – to play their part.

The plans place greater emphasis on supporting and empowering the profession, for example through education and learning. The intention is for the regulatory system to work better to stop things going wrong, rather than reacting after harm has been done.

This will mean changing our relationship with the dental team to one of greater collaboration to achieve common goals such as embedding the standards that promote learning and support dental professionals during their entire career.

It will also mean being clearer about when the GDC will use its formal enforcement powers to manage serious risk to patients. Our aim is to do so only when dental professionals put patients at serious risk or damage public confidence in dentistry.