CPD hub

Staying on top of the game is important for all professions and professionals working within them, but for registered dental practitioners it is essential. The clinical, ethical and management requirements contained within continuing professional development (CPD) are imperatives established by the General Dental Council (GDC), endorsed by the profession, and they cannot be shirked or deferred.

The GDC’s formal requirements of minimum attainment at CPD are currently set at 250 completed hours over five years, including a number of core subjects. These requirements are expected to change in the course of 2014, including the number of hours and the declaration regime.

There has been lively discussion that CPD is not about getting the hours in as quickly and easily as possible, but about continually ensuring that knowledge is up to date and learning is relevant to an individual’s practice. The danger of CPD succumbing to a tick-box culture of easy-virtue qualification has been a view shared by many within the profession, not least our regulator, and the British Dental Association (BDA) is keen to avoid the ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of quality and standards.