Professional regulation

Dental regulation through the General Dental Council was only established as recently as the middle of the last century (1956) following on the heels of the creation of the modern NHS in 1948. At that time there were only 16,000 dentists practising in the UK. Today, more than twice as many dentists are registered and regulated by the the statutory corporation whose powers and duties set out in the Dentists Act 1984.

The prime purpose of the GDC, as with all professional bodies, is to ensure the protection of the public. The principle means through which this is achieved are the fitness to practise committees and secretariat. The protection of the public and the maintenance of confidence in the profession is plainly not a dispensable luxury but a necessity, albeit one that can come at a cost, in every sense.

Regardless of the title of the regulator or the particular profession in which one is engaged, the common experience of those who become the object of professional regulation or fitness to practise proceedings is that it is generally found daunting and occasionally thoroughly unpleasant.