Standards for dental teams

The current standards were first published in May 2005. At that time, dental nurses, dental technicians, clinical dental technicians and orthodontic therapists were not registered and the needs of those groups were not necessarily considered in the drafting of the current Standards.

It has taken nearly three years to review the standards and produce ‘Standards for the Dental Team’. We believe it has been worth the hard work.   The Standards Review Working Group was established in February 2011 to oversee the review and was clear from the outset that the development of the new standards should be firmly based on evidence. The project involved a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, registrant and stakeholder engagement and targeted qualitative research as well as consultation on the document itself.

The first stage of the research involved asking patients and the public what they expected from their dental professionals in relation to standards. The next stage echoed these questions with registrants and stakeholders and also asked what they would like to see from the new standards as well as what problems they had encountered with the current version. The final stage involved asking for views on the format and content of the drafts.