No Registration - No Excuses - No Job - General Dental Council, UK

Main Category: Dentistry
Article Date: 21 Sep 2007 - 15:00 PDT

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"It's that simple," said GDC President Hew Mathewson, speaking at the GDC Council meeting this week in Cardiff. He continued: "If you're a dental technician wondering about whether to register or not, the message from the GDC is loud and clear - register now or find a new career. If you pass up the chance to register during transition, it will be too late. There's no opting out. If someone advises you not to register, why not ask them if they'll pay your fine, or subsidise your lab when the work stops in August?"

GDC Chief Executive Duncan Rudkin explained: "From August next year, if you're not registered and you call yourself a dental technician, we will prosecute you in court. If you call yourself something else but imply that you are a dental technician, we will prosecute you in court. And if you are a GDC registrant sending lab work to unregistered technicians or employing them as such, you'll face fitness to practise proceedings and put your own registration at risk."

The Council has issued this sharp warning to dental technicians as the legal deadline for registration approaches. Continuing to work unregistered after the July 2008 deadline is not a viable option.

All dental technicians and dental nurses must be registered with the GDC by 30 July 2008. More information about registration, including application forms, is available from the GDC website at http://www.gdc-uk.org. You can also request an application form by contacting our Registration Department on GDCregistration@gdc-uk.org.

After 30 July 2008, a dental technician who has an old qualification (one not recognised after 30 July 2008), or who has no qualification and plans to register on the basis of experience, will permanently lose the opportunity to register as a dental technician, unless they are able and willing to qualify from scratch.

Dental technicians need to pay a first registration fee and nothing more until July 2009 when the first annual retention fee is due. The current registration fee of £72 is guaranteed until the end of 2007. From 1 January 2008 the fee will be £96.

Students enrolled on a GDC-approved training programme will be able to work without being registered with the GDC until they have finished their studies. The GDC is developing more detailed guidance on how this will work, but student status is not a viable alternative to registration for someone who is already a dental technician.

Guidance to dentists and registered dental care professionals will ensure that laboratory work cannot be commissioned from or provided by unregistered individuals, who will be effectively disabled from offering dental laboratory services.

The Council meeting took place on Tuesday 18 September 2007 in Cardiff.

General Dental Council, UK