Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps with the General Dental Council to improve the registration process for dentists who qualified outside the UK.

To join the General Dental Council’s (GDC) dentists register, a person must hold: a dentistry degree from a recognised United Kingdom dental school; a qualification in dentistry from a European Economic Area country or Switzerland, recognised under the European Union exit standstill arrangements; or a qualification in dentistry obtained before 2001 from one of a limited number of overseas dental schools.

For dentists with qualifications gained from anywhere else, they must demonstrate to the GDC that they have the required skills and knowledge for full registration. Currently, this means they are required to pass one of the following examinations before they can apply for registration: the Overseas Registration Exam; or the Licence in Dental Surgery exam, offered by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Legislative changes which came into force in March 2023 gave the GDC greater flexibility in expanding the registration routes for international applicants, and improving its international registration processes. On 16 February 2024, the Government launched a consultation on further draft legislation that would give the GDC powers to provisionally register overseas-qualified dentists who have not yet met the GDC’s requirements for full registration.