Overseas Dentists With No Training In Dental Therapy Or Dental Hygiene Now Outnumber UK Trained New Registrant Therapists And Hygienists

Overseas Dentists With No Training In Dental Therapy Or Dental Hygiene Now Outnumber UK Trained New Registrant Therapists And Hygienists

The General Dental Council has published its registration and fitness to practise report for 2021.

The registration report shows that the number of newly registered dental therapists and dental hygienists who qualified outside the UK and EU in 2021, outnumbered UK qualified therapists and hygienists.

The GDC report showed that only 313 UK qualified dental therapists were added to the register in 2021, compared to 390 who qualified in the ‘Rest of the World’ (as the GDC described it). Only two therapists qualified in the European Economic Area.

The report also said that 497 dental hygienists qualified outside the EEA, compared to 395 hygienists who possessed UK qualifications.  Just 30 hygienists qualified within the European Union.

The GDC said “The significant increase in ‘rest of world qualified’ registrants in 2020 and 2021 is due to the increase in overseas qualified dentists applying for registration as a hygienist and/or a therapist.”

“This followed an increase in awareness of this route to DCP registration for overseas qualified dentists, at a time when the ORE was suspended due to COVID restrictions.”

But this statement by the GDC does not give the full picture.

Back in 2019, GDPUK highlighted that overseas dentists from outside the EU  had been securing work as dental therapists without having to undergo a practical assessment of their clinical skills, since 2016.

Before the pandemic, much of the increase in the number of overseas dentists seeking UK registration as dental therapists or hygienists was driven by consultancy companies.

These companies promoted the route to registration with an emphasis on the fact that applicants applying for GDC registration in this manner, could avoid taking the Overseas Registration Examination.

Although some applicants may have been using the route as a way of gaining registration while waiting to sit the ORE, the increase in dentists applying for registration of therapists, hygienists or both titles in 2021, was not necessarily a direct consequence of the pandemic and the suspension of the ORE examinations, but also as a result of the large increase in applications that the GDC was already processing in 2019.

In February 2022, the response to a Freedom of Information request to the GDC  by a GDPUK reporter said that between 1 January 2021 and 30 January 2022, “There were 252 dental therapists and 351 dental hygienists admitted to the Dental Care Professional register via section 36C of the Dentists Act 1984 (as amended) who held an overseas dentist qualification.”

In May 2022, GDPUK reported that 46% of the candidates who failed the Overseas Registration Examination in January 2022 were ALREADY registered with the General Dental Council. 

A FOI request by a GDPUK reporter to the regulator showed that the failed candidates were registered as either dental therapists or dental hygienists - some being registered with both titles.

The GDC said that 131 candidates sat Part 2 of the ORE in January.

Figures published on the GDC website showed that 42% of the candidates who took Part 2 of the ORE failed the practical Dental Manikin (phantom head) exercise, while 39% failed the Medical Emergencies Exercise.

Earlier in May of this year, GDPUK reported that the General Dental Council had published its commitment to closing the route by which overseas-qualified dentists are  registering as dental care professionals (DCP’s).

In a March 2020 letter in the British Dental Journal titled Dental therapists: ’no exams necessary’ written by then Chair of the British Association of Dental Therapists, Debbie Hemington wrote “Currently, the GDC’s application process is based on an examination of paperwork only and there is no attempt by the regulatory body to directly examine the practical and theoretical clinical skills of overseas candidates, or understanding of working within a restricted scope of practice.”

“This is particularly alarming since the failure rate among dentists sitting the ORE’s Part 2 dental mannequin test is high. The average failure rate is 50% and at one sitting, according to the GDC’s own website, this rose to 69%. This suggests that potentially, overseas dentists may register as dental therapists (the only other class of registrant who removes dental hard tissue) without meeting UK clinical standards, despite the GDC claiming its paperwork assessment of potential overseas registrants is ’robust.’

Speaking to GDPUK, Ms Hemington, now President of the BADT said of the recent increase in dentists registering as therapists  “This is significantly impacting on those UK trained graduates that invested in themselves at £9k a year and cannot find work.”

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Keith Hayes
How exactly is the GDC protecting the public in this respect?
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