UK Registered Dental Care Professional Numbers Rise Again
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- Published: Wednesday, 20 August 2025 10:10
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The number of dental care professionals (DCPs) on the UK Register has expanded to its largest size in recent years, following the annual renewal period.
GDC data shows that there are now 80,657 DCPs registered in the UK, representing a substantial increase of 4,764 (6.26%) compared to the figures post renewal a year ago.
There were also fewer departures from the register this year, with 3,312 DCPs not renewing. This represents 4.1% of those who had renewed their registration by 31 July. This compares to an average of 5.5% over the previous four years.
It should be pointed out that the register numbers change daily with a flow of restorations and new arrivals. There is though, a clear trend during each year as the number of registered professionals increases with new registrations, and then reduces following the renewal period as professionals leaving the register for a range of reasons, are removed at that time.
The GDC have responded to complaints about the difficulty of re-joining the register after even a short absence. It is now simpler for dental professionals seeking to restore their name to the registers so that they can continue to practise in the UK, provided that they been off the register for less than 12 months, and have always complied with CPD. They now just need to sign a declaration that their CPD is up to date, rather than sending a copy of their full CPD record to the GDC.
This is the first set of DCP data that combines working patterns, registration information and aggregated fitness to practise (FtP) data.
As previously reported in GDPUK, the changes in numbers vary sharply between the different DCP groups. At one end of the spectrum there has been a year on year decrease in the number of dental technicians, and there are large variations in the increases seen in other groups.
There is an stark contrast between the modest rise in dental nurse numbers of about 5% and the steep rise in therapists on the register, which approached 25% this year. The existing and new dental schools are set to produce similar, if not increasing numbers of dental therapy graduates year on year. Given the ambition that they will be working at the top of their scope, they will certainly need chairside assistance, and add to the demands made of an already inadequate number of registered dental nurses.
It seems likely that the phenomenon of the long term trainee dental nurse will be with us for the foreseeable future, with many practices only able to function with the support of in some cases a majority of trainees. There is a certain irony that over a decade after the supposed transition of dental nursing into a regulated group, so much dental nursing is carried out by unregistered trainees. Not only are these trainees unregulated, but those responsible for workforce planning can have little idea of just how many there are, or just how far we are from lists being cancelled due to a lack of nursing support.
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