CPD Policy Document

Attendance at Dental CPD courses:
South West Region Policy

The SW Region Dental Postgraduate Department runs a rolling programme of Continuing Professional Development courses. These are advertised with a target audience of a dental professional group or groups for whom the course is intended. To date funding has been provided on a per capita basis according to the number of General Dental Practitioners in the region in Primary Care and in the CDS and is intended to provide learning opportunities for dentists' verifiable CPD.

All dentists registered with the General Dental Council are required to complete the equivalent of 15 hours verifiable CPD per year in order to stay on the register. Dentists work in teams and their personal development ideally should not be seen in isolation from the rest of the practice team. There should ideally be a practice development plan, which will have learning objectives for all members of the team. CPD for the rest of the dental team has little direct funding. In the South West we have always welcomed other members of the dental team to our courses, where the aims and objectives are relevant to their role. At present we run a small number of courses specifically for hygienists and therapists (including extended duties courses) and we also run a dental nurse revision day leading up to the NEBDN exam. Such initiatives will continue as and when our funds allow.

Hands-on courses are a limited resource as we have a small and finite number of workstations at just three centres in the region. These courses are over-subscribed and much in demand. Most are designed for dentists to enhance their operational skills and attendance is confined to dentists only. We do also run a rubber dam course for dentist and nurse teams and a small number of hands-on courses for hygienists and therapists only. The number of hands-on courses we run is limited by lecturer availability and funding. Where possible we will re-run a course that is full and advertise it only to the waiting list from a previous course. Unsuccessful applicants are therefore encouraged to add themselves to the waiting list.

Dentists are encouraged to contact their district tutor, whose details can be found in the courses brochure and on our website, with suggestions for courses.