March News Letter

If you’re working as a dental nurse  you have to be registered or in training – whatever your job title, the GDC confirms. And experience is no longer enough. The titles “dental nurse”, “dental surgery assistant”, are protected by law. So if you’re not registered with the GDC and you use one of these titles, or any other title which misleadingly implies that you are, you risk prosecution in a criminal court.

But that doesn’t mean that an unregistered person can just use a different job title and continue to do the work of a dental nurse or dental technician – at least, not without risking the registration of whoever is employing them.

Unregistered dental nurses are effectively outlawed by GDC standards which make it clear that registrants – professionals who are literally signed up to the high standards set in the UK for their profession – must employ and work with appropriately registered people.

If a registered dentist employs someone to work as a dental nurse or dental technician they have a duty to ensure that person is registered or in training. If they don’t, they risk losing their own registration.

An unregistered dental nurse is therefore a contradiction in terms. If they do find someone who is prepared to employ them as a dental nurse, that person could in turn find their own livelihood at risk as a result of GDC fitness to practise proceedings. The bottom line is, dental nurses technicians need to be registered or in training.

Transitional arrangements that were in place for two years – allowing existing dental nurses and dental technicians to register on the basis of experience – are now closed, so that persons working as dental nurses can no longer apply for registration on that basis.

“You have to be registered, or in training, to work as a dental nurse,” said GDC Director of Operations Edward Bannatyne. “If you don’t call yourself a dental nurse, but you do the work of a dental nurse, then whoever employs you risks a GDC fitness to practise investigation and is putting their own registration at risk.

“To be a dental nurse, you must register or be in training. It’s as simple as that.”

 Our web page     www.dental-staff-recruitment.com

Unfortunately we are experience technical difficulties with the new page and apologies  are given to anyone who has seen no movement in job opportunities. There is a gremlin in the program somewhere and it is talking time to sort out. Hopefully this will be resolved very soon