The standards and guidance documents previously published by the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP) are now available on the website of the new College of General Dentistry (CGDent), the first independent college and only professional membership body in the UK specifically for primary care dentistry.
The FGDP recently transferred from the Royal College of Surgeons of England into CGDent, and the new College has assumed the Faculty’s function to develop and maintain evidence-based guidance and standards for the general dental professions.
Titles now available from the College include:
- Standards in Dentistry, a comprehensive collection of standards and guidelines for primary dental care
- Clinical Examination & Record-Keeping, a complete reference guide to record-keeping and examination, including history-taking, consent, confidentiality, data protection and more
- Antimicrobial Prescribing in Dentistry, which gives clear, simple and practical guidance to dentists on when to prescribe antimicrobials, what to prescribe, for how long and at what dosage
- Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography, the leading guideline on indications for radiographic investigation, covering treatment planning and monitoring, ionising radiation regulations and best practice
- Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment, which helps dental practices meet the standards required by the Ionising Radiation Regulations 2017 (IRR17) and Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 (IRMER17)
- Training Standards in Implant Dentistry, which summarises the training that should be undertaken to carry out implant dentistry safely, and the standards which should be met by training courses
- Dementia-Friendly Dentistry, which enables dental professionals to understand dementia and its implications for dental practice, and adapt their patient management and clinical decisions accordingly
- An Introduction to Research for Primary Dental Care Clinicians, which introduces the principles of research methodology, discusses the relevance of research to primary dental care, and provides an overview of the different stages in a research project
These publications join the College’s COVID-19 guidance documents, which were developed with the FGDP last year:
- Implications of COVID-19 for the safe management of general dental practice: a practical guide, which supports dental professionals to take a risk-based and evidence-based approach to providing safe general dental care, whatever the national threat level
- Dentistry during COVID-19: Psychological advice for dental teams, policy makers, and communicators, which offers straightforward suggestions to address common challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in dental practices, and lists resources and organisations which can support dental professionals’ mental wellbeing.
Digital copies are available free of charge at https://cgdent.uk/standards-guidance, and print editions will soon be available.
A programme of webinars exploring each of the publications, and how they can be put into practice, will begin soon. Co-hosted by the College of General Dentistry and ProDental, the UK’s largest independent provider of online dental CPD, many of the events will be free for all dental professionals to watch live, with access to the recordings and CPD certification also free for CGDent members.
Events to discuss Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography, Standards in Dentistry and Clinical Examination & Record-Keeping are expected between October and December 2021, with Dementia-Friendly Dentistry, Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment, Training Standards in Implant Dentistry and An Introduction to Research for Primary Dental Care Clinicians among those anticipated next year.
To keep informed about these events as dates and times are confirmed, sign up to the monthly CGDent newsletter at cgdent.uk/college-newsletter.
To find out more about the benefits of joining the College of General Dentistry, visit cgdent.uk/benefits.