College of General Dentistry News

CGDent endorses updated guidance on anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs

The College of General Dentistry has endorsed newly updated guidance on anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs from the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme.

The second edition of Management of Dental Patients Taking Anticoagulants or Antiplatelet Drugs provides clear and practical recommendations and advice to enable the dental team to assess bleeding risk, and to plan and deliver treatment to dental patients taking various types of anticoagulant and antiplatelet medication.  

The guidance has been updated following a thorough review of the evidence, and following consultation with dental organisations including the College of General Dentistry. While most of the recommendations remain unchanged from the original 2015 edition, changes include the addition of advice on the direct oral anticoagulant Edoxaban, and on patients taking low molecular weight heparin.

The full guidance document, together with a quick reference guide and a series of pre-and-post-treatment information leaflets for patients, can be downloaded at https://www.sdcep.org.uk/published-guidance/anticoagulants-and-antiplatelets

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College of General Dentistry News

NIHR Career Progression Fellowships now available to GDPs

The NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) is currently inviting applications for their annual Primary Care Clinician Career Progression Fellowships, which this year are available to primary care clinicians practising in the UK, including general dental practitioners.

Aimed at primary care clinicians who want to start or continue a career in primary care research, the part-time, one-year Fellowships are an opportunity to further develop an academic portfolio in preparation to apply for and conduct a PhD.

The Fellowships can be undertaken at any one of the School’s nine member universities and applicants do not have to be employed by a member university when applying for the Fellowship. Details of each of the universities and their available research programmes can be found here.

In addition to the research opportunities available at each SPCR university, successful applicants will have access to a range of benefits offered by SPCR, including specialised training opportunities, networking, additional funding, mentoring and NIHR Academy membership.

Before applying for a Fellowship, applicants are advised to check that their proposed research project is compatible with the NIHR remit and are encouraged to contact their preferred university to discuss hosting their planned research.

Anyone wishing to apply can download the application form and find more information about the application process here.

Applications close on Monday 25 April 2022 (midnight), online interviews will be held on Thursday 9 June 2022 and the awards start from August 2022.


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College of General Dentistry News

College Council elections – call for candidates

Elections are due to be held for a number of seats on the Council of the College of General Dentistry, and all eligible members are invited to consider standing.

These are exciting times in the development of the College, and this is a fantastic opportunity to get involved and contribute at a national level. 

The Council is the voice of our members.  It oversees our role as a professional body and guides the Trustee Board on the development of the College to fulfil its mission.

As a Council member, you would provide leadership, strategic input and direction in all the professional affairs of the College.  You would be helping to shape key moments in the College’s growth and could get also involved in specific initiatives on areas such as careers, policy and standards.

Elections are taking place this year for the following seats: 

  • Yorkshire & Northern
  • Central London
  • Wessex & Oxford
  • East of Scotland
  • West & North of Scotland
  • Overseas representative
  • National representative 

Time commitment

If successfully elected, you would serve a three-year term, from June 2022 – June 2025, during which you would attend three face-to-face Council meetings each year (typically on a Friday morning) as well as other regular online meetings and committees (normally outside of business hours).

Your first Council meeting would be on Friday 24 June in Cardiff. 

You would also be able to vote, and eligible to stand, in the annual election of two Vice Presidents, and the triennial election of a College President.

You would be able to stand for re-election in 2025, and individuals may serve up to three elected terms (i.e. nine years) on the Council.

Eligibility

All Full Members, Associate Fellows and Fellows of the College, regardless of their team role, are eligible to nominate themselves for election providing they meet the criteria for the relevant seat(s):

  • Candidates for regional seats must live or work within that region, and be registered with that region with CGDent
  • Candidates for the national seat must live or work in the UK, and have a registered UK address with CGDent
  • Candidates for the overseas seat must practice dentistry wholly outside the UK, and have a registered overseas address with CGDent 

If you are a UK member, you may apply for both the national seat and a regional seat. If you were the only candidate for one of the seats, you would be deemed to be elected or re-elected to that seat, and your name withdrawn from the election to the other seat. If there was a ballot for both seats, and you received the most votes in each, you would be deemed to be elected to the regional seat first, and your name withdrawn from the national seat.  (Exceptions to this may apply, for example if one or more candidates for the national seat withdrew from the process).  

If you are an Associate Member considering upgrading your membership in order to stand for election or to vote, or a non-member considering joining, you will need to allow at least two weeks ahead of the relevant date(s) below for this process to complete.

Interested? 

All eligible members as of 14 March 2022 have been emailed a link to the nominations website by the College’s election services provider, Mi-Voice.

If you are interested in standing for election, please complete the nomination process via that link, where you will be asked for further information, and to submit an election statement.

You will also be required to provide the names of two supporters of your application who themselves must be Full Members, Associate Fellows or Fellows of the College. If you are unsure of the membership status of potential supporters, please consult our Member Register. 

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS 23:59 ON TUESDAY 19 APRIL 2022 

Key Dates 

Tuesday 19 April 2022 23:59       Nominations close

Thursday 21 April 2022 12:00     Deadline for receipt of referee support

w/c 25 April 2022                        Voting opens

Friday 27 May 2022 23:59           Voting closes

Wednesday 1 June 2022             Results announced

Useful Documents 

Council Member Role Description 

Further Information 

If you think you might like to put yourself forward as a candidate and wanted further information, we would be pleased to have a confidential discussion and answer any questions about the role and the process. Please get in touch via [email protected]

A map showing the regions covered by the regional seats of the College can be downloaded here. If you are unsure which CGDent region you are in, contact us via [email protected] 

The role is voluntary, but we do cover essential expenses. 

Technical problems 

If you experience technical difficulties submitting your nomination, please contact Mi-Voice by emailing [email protected] or calling 02380 763987. 

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College of General Dentistry News

College of General Dentistry broadens membership eligibility

The College of General Dentistry has broadened its eligibility criteria for membership, enabling suitably qualified non-registrants to join, and offering practitioners with relevant non-dental qualifications the ability to progress to higher grades of membership.

Registration with the General Dental Council or an equivalent overseas authority is normally required for entry as an Associate Member. However former registrants, and those who hold a relevant qualification but may not be required to register with the GDC due to their job role – such as dental academics – are now eligible to join.

Those wishing to join as Full Members (MCGDent), or upgrade to Full Membership, have until now been required, in addition to meeting the requirements for Associate Membership, to hold either the DGDP, MJDF, MFGDP(UK), MFDS or a Postgraduate Certificate level qualification in a ‘relevant dental subject’. However Full Membership is now also open to those whose qualification is in a ‘subject relevant to the enhancement of oral healthcare’.

Those wishing to join at, or upgrade to, Associate Fellowship (AssocFCGDent), have up to this point needed to hold the MGDS, a Specialty Membership of a UK dental faculty, or a Postgraduate Diploma level or Masters level qualification in a dental subject. However, this recently-instituted membership grade, which offers a stepping stone to Fellowship, is similarly now available to those whose qualification is relevant to oral heath rather than being strictly ‘dental’ in scope.

Individuals qualifying under these extended criteria would then be eligible to apply for Fellowship (FCGDent) on the same basis as all other members of the College. This is currently open to existing Fellows of a UK Royal College or overseas equivalent, with a Fellowship by Experience route expected to be announced soon.

The changes are further to earlier departures from the eligibility criteria of the former Faculty of General Dental Practice, from which the College evolved – most notably the ability of Dental Hygienists, Dental Therapists, Dental Nurses, Dental Technicians and Clinical Dental Technicians to apply for membership at all grades, and for Practice Managers and other non-clinical members of the dental team to join as Affiliate Members.

The College’s updated membership eligibility criteria are available at https://cgdent.uk/membership-eligibility/

Dr Abhi Pal, President of the College, said:

“Among the key aims behind the establishment of The College of General Dentistry were the promotion of both dental and oral health, and to create a new type of college, breaking down barriers which are unnecessarily prescriptive and exclusionary, and replacing them with an inclusive approach fit for the 21st century.

“We are implementing this step by step, and are already a College open to all members of the dental team, formed of practitioners across the UK and beyond, and bridging the NHS/private divide.

“These latest changes offer recognition to a wide range of individuals and professional roles whose contribution to the advancement of general dental practice and oral healthcare is hugely significant, and we look forward to welcoming them into membership, and to bringing their significant knowledge, expertise and experience to bear in the fulfilment of our mission.”

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College of General Dentistry News

Notice of forthcoming College Council elections

Elections will soon be held for seven seats on the Council of the College of General Dentistry, and eligible members are encouraged to consider standing.

The Council is elected by College members to provide leadership and support for the dental professions, and to guide the College Trustees in fulfilling the College’s mission.

It includes representation based both on geographical region and professional role.

Members of the Council serve three-year terms, and elections will shortly take place for the following seats:

  • Yorkshire and Northern
  • Central London
  • Wessex & Oxford
  • East of Scotland
  • West & North of Scotland
  • Overseas representative
  • National representative

Those elected would be expected to serve from June 2022 – June 2025, and would then be able to stand for re-election. Further seats will be due for election in 2023 and 2024.

Council members are expected to attend three face-to-face meetings each year, which normally take place on a Friday morning in June, October and February, as well as regular online meetings outside of business hours. Those elected this year will be formally inducted at the Council meeting on Friday 24 June in Cardiff.

Members of the Council may serve up to three elected terms (i.e. nine years), and are eligible to stand in the annual election of two Vice Presidents, and the triennial election of a College President.

All Full Members, Associate Fellows and Fellows of the College, regardless of their dental team role, are eligible to nominate themselves as candidates for election to Council.

Candidates for regional seats must live or work within that region, and be registered with that region with CGDent.

Candidates for the National seat must live or work in the UK, and have a registered UK address with CGDent.

Candidates for the Overseas seat must practice dentistry wholly outside the UK, and have a registered overseas address with CGDent.

Associate Members wishing to nominate themselves for election will need to have successfully completed an upgrade to Full Membership before submitting an application.

An online application process, accompanied by a full description of the role, will be published no later than Friday 18 March 2022, and the deadline for submission of applications will be no earlier than Friday 15 April.

A full election timetable will be published in due course; please return to this page over the coming weeks for updates.

The CGDent UK regions map (above) can be downloaded here. Prospective candidates unsure of their CGDent region should contact us here.

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College of General Dentistry News

CGDent offers students e-learning package 

The College of General Dentistry has announced that it is offering dental students access to a leading dental e-learning package. 

Students who enrol as members of the new College now have access to a growing library of over 350 online training courses and webinar recordings, as well as regular live seminars, through the ProDental platform. ProDental CPD is the UK’s largest independent provider of dental e-learning, serving over 30,000 users with live and on-demand content on their desktop, tablet and mobile devices.  

Since its establishment last year as the successor to the Faculty of General Dental Practice, the College has been co-producing webinars with ProDental on subjects of interest to the general dental team, including the College’s guidance and standards publications, the themes explored in its quarterly Primary Dental Journal (PDJ), and events to support its emerging Career Pathways programme for dental professionals.  

To date, the College has offered access to these – as well as to ProDental’s 900 hours of additional content, GDC-compliant CPD certification of all learning undertaken, and a bespoke online personal development planning tool (e-PDP) – to its Associate Members, Full Members, Associate Fellows and Fellows from across the dental team.  

This access is now available to Student Members of the College. All those undertaking dental education and training in the UK prior to registration are eligible to join the College as Student Members, and a one-off fee of £10 gives membership until the completion of their pre-registration study.  

Student Members also get free or discounted access to CGDent events and study days, regular news and events listings from the College, and online access to the PDJ and PDJ Archive, a rich resource of over 1,300 clinical and professional articles from a journal uniquely dedicated to general dental practice.  

Dental students wishing to enjoy these benefits should visit https://cgdent.uk/join/  

Dr Abhi Pal, President of the College of General Dentistry, said:  

“One of the College’s key missions is to support dental professionals at all stages to progress in their careers. Our new offer for dental students will complement undergraduate studies while also enabling them to look beyond dental school and arrive armed and ready to succeed in the next phase of their professional lives.” 

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College of General Dentistry News

Calls for better oral health care for the those with severe mental illness

Leading oral health and mental health professionals are calling for greater consideration of the oral health needs of patients with severe mental illness.

The new Right to Smile consensus statement notes that compared to the general population, people experiencing severe mental ill health are less likely to brush their teeth, less likely to access dental services, more likely to have decayed, missing and filled teeth, more likely to lose all of their teeth, more likely to experience gum and supporting bone problems, and are at risk of acute non-psychiatric hospital admission due to tooth decay.

Asserting that there can be no mental health without physical health, and no physical health without oral health, the statement says the oral health inequality for people with severe mental illness is made worse by a lack of effective interventions.

To help close the gap, the authors are calling for improved access to dental services for people with severe mental ill health; greater recognition of their oral health needs in healthcare training, systems and structures; and consideration of oral health in any physical health assessment of a patient with severe mental illness.

Severe mental illnesses are those which can significantly impair someone’s functional activity, and include among others psychosis, schizophrenia, severe depression and bipolar disorder.

Developed by 20 contributors including Vishal Aggarwal FCGDent and Wendy Thompson MCGDent, the statement is jointly published by nine universities, three NHS trusts, the Office of the Chief Dental Officer for England and Australia’s Mindgardens Neuroscience Network.

It is endorsed by the College of General Dentistry, Personalised Care Institute, British Society of Special Care Dentistry, Oral Health Foundation, World Dental Federation and International Centre for Oral Health Inequalities Research & Policy, as well as a number of mental health organisations including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and International Early Psychosis Association.

The consensus statement is available here.

Update: a blog about this issue, The Right to Smile, which describes how those in general dental practice can contribute to improved oral health outcomes for those with severe mental illness, was published in June 2023.

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College of General Dentistry News

New PDJ online: Paediatric dentistry

The new edition of the Primary Dental Journal, Paediatric Dentistry, is now online.

Guest edited by Dr Sanjeev Sood of King’s College London, this issue is dedicated to promoting oral health in children, and outlines strategies for prevention and contemporary management of dental disease in childhood.

It features papers on communicating effectively in a paediatric setting, the dental management of children with haemophilia, and minimally invasive treatments for dentine caries in primary teeth.

CGDent members and PDJ subscribers can access the new issue by visiting: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/prda/current (Members will need to be logged into the CGDent website).

read new pdj issue

Paediatric Dentistry content includes:

  • Promoting oral health and managing dental disease in childhood: current perspectives for primary dental care (Igor R Blum) (Editorial)
  • Paediatric dentistry (Sanjeev Sood) (Guest Editorial)
  • Research abstracts: Paediatric dentistry (Ario Santini)
  • Management of patients with poor prognosis first permanent molars beyond ‘ideal’ timing (Laura Warrilow, Sheridan McDonald)
  • Parental views on minimally invasive dentistry versus general anaesthesia extractions of children’s compromised first permanent molars: an exploratory qualitative study (Mona Agel, Sasha Scambler, Marie Therese Hosey)
  • When less is more: minimally invasive, evidence-based treatments for dentine caries in primary teeth – the Hall Technique and silver diamine fluoride (Waraf Al-Yaseen, Nassar Seifo, Shannu Bhatia, Nicola Innes)
  • An update on the dental management of children with Haemophilia (Ruixiang Yee, Monty S Duggal, Vivian Yung Yee Wong, Joyce Ching Mei Lam)
  • Replacement resorption in children: the root of all evil? (Laura Warrilow, Tanika Gohil, Abdullah Casaus)
  • ‘Childrenese’: a pilot survey on the choice of language in a paediatric dental setting (Mairead Hennigan, Alice Hamilton, Antoniella Busuttil-Naudi)
  • Dental bleaching: ‘now I can smile for my selfies’ – paediatric patients’ perspectives (Nabeel Ilyas, Sophie Marshall, Meera Ahluwalia)

As well as the current issue of Primary Dental Journal, CGDent members have free access to the PDJ archive, a rich resource containing over 1,300 informative articles on topics of ongoing relevance to general dental care.

Featuring clinical articles, editorials and updates from the College, the Primary Dental Journal is widely recognised as a leading resource for GDPs and DCPs working in primary care. CGDent membership includes free access to the PDJ, both online and in print – find out more about becoming a member.

CGDent members and PDJ subscribers should expect their printed copies to arrive in the next 2-3 weeks.

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College of General Dentistry News

Inaugural College Medal awarded to Ian Mills 

Ian Mills has become the first ever recipient of the prestigious College Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the College of General Dentistry (CGDent). 

Ian Mills FCGDent

Reserved to no more than one recipient per year, the College Medal succeeds the Faculty Medal, which was previously awarded by the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP) to just four individuals. It is conferred for exceptional service of the dental profession and its patients in a manner aligned with the values and mission of the College, and both members and non-members are eligible for consideration. 

Dr Mills has received the award in recognition of his considerable contributions to the profession over many years, including through the College and previously the Faculty, in particular his exemplary leadership at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, his pivotal roles in establishing the CGDent and securing the FGDP’s transfer into it last year, and his promotion of greater equality, diversity and inclusion in the dental professions.  

Ian qualified as a dentist from Glasgow University in 1987 and spent the early part of his career working in maxillofacial surgery. In 1994 he moved to Devon, and three years later set up Torrington Dental Practice in North Devon, now an eight-surgery mixed NHS-and-private practice, where he continues to work as a partner.  

He joined the Faculty the same year, and after completing its prestigious Diploma in Implant Dentistry, gaining Fellowship and becoming a Fellowship Assessor, was elected to the National Faculty Board to represent the South West region. He was later appointed Chair of the Examinations Committee and the Faculty’s representative on the Care Quality Commission Dental Reference Group, and served as Junior Vice Dean from 2016-17 and Senior Vice Dean from 2017-18 before being elected FGDP’s tenth Dean, a post he held from 2018-2021.  

During his tenure he represented the profession on a number of committees and working groups, including NHS England’s Advisory Board for Dental Systems Reform, the Joint Committee for Postgraduate Training in Dentistry, the Intercollegiate Advisory Committee on Sedation in Dentistry, the Council of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network and the Public Health England group overseeing the development of the fourth edition of Delivering Better Oral Health. 

In his first annual speech as Dean, he highlighted the inequality of opportunities for career progression within dentistry, noting in particular the disproportionate number of men in leadership roles relative to the gender balance in the profession, and he later instituted the FGDP-CGDent Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Board. 

Early in the pandemic, Ian established a forward planning task group to try to find a way for dental practices to re-open their doors as soon as safely possible. Convening individuals from over 30 organisations to develop suitable guidance, he played a key role in its development, working tirelessly to seek consensus on the many challenges of delivering dental services while minimising the risks of transmission. Completed within the space of just four weeks, Implications of COVID-19 for the safe management of general dental practice was published a week before face-to-face practice resumed in England, giving practices much needed time to prepare when no official re-opening guidance had yet been published. With its in-built responsiveness to varying COVID-19 alert levels, the guidance has remained accessible and relevant over the last 18 months. 

Continuously supporting the profession through the pandemic, he led numerous webinars, joined the NHS England working group on the resilience of mixed dental practices, was part of the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme’s AGP Rapid Review Group, facilitated revised guidance on fallow time and steered the development of the Fallow Time Calculator. 

Prior to his Deanship, he was an elected member of the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, a member of Devon Local Dental Committee, and on the Professional Executive Committee of North Devon Primary Care Trust.  

In addition to his clinical practice, Ian has worked at Peninsula Dental School since it was established and has remained closely involved in the undergraduate programme. Currently Associate Professor in Primary Care Dentistry, he was previously a clinical supervisor, group facilitator and honorary lecturer. Actively involved in promoting and developing research in primary dental care, with particular interests in measuring quality outcomes, person-centred care and environmental sustainability, in 2018 he was awarded a PhD for research into person-centred care in general dental practice.  

He is an Ambassador, Founder, Fellow and former Trustee of the College of General Dentistry, and has been instrumental in the establishment and progression of its Career Pathways programme. A Fellow of the International College of Dentists, the Higher Education Academy and the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, he is a former Trustee of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 

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College of General Dentistry News

CGDent and BADN call for deferral of mandatory vaccination as survey suggests a quarter of dental nurses are not fully vaccinated 

The College of General Dentistry and British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN) are warning of a potential catastrophe for dental patients if the planned implementation of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all patient-facing staff in England is not deferred. 

Regulations came into effect earlier this month that will make it unlawful from 1 April 2022 for a CQC-regulated employer to deploy staff who are not fully vaccinated to work face-to-face with patients. The rules, which will apply to NHS and private providers alike, will effectively force dental practices to dismiss staff who have not received their first dose of an approved coronavirus vaccine by 3 February, and second dose by 31 March, unless they are clinically exempt, under 18, taking part in a COVID vaccine trial or can be redeployed into a non-patient-facing role. 

Both the College and BADN are unequivocal in their encouragement of dental professionals to take up the offer of coronavirus vaccination. However, interim results from the BADN COVID Vaccination Survey, based on the responses of over 1,000 practising dental nurses to date, show that 26% have not yet received two vaccination doses, and 24% will not have been double-vaccinated by the deadline.  

Responses to date are similar for both members and non-members of the association. If the findings are representative of the dental nursing profession as a whole – which makes up half the dental workforce – this would suggest an impending reduction in available dental staff in England of up to 12,000, or 12%, plus any dentists, dental therapists, dental hygienists, clinical dental technicians or orthodontic therapists who may not be double-vaccinated.  

The survey also found that 32% of respondents so far said they do not intend to take up the offer of a ‘booster’ dose, suggesting that staffing problems will only increase if the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ is later amended to require three doses.  

Dr Abhi Pal, President of the College of General Dentistry, and Jacqui Elsden, President of the British Association of Dental Nurses and an Associate Member of the College, said: 

“Dental nurses are a vital part of the team without whom dental care cannot be delivered, and the BADN’s data will only strengthen existing concerns in practices across the country.  

“Tens of millions of dental appointments have been missed during the pandemic, but while welcome additional funding has just been announced by NHS England to help tackle the backlog during February and March, losing up to a quarter of dental nurses from 1 April would lead to a precipitous reduction in care provision, quickly reversing any progress made and leaving millions of dental patients once again unable to get the treatment they need. We urge the government to defer implementation of the vaccination requirement for dental employers in order to avert a calamitous own goal.” 

Tonight at 7pm, a week ahead of the deadline to take up the first vaccination dose, the College is hosting Vaccination: your questions answered.  

Free for all dental professionals to watch live, speakers include Professor Jason Leitch, (Senior Clinical Advisor to the Scottish Government, CGDent Ambassador and regular explainer of all matters COVID in the broadcast media), and Sarah Buxton (HR and Employment Solicitor and legal advisor to the Association of Dental Administrators and Managers and the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy). Register here 

The full results of the BADN COVID Vaccination Survey will be announced in due course. The survey remains open and can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VaccinationsSurvey

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