​​​Yes you are able to obtain all you CPD hours in one year, however spreading your CPD activity over 5 years would be more helpful to your on-going professional and personal development. Taking part in CPD activities should ultimately improve your practice.

​Yes you are able to complete all your CPD on-line. However, the purpose of CPD is to provide high quality care and it is very important that the CPD you do takes into account the needs of patients and is relevant to your practice. It may therefore be difficult to demonstrate how your professional development has progressed if you are simply completing a series of on-line questions. We do not specify what types of CPD activity a registrant should undertake but it may be beneficial to your professional development to undertake a variety of CPD activities such as practical courses, conferences, in-house training, as well as on-line study.

Yes you are able to provide CPD activities for your dental team. However, guidance point 7.2.1 makes clear that you must only carry out a task or type of treatment if you are appropriately trained, competent, confident and indemnified. You should also ensure that any verifiable CPD you provide has:

• concise educational aims and objectives – the activity should have a clear purpose or aim;
• clear anticipated outcomes – attendees should know what they can expect to gain as a result of taking part in the activity;
• quality controls – attendees should have the chance to give feedback, with a view to improving quality.

​​No, the GDC does not approve any education providers or courses.

​Yes. Any postgraduate dental qualification can be counted as verifiable CPD provided you are able to obtain written evidence from the course provider stating:

• the name of the qualification;
• the dates of the course;
• the number of the hours the course consisted of (as CPD is measured in hours).

​You should raise a concern with us if you think that the public and patients need to be protected from a colleague who is a dental professional. If your colleague is registered with another healthcare regulator, you should raise your concern with that organisation.

Guidance point 8.2.5 sets out when it be appropriate to raise a concern with the regulator, such as when:

• a) taking action at a local level is not practical; or
• b) action at a local level has failed; or
• c) the problem is so severe that the GDC (or other regulator) needs to be involved (for example, issues of indecency, violence, dishonesty, serious crime or illegal practice); or
• d) you are genuinely concerned about victimisation or deliberate concealment; or
• e) you believe the person may not be fit to practise because of his or her health, performance or conduct