Looking for your next CPD hours?
NEBDN is launching new verifiable CPD courses designed specifically for dental nurses — covering the GDC’s highly recommended core topics and more. Register your interest to get early access to course information and exclusive discounts.
Understanding your CPD requirements as a Dental Nurse
CPD is how you keep your knowledge and skills up to date throughout your career — and it’s a condition of your registration with the General Dental Council (GDC). This page explains what you need to do, how many hours you need, and how to plan and record your learning with confidence.
hours of verifiable CPD every five-year cycle
hours minimum in any two consecutive years
annual CPD statement declared to the GDC every year
What is CPD — and why does it matter?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is any learning activity that helps you maintain and develop your practice as a dental professional. It keeps your skills current, supports patient safety, and helps you grow in your career.
Since the GDC’s Enhanced CPD Scheme was introduced in 2018, only verifiable CPD counts towards your requirement. General learning — like reading a journal or chatting with a colleague — is still valuable, but it doesn’t count towards your declared hours.
A verifiable activity must have:
• Clear aims and objectives
• Anticipated learning outcomes linked to the GDC development outcomes
• Quality assurance – with the chance to give feedback
• Documentary evidence — a certificate confirming your participation
TIP – Keep your certificates and CPD log for five years after your cycle ends — the GDC carries out random audits and may ask to see them.
How your 50 hours could take shape
The GDC highly recommends that certain core topics form part of every dental nurse’s cycle, because they directly support patient safety:
• Medical emergencies — at least 10 hours per cycle, ideally 2 hours in every year
• Radiography and radiation protection — at least 5 hours per cycle
• Disinfection and decontamination — at least 5 hours per cycle
• CPD chosen to suit your role — the remaining hours. The GDC also recommends topics such as legal and ethical issues, complaints handling, safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, oral cancer early detection, and oral health education.
These core topics are recommendations rather than mandatory subjects — but they’re strongly encouraged, and you should use your professional judgement to make sure your CPD reflects your own scope of practice.
Plan. Do. Reflect. Record.
The Enhanced CPD Scheme isn’t just about collecting hours — it asks you to take a structured approach to your learning, built around four steps:
Plan
Create a Personal Development Plan (PDP). Identify what you need to learn, why it’s relevant to your field of practice, and which GDC development outcomes it links to. Maintaining a PDP is a requirement of the scheme.
Do
Complete verifiable CPD activity spread reasonably across your cycle — courses, e-learning, hands-on training or events that meet the verifiable criteria.
Reflect
Think about what you’ve learned and how it changes your day-to-day practice. Reflective learning is a core expectation of the scheme.
Record
Log your hours, keep your certificates, and make your annual CPD statement to the GDC — every year, even in a year where you declare zero hours.
The four GDC development outcomes
Every piece of verifiable CPD you complete should link to at least one of the GDC’s development outcomes. Together they cover the breadth of safe, professional practice:
Communication. Effective communication with patients, the dental team and others — including consent, complaints handling and raising concerns.
Management and teamwork. Effective management of yourself and effective work with others in the dental team, in the interests of patients.
Knowledge and skills. Maintenance and development of knowledge and skill within your field of practice.
Professionalism. Skills, behaviours and attitudes that maintain patient confidence in you and the profession, and put patients’ interests first.
CPD questions we hear most often
For dental care professionals, including dental nurses, the CPD year runs from 1 August to 31 July, in line with your registration year. Your five-year cycle is made up of five of these CPD years.
You can declare zero hours in a single year, but you must not declare zero for two consecutive years — you need at least 10 hours across every two-year period. And you must still make your annual statement, even in a zero-hours year.
General learning like reading journals is great for your development, but it isn’t verifiable, so it doesn’t count towards your 50 hours. Only activities with documented aims, outcomes, quality assurance and a certificate count under the Enhanced CPD Scheme.
CPD is a condition of GDC registration. Failing to make your annual statement or to meet the scheme’s requirements can put your registration at risk, so it’s well worth planning your hours across the cycle rather than leaving them to the end.
You make your statement to the GDC through your online GDC account. You’ll be prompted when you receive your annual renewal notice, but you can update your statement at any point in the year.
Looking for your next CPD hours?
NEBDN is launching new verifiable CPD courses designed specifically for dental nurses — covering the GDC’s highly recommended core topics and more. Register your interest to get early access to course information and exclusive discounts.
This page summarises the General Dental Council’s Enhanced CPD Scheme requirements for dental nurses. Always refer to the GDC’s official CPD guidance for the most up-to-date requirements.
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