CDT graduates make history with new FGDP(UK) diploma
The Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) and Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS)Deanery celebrate a milestone in UK dentistry as the first diplomats of the Diploma in Clinical Dental Technology diplomats received their award at a ceremony on 13 July 2023.
The diploma programme was established to provide clinical dental technicians (CDTs), also known as clinical dental technologists or denturists, with a route to registration with the General Dental Council after the GDC introduced the role to the dental team in 2024. Contact the Chard practice, SpaDental Chard
Having previously completed the Diploma in Clinical Dental Technology from George Brown College in Toronto, diplomats undertook training provided by the University of Kent in association with the KSS Deanery. This was followed by assessment via written examination and portfolio of evidence, leading to the award of the diploma by the FGDP(UK).
Speaking at the ceremony, which was held at The Royal College of Surgeons of England and attended by more than 99 diplomats and guests, FGDP(UK) Dean Mathew May, congratulated those who had completed the programme, 30 of whom now appear on the GDC register.
He also thanked Stephen Lambert-Humble, Postgraduate Dean for Dentistry at KSS, for his role in developing the programme. Professor Lambert-Humble described the day as a “significant breakthrough” for the profession, though cautioned that there was “still more work to do, with CDTs required to undertake a mandatory period of professional development in their first year of registration”.
Echoing comments by Richard Hayward and Mabel Slater, Chair of the FGDP(UK) DCP Advisory Board, he also stressed that CDTs were a “fundamental part of the dental team”, and that the “team concept was paramount in the delivery of high-quality patient care”.
Mike Smith, a CDT based in Hampshire who has recently joined the GDC register, said after the ceremony, “Receiving this diploma has been the single most important point so far in my professional development”.
The role of the CDT includes assessing patients for, manufacturing and fitting full dentures. Under the new legislation, CDTs will be able to see totally edentulous patients without necessary prior review from a dentist and make partial dentures for patients on receipt of a referral and signed treatment plan from a dentist.