Updated Scope of Practice Guidance: What Dental Professionals Need to Know

The GDC has revised its Scope of Practice guidance following a consultation and stakeholder engagement process. The updated guidance came into effect on 1 November 2025.

There has been criticism by commentators that this was a missed opportunity by the GDC and that little has changed. For example, the boundaries of professional titles have remained the same and in fact the GDC has removed indicative task lists which previously offered guidance to registrants and indemnifiers as to the nature of tasks that would fall within a registrant’s role. 

The GDC now places emphasis on professional decision-making and encourages registrants to carry out their own assessment as to whether they are trained, competent and indemnified to carry out a particular task. They are encouraged to consult with colleagues, employers, professional bodies and indemnifiers when unsure, although concern has been raised at the increased reliance on indemnifiers to assess whether work should be covered as within a registrant’s ‘scope’ as some indemnity organisations will have little experience to allow them to judge whether a registrant is trained and competent as such should be indemnified for certain work. 

That said, there has been some clarification on role descriptions in order to ensure consistency, clarity and inclusivity and the descriptions for Dental Therapists, Dental Hygienists and Orthodontic Therapists have been revised. 

While the revised guidance may encourage flexibility to work within scope, the loss of prescriptive lists may cause uncertainty, especially for less experienced professionals and there may be difficulties in obtaining indemnity or in assessing indemnity cover without prescribed task lists. 

Our advice is that registrants should review the guidance in full and ensure that evidence of their training and assessed competence is clearly documented within their PDP. Registrants should seek advice from colleagues, employers and indemnifiers when considering moving into new areas and employers and supervisors are encouraged to support registrants in making safe, confident decisions. The importance of documentation of these considerations and decisions cannot be overstated as we may in future see concerns being raised in relation to registrants working outside of scope and, given the lack of prescriptive guidance, evidence to support their decision making will be important to any defence case.