At this year's British Dental Association Annual Conference the GDC is holding a special workshop on its revalidation plans and would like to hear what you have to say.

Revalidation will mean that registered dental professionals have to regularly show that they are still fit to be on our registers, helping us to quality-assure members of the dental team. At our workshop we will share our plans and will be seeking your views on:

-- our current ideas on revalidation;
-- the best indicators of a dental professional's performance; and
-- the information you currently collect to demonstrate your performance.

GDC President, Hew Mathewson, said:

"We had been developing our plans for revalidation prior to the Government's recent endorsement of this approach when they stated that all health professionals will be required to demonstrate periodically that they are fit to practise by revalidating their professional registration.

"We want to develop a revalidation scheme that is practical and effective as all dentists and other dental professionals will need to revalidate under such a system in the future. Your input and ideas are invaluable to us and are essential to make revalidation work. Our workshop at the BDA conference is your opportunity to tell us what you think revalidation should look like and to comment on our current ideas."

The workshop, 'Building a revalidation system for the whole dental team', takes place on Friday 25 May from 11:15 to 12:30 at the BDA Annual Conference in Harrogate. Further details are available from the conference programme.

GDC staff will be on hand at the GDC exhibition stand (stand 3) throughout the three-day conference (24-26 May) to provide all the latest information on dental care professional registration, revalidation and continuing professional development, and to answer queries.

You can also catch the GDC (stand F13) at the World Symposium on Private Dental Technology and Denturism in Coventry in May (11-12). For more information, visit denturism2007.

The GDC is working on plans to introduce a new scheme for all dental professionals called 'revalidation', which aims to further improve patient safety and encourage high standards in the profession. Further information on revalidation is available on the GDC website HERE.

General Dental Council