Ethics & Ethical Standards for Dentists & Dental Care Professionals
A 2.5-hour course built around the GDC's own Standards for the Dental Team, not medical ethics with the word "dentist" substituted in. Consent for cosmetic and necessary treatment, confidentiality and candour, and the financial integrity questions genuinely distinct to dental practice.
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Course Content
Is this you?
We wrote this for three kinds of dental professional. Most people reading this are at least one of them.
A consent, confidentiality, or billing situation feels genuinely unclear.
A patient wants cosmetic treatment their teeth don't need, or a treatment plan grew step by step and you're not sure the cost was ever presented clearly enough. You want the actual reasoning, not just "follow the policy."
Revalidation CPD is coming and you want something genuinely dental.
Most ethics CPD borrows from medical ethics with the terminology adjusted. A course built around consent for elective treatment, cost transparency, and NHS/private billing integrity makes for far stronger CPD than generic content stretched to fit dentistry.
You want dental ethics, not medical ethics with the job title changed.
A visible price on nearly every decision, a high proportion of elective treatment, a mixed public-private funding model. This course is built around that real territory, not borrowed from someone else's.
The GDC sets nine standards. This course covers the ones that involve genuine ethical reasoning.
Ethics and a future Professionalism course are designed as a pair, covering the GDC's nine standards fully between them without repeating each other. Here's where this course sits.
Patients' Interests First
The founding principle every other standard sits beneath.
This courseValid Consent
Including cosmetic, elective, and capacity-affected consent.
This courseConfidentiality
Records, referrals, and the duty of candour.
This courseCommunication & Competence
Complaints, colleagues, CPD, and raising concerns.
Professionalism courseWhat it covers, and why
Course description
A 2.5-hour course on ethical reasoning for GDC-registered dentists and dental care professionals, built around the GDC's Standards for the Dental Team. It moves from the four ethical principles and Standard 1, through consent for necessary and elective treatment, confidentiality and candour, probity and financial integrity in NHS and private billing, to a structured method for genuine ethical dilemmas applied to real dental cases.
Why it's relevant
Dental ethics is too often taught as medical ethics with the terminology adjusted. This course is built around what's genuinely distinct about dental practice: a visible price attached to nearly every decision, a high proportion of elective treatment, and a mixed public-private funding landscape that creates ethical territory medicine rarely faces in the same way.
How it improves your practice
You'll finish able to apply the four ethical principles and Standard 1 to real treatment decisions, obtain genuinely valid consent including for cosmetic and elective treatment, maintain confidentiality and meet the duty of candour when something goes wrong, recognise and navigate commercial pressure on clinical judgement, and work through a genuine ethical dilemma using a structured method.
What it covers
The course runs across five modules of unequal length:
- The four ethical principles, Standard 1, and what's genuinely distinct about dental ethics
- Consent and treatment planning, including cost transparency and cosmetic or elective dentistry
- Confidentiality, dental records, and the duty of candour
- Probity and financial integrity in NHS and private billing
- A structured method for ethical dilemmas, with real dental worked cases
Who it's for
Any dentist or dental care professional registered with the GDC, at any career stage, dentists, dental nurses, hygienists, therapists, technicians, and orthodontic therapists, in NHS or private practice. Part of the wider CrownEthics library of CPD courses for UK healthcare professionals.
Related courses
This course stands on its own. These pair naturally if your situation calls for it:
- You want to understand the wider fitness to practise process — add Fitness to Practise: What You Need to Know. Relevant across every UK regulator, not GDC-specific.
- You need to show genuine change has taken place — add Remediation — Demonstrating Change.
Every course above is standalone and priced individually.
Everything included
18 lessons across 5 modules, self-paced, around 2.5 hours
Four short knowledge checks, plus a final 15-question assessment (80% to pass, unlimited retakes)
Downloadable certificate of completion, permanent access
Reviewed by qualified professionals for accuracy
No expiry, revisit any time
Questions about this course
Does this course count as CPD for GDC revalidation?
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Is this course based on the GDC's actual standards?
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How is this different from a generic healthcare ethics course?
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Does the course cover cosmetic and elective treatment specifically?
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Will this help if a concern has already been raised about me?
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Does the course address NHS and private billing specifically?
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How long does the course take, and is it self-paced?
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Is there an assessment, and what happens if I don't pass?
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Who reviewed this course for accuracy?
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Can my practice enrol multiple dentists or team members at once?
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Still have a question? Email us and we'll get back to you.
