General Dental Council: Informing our future approach to registration for internationally qualified dental professionals

We have today published the outcome of our call for evidence to support the development of a comprehensive framework for international routes to registration.

Rules for routes to registration for internationally qualified dentists and dental care professionals were introduced last year, and we have increased ORE capacity as the first steps towards modernising the process, with more flexible contracts in place for the delivery of the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE) in 2025.

We are now considering how rules on the ORE could be made more flexible in areas such as the limit on the number of attempts and reapplying where a candidate has reached the time limit or exhausted all attempts, while ensuring that international registration processes are efficient, fair and maintain high standards to protect patients.

We have no immediate plans to move away from a two-part ORE or to introduce a practical test for dental hygienists and therapists, as there was no consensus of the need to do so.

We have seen unprecedented demand for places on the ORE over the last two years, and have called on the Government to give an indication of its plans to take forward proposals for provisional registration for overseas qualified dentists.

You will find the outcome report on our website.