As most of us will by now be aware, the General Dental Council (GDC) is set to change the requirements for Continued Professional Development (CPD). These changes will come into effect from 1st January 2018 for dentists and from 1st August 2018 for DCPs.

The countdown is now on for National Smile Month 2017. 

For those who are unsure what National Smile Month is, it’s the largest and longest-running UK campaign to promote good oral health. The campaign last for a whole month, so there is still lots of time for you and your practice to get involved. This year, the campaign is running from 15th May to 15th June, so put these dates in your diary. 

There are numerous post-qualification options available to dental nurses, one of which is the Oral Health Education qualification. This is a great qualification to undertake, and it can increase the value to patients of attending your practice.

In this article, I aim to provide you with information about oral health days during 2017. I have included a summary of each campaign and ways in which you, as a dental nurse, can get involved by supporting, fundraising, or promoting. I have also included details of how to find out more information in case you want to plan an event to support any of the campaigns.

A couple of years ago, my boss started looking into the idea of employing apprentice dental nurses. As we are a specialist practice which offers a high standard of training to general dental practitioners, he wanted to ensure that we were providing the same high standard of training to nurses.