The headline number is 100 hours for dentists, 75 for most dental care professionals and 50 for dental nurses and technicians — per five-year cycle, and all of it verifiable.
That last word does most of the work, and it is where the guidance is most often misread.
The hours, by registrant title
| Registrant title | Minimum verifiable CPD per five-year cycle |
|---|---|
| Dentists | 100 |
| Dental therapists | 75 |
| Dental hygienists | 75 |
| Orthodontic therapists | 75 |
| Clinical dental technicians | 75 |
| Dental nurses | 50 |
| Dental technicians | 50 |
If you are registered under more than one title, you must do at least the minimum for the title with the highest requirement, and the activity must cover your field of practice under all the titles you hold. A dental therapist who is also an orthodontic therapist does 75 hours spanning both roles — not 150.
Your cycle is always five years, and its start date depends on when you first joined the register.
The 10-hours-in-two-years rule
CPD is meant to be spread. The rule is a minimum of 10 hours for every two consecutive CPD years, and you must not declare two consecutive years at zero.
One point here is routinely overstated. You may have more than one zero-hours year in a cycle — they simply cannot be consecutive, and the 10-in-two rule still has to hold. Three hours in year one obliges you to seven in year two. Seven in year two obliges you to three in year three.
The GDC is explicit that the minimum "is not designed to drive your planning and activity". For many dental professionals, genuine learning needs will take them past it.
What makes CPD verifiable
This is the part worth getting right, because it determines what you are allowed to count.
For an activity to be verifiable, the provider must give you evidence covering all seven of these:
- the subject, learning content, aims and objectives
- the anticipated GDC development outcomes
- the date or dates it was undertaken
- the total number of hours
- your name, as the professional who participated
- that the CPD is subject to quality assurance, naming the person or body providing it
- confirmation from the provider that the information is full and accurate
Usually that arrives as a certificate. Where something is missing — common with CPD aimed at multi-professional groups — you can ask the provider for a mapping document or a confirming email, and keep that with your record.
One thing follows from this that is worth stating plainly: the GDC does not approve any providers of CPD activity. Choosing activity that meets the requirements is your responsibility, not the regulator's, and any provider claiming GDC approval is claiming something that does not exist.
Typical verifiable activity includes courses and lectures, training days, hands-on clinical training and workshops, clinical audit, conferences, and e-learning.
Non-verifiable CPD: where reading fits
Reading is not on that list, and it is not going to be.
The GDC's position is short: "You may continue to do non-verifiable CPD, however all hours submitted to the GDC must be verifiable." And it goes one step further than most people expect — if the GDC requests your CPD record, you should not include information about the non-verifiable CPD you have done.
So a weekly journal habit contributes nothing to your 100 or 75 hours. There is no way to dress that up, and you should be sceptical of anyone who tries.
What reading does do is sit upstream of everything that is declared:
- It shapes the personal development plan. Your PDP has to identify maintenance and learning needs across your field of practice. You cannot identify a gap in something you have not been following.
- It gives reflection something to reflect on. Reflection on a course you attended is about the course. Reflection informed by what is actually being published is about your practice.
- It keeps the years between courses honest. Verifiable CPD tends to be lumpy — a study day here, a conference there. Reading is the continuous part.
The regulator does not see any of it. That is exactly why it is the first thing to slip.
Non-verifiable CPD for dental nurses
The rules are the same as for every other registrant. Only the numbers change.
Dental nurses need 50 hours of verifiable CPD per five-year cycle, the same as dental technicians. The 10-hours-in-two-years rule applies in full: at least 10 verifiable hours in any two consecutive years, including across the join between one cycle and the next. Your CPD year runs 1 August to 31 July, as it does for every dental care professional, and your statement is due by 28 August.
Non-verifiable CPD works the same way it does for a dentist. Reading a journal, a clinical update or a practice newsletter is real learning. None of it counts towards your 50 hours. If the GDC asks for your record, it should not appear there.
Fifty hours over five years is about ten a year. That is a small enough target that the verifiable hours tend to look after themselves. The reading is what drifts. If you nurse chairside in one field, such as orthodontics, oral surgery or a hygiene and therapy clinic, following that field's journals is the quickest way to know what has changed in the work you support. It also gives your PDP and your reflection something concrete to start from.
The requirement that is per activity
If you take one procedural point from this: every planned and completed activity must be linked to at least one of the GDC's four development outcomes.
| Outcome | What it covers |
|---|---|
| A | Effective communication with patients, the dental team and others across dentistry — including consent, complaints, and raising concerns when patients are at risk |
| B | Effective management of self and of others, or effective work with others in the dental team, in patients' interests; constructive leadership where appropriate |
| C | Maintenance and development of knowledge and skill within your field of practice |
| D | Maintenance of skills, behaviours and attitudes which maintain patient confidence in you and the profession, and put patients' interests first |
The GDC encourages you to cover all four across a cycle, but that is encouragement, not a rule. One linked outcome per activity is the rule. Clinical updating usually lands under C, occasionally under D.
Reflection: less prescriptive than people assume
A persistent myth says the GDC demands a written reflection for every single recorded activity. It does not.
The guidance says your log "should also include a reflective element, or an indication that reflection has taken place", and states directly that the scheme "is not prescriptive about how you reflect, or how you record that reflection has taken place". You might reflect after each activity, or more periodically through the year. You might do it with a mentor, a peer group or an employer and summarise afterwards.
What you should do is make a record that reflection happened, and let it feed back into your PDP.
This is a genuine flexibility, and it is worth using deliberately rather than defaulting to a form.
Your CPD year is not the calendar year — unless you are a dentist
Two different years run in most practices:
| CPD year | Annual statement due | |
|---|---|---|
| Dentists | 1 January – 31 December | 28 January |
| Dental care professionals | 1 August – 31 July | 28 August |
CPD completed after the official year end cannot be counted towards the previous year. Once the statement period closes you cannot amend that year's statement.
Statements are made through MyGDC, which replaced eGDC on 25 March 2026; existing accounts were migrated across automatically. Worth knowing because the GDC's own CPD guidance document still refers to eGDC throughout — if you are working from the PDF, the portal it names has been renamed.
Records, and how long to keep them
Your complete CPD record is three things: your personal development plan, your log of completed activity, and the evidence you collected from each activity.
Keep all of it for five years after your cycle ends. The GDC selects professionals at random for record checks, can do so up to five years after a cycle is complete, and gives a minimum of 28 days' notice.
You will not routinely be asked to produce your record. You will be asked if you have not met the requirements, have missed a statement, or come up in the random sample.
Keeping up between the courses
Verifiable CPD answers "what did I attend". It does not answer "what changed in my field this year".
That second question is where a reading habit earns its place. Evidence-Based Dentistry publishes commentary on selected studies — useful, and deliberately selective. The Dental Elf is free, written and funded by its contributors since 2011, and takes the same selective approach in blog form. A digest takes the other approach: every new paper from a named set of journals, so the selection is the journal panel rather than an editor's judgement about what matters.
Neither replaces the other, and neither counts towards your hours. Both make the hours you do count for more.
Sources
- GDC — CPD scheme
- GDC — Recording and submitting CPD
- GDC — MyGDC goes live in a 'first' for dental registration (25 March 2026)
- GDC — Recommended CPD topics (live list; the GDC states these topics are not compulsory)
Requirements change. Check the current GDC position before relying on any of this, and note that other regulations or qualifications you hold may carry their own CPD obligations.
The Monday Clinical Brief sends a weekly summary of every new paper from five leading journals in your field. Dental panels cover Dentistry, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, and Dental Hygiene & Therapy. It is non-verifiable CPD — it will not fill your hours, and we will not pretend otherwise. It will mean you know what was published.
See the dental digests — £20 a year, no advertising, no pharmaceutical funding, no sponsored content.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CPD hours do dentists need?
Dentists need a minimum of 100 hours of verifiable CPD per five-year cycle. Dental therapists, dental hygienists, orthodontic therapists and clinical dental technicians need 75 hours. Dental nurses and dental technicians need 50 hours. If you hold more than one registrant title, you must meet the requirement for the title with the highest number of hours.
What counts as non-verifiable CPD for dentists and dental nurses?
Any learning that does not come with the provider evidence the GDC sets out for verifiable CPD. Journal reading is the common example. The GDC's guidance says you may continue to do non-verifiable CPD, but all hours submitted must be verifiable, so it never counts towards your total. That applies whatever your title, whether you are a dentist working towards 100 hours or a dental nurse working towards 50.
Does reading journals count towards GDC CPD hours?
No. Journal reading is non-verifiable CPD, and only verifiable hours are declared to the GDC. The GDC's guidance goes further — if it asks to see your CPD record, you should not include information about non-verifiable CPD at all. Reading is still worth doing: it informs your personal development plan and gives your reflection something to work with. It just does not appear in your hours total.
What makes a CPD activity verifiable?
The provider must give you evidence covering seven things: the subject, learning content, aims and objectives; the anticipated GDC development outcomes; the dates; the total hours; your name as the participant; confirmation that the CPD is subject to quality assurance, naming the person or body providing it; and confirmation from the provider that the information is full and accurate. The GDC does not approve any CPD providers, so no provider can claim GDC approval.
Do I have to write a reflection for every CPD activity?
No. The GDC's guidance says your activity log should include a reflective element or an indication that reflection has taken place, and states the scheme is not prescriptive about how you reflect or record it. You can reflect after each activity or more periodically through the year, including verbally with a peer group and summarised afterwards. What is mandatory for every activity is linking it to at least one of the GDC's four development outcomes.
When does the dental CPD year end?
It depends on your title. For dentists the CPD year runs 1 January to 31 December, with the annual statement due by 28 January. For dental care professionals it runs 1 August to 31 July, with the statement due by 28 August. A mixed practice therefore has two deadlines. CPD completed after the official year end cannot be counted towards the previous year.
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