Dental Core Training
Joint Guidelines for Dental Core Training (DCT) in Hospitals: these joint guidelines have been developed by the BAOMS Chair of Council and approved by COPDEND. The main thing to note is that DCT on call will not be withdrawn from September 2022 as was being proposed by COPDEND. Following discussion with COPDEND, it was agreed that DCT on call is mutually beneficial to both OMFS and dental training.
I shall watch the situation closely and intervene on behalf of the Association if this issue arises again.
Peter Brennan, Chair, BAOMS Council, June 2021
Introduction from Anne Begley: council lead for Dental Core Trainees
As the BAOMS council lead for Dental Core Trainees, I hope you will find this information useful. Please contact me via BAOMS office if you have any queries.
Dental Core Training is described in the DCT Curriculum as “that period of dental postgraduate development which extends from the end of Dental Foundation Training (DFT)/ Dental Vocational Training (VT) to the start of specialty training, specialist practice, generalist practice or many other possible career options.
As such, it is a training period that has multiple endpoints and a varied duration from one to three years. It should be noted that there is no statutory or contractual requirement for any dental graduate to undertake DCT. It is, however, seen by many recent dental graduates as being an extremely valuable training and education experience that helps clarify their own professional career intention.”
Background
The DCT grade has been reorganised and renamed several times in the past five years-from Dental Senior House Officer (SHO) to Dental Foundation Training (DFT) Year 2, to Career Development post, to DCT. The current name splits this period of training to DCT1, DCT2 and DCT3 according to stage of training. There are approximately 710 DCT posts in the UK. Each Deanery holds the post descriptors for each of the posts within their region.
As medical and dental training is an ever-moving target, please let BAOMS office know about any errors or changes or additional information which might be useful.
August 2024: Guidelines on Temporary Registration with the GDC (V1.4)
Overview:
The GDC is the regulatory body which regulates dentists in the UK. To practice in the UK, one requires registration with the GDC. There are two types of registration:
- Full registration which you can gain on graduating from a UK dental school, or in most cases a European dental school, or by passing the Overseas Registration Examination. More guidelines can be found on the GDC website, including some alternative paths to full registration.
- Temporary registration which is given by the GDC for a limited period of time, typically to work in secondary and tertiary care NHS hospitals. Please note, temporary registration does not lead to full GDC registration and can only be given for a maximum of 5 years.
Dental Core Training and Temporary Registration:
Getting a DCT post which is “suitable for temporary registration’’ makes you eligible for temporary registration with the GDC. It is important to note that not all DCT posts allow people to work on temporary registration, hence it is important to only choose those posts in the preference list on Oriel which are suitable for temporary registration. DCTNRO publishes an Excel sheet every year on the posts across the UK along with which posts are eligible for temporary registration. A copy of the Excel sheet can be downloaded from the following link:
Dental Core Training (DCT) | Dental Hub (hee.nhs.uk)
If a DCT post remains vacant after National Recruitment, it is sometimes recruited to locally. When that happens, the post will typically still be eligible for temporary registration, and the guidance in this document remains valid. However, in those cases, the employing Trust handles any visa requirements in place of NHS England’s national team. Locally recruited posts are advertised on local Trusts' websites and on websites like www.jobs.nhs.uk or www.trac.jobs.
Getting A DCT Post:
Dental Core Training is a program which allows dental graduates who have worked clinically as a dentist for at least 1 year after graduation to work in dental specialties and OMFS. DCT recruitment has two components, a situational judgement test (SJT) and an Interview. More information on acquiring a DCT post can be found on the DCTNRO Website below:
Dental Core Training (DCT) | Dental Hub (hee.nhs.uk)
Steps involved for applying for GDC registration:
After you have successfully managed to secure a DCT post suitable for temporary registration, it is important to start your registration process with the GDC as soon as you receive your offer on Oriel as it can take some time. The following steps should be followed to apply for temporary registration:
- Using the following website, fill the route to registration questionnaire Route to Registration (egdc-uk.org)
- The answers to the questionnaire will look like this for someone who is applying for temporary registration. Click on the “Temporary Registration Application” at the end of the questionnaire and fill in your personal details.
November 2022: Special circumstances criteria extended to include applicants with parental responsibility
The special circumstances criteria for applicants to Dental Core Training (DCT) and Dental specialty training (DST) has been extended to include applicants with parental responsibility for a child or children under the age of 18.
The Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection (MDRS) and Committee of Postgraduate Dental Deans and Directors (COPDEND) have announced the change which will come into effect for posts commencing in September 2023.
It will particularly support applicants who have family caring responsibilities which limit their ability to relocate and are therefore deterred from applying for a training post.
Special Circumstance arrangements are in place for applicants who require a training placement in a certain area of the country. Currently these arrangements are in place for applicants with caring responsibilities for the registered disabled, as defined by the Equality Act 2010, or if they have a medical condition or disability which requires on-going follow up in a specified location.
This move will bring DCT and DST training into line with DFT and Pharmacy Foundation training.
Further information on the change
Information provided by: Mr RJ Spencer, Postgraduate Dental Dean, HEE working across Yorkshire and the Humber
Current National Recruitment Timeline/DCT Report
Why do DCT?
Dental graduates appreciate their time in DCT as an extremely valuable training and education experience. Whilst there is no statutory or contractual requirement to complete DCT the time in these posts enables clarification of future professional career intentions. A period spent in DCT is requirement for entry into most dental specialty training programmes and is where the majority of OMFS trainees develop their taste for our specialty.
Where are DCT posts?
Most DCT posts across the UK are in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) Units in District General Hospitals and Teaching Hospitals. The remainder are in Dental Hospitals in a variety of specialties, with a few in the Salaried/Community Dental Service and General Dental Practice (GDP) posts. It is likely that over the next few years that further posts will be developed in primary dental care and academia with Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) posts at DCT level also being developed.
Where can I find official DCT information on recruitment?
National Recruitment Office for DCT is HEE East Midlands.
DCT posts in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all included.
The Lead Dean for DCT is Andrew Dickenson Postgraduate Dental Dean for East Midlands.
What is the DCT Curriculum?
DCT has had a curriculum since 2016. This also dictates the assessment framework to ensure standardisation and uniformity to quality assurance in the delivery of DCT in the many and varied settings.
What determines how the DCT curriculum is delivered?
Silver Guide
The ‘Rule Book’ for DCT is the Silver Guide which links curriculum delivery to the assessment and employment framework.
The curriculum, assessment framework and national recruitment and delivery of an eportfolio was developed by a national working group appointed by COPDEND. The group included a number of OMFS surgeons and also formal representation from BAOMS. There is clearly a recognition that dental core training occurs in wide and varied settings.
These two documents have been agreed between BAOMS and COPDEND and provide a framework for current OMFS DCT posts and also for mutually agreed changes in these posts.
These draft Qis may be useful for units providing dental core training and educational supervisors. They are based on the BAOMS & COPDEND Guideline document.
Why are DCTs important for OMFS surgery?
As well as the important service provision delivered by this group, we need to be mindful that these young post graduates are dentists and that they (along with the medicine first trainees) are the future of our specialty. The majority of DCTs however will pass through our departments on their way to primary dental care, dental specialities, community dental services and many other career pathways taking with them the invaluable experience of working within an OMFS team. They will be our future referrers.
How is DCT training summarised in the DCT Curriculum?
Dental Core Training will allow trainees to:
- Experience work and training in a different setting compared to DFT/VT
- Work in a supportive environment where they are adequately supervised, enabling them to learn through service delivery whilst ensuring that patients are not put at risk
- Practise within their own level of competence and to be provided with appropriate supervision and feedback to reach higher levels of competence in existing skills and into acquiring new skills
- Learn from many different supervisors in different settings
- Learn to manage patients referred from Primary Care
- Patients with complex dental conditions.
- Patients with complex medical conditions.
- Patients with complex mental health/ psychiatric conditions
- Patients with both complex medical and dental conditions
- Become part of a large multidisciplinary team
- Consolidate knowledge of clinical and organisational governance including audit
- Learn to communicate with a wide variety of different healthcare workers
- Work with experts in their field
- Participate in local learning opportunities e.g. lectures, tutorials, regional study days etc.
- Develop leadership skills
- Study and take postgraduate exams
- Present at local/regional meetings
- Learn many new clinical skills
- Maintain a portfolio of learning development and formative assessment
- Develop their preference of career choice
eFace – Free educational Resource for DCTs
eFace is the eLearning For Health (eLfh) component which is targeted at those working in OMFS. It includes some information specifically aimed at Dental Core Trainees. There is an introduction to eLfH including general resources which will be of value to DCTs and also eFace which has modules specifically aimed at DCTs.
eLogbook
Although the eLogbook is aimed at OMFS specialty trainees (and Oral Surgery STs too) it also has a part designed to allow DCTs not working in OMFS to collect their activity in dentistry. After registering to use the log-book, click 'add an operation' and scroll down to the last part of the operation codes to 'zDental Core Training – Non OMFS/OS' (the z is needed to put this at the bottom of the drop-down list).
All the codes are recorded under 'Paediatric Dentistry' including 'Adult Dentistry' (because Paediatric Dentistry asked first).
Please see the eLogbook Top Tips 2019 - information and advice about using the eLogbook.
Useful Links
NHS Employers
All training posts have an employment contract and an educational contract. DCTs are employed under the 2016 Junior Doctors and Dentists Contract. Details about this employment contract are available at these links. DCTs and those supervising them should understand the responsibilities that the 2016 contract defines.
Deaneries and Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs)
The educational contract is with the ‘Deanery’ which are Health Education England (HEE), Health Education in Wales (HEIW), NHS Education Scotland (NES) and the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA). Regional offices in England are called LETBs for example Health Education England Across the North West.
British Dental Association
Has interesting articles on DCT training. For those DCTs with dental qualifications they are also the ‘Trade Union’ who can represent dentists working in hospitals by using the services of the British Medical Association (BMA) Industrial Liaison Officers (ILOs).
British Medical Association
As mentioned above under BDA, the BMA provides the direct input to industrial relations problems for DCTs who are either members of the BDA or members of the BMA. Non-members of either organisation cannot use these services.