Denture wearers, Please read and act on this information

[Dental Technician]

As a Dental techncian and also a Clinical Dental techncian I would like to make you aware that the GDC (general dental council) are conducting a review of the 'scope of practice'
This is the document which states which dental professional can do what. It is reviewed around every five years and from the end of january 2011 (this month) they are starting their review process. What this means is they are asking everyone, both dental professionals and members of the public for their input. They want to know what your happy with and more importantly what your not happy with regarding treatments available to the public. This is applicable to denture wearers particularly as many are not happy with dentures provided and prefer to go to the loacl dental technician to get them made.

PLEASE NOTE , UNLESS THEY ARE A REGISTERED CLINCIAL DENTAL TECHNICIAN THEY ARE ACTING ILLEGALY(you can easily check on the GDC website www.gdc-uk.org).

Dental technicians CANNOT provide dentures direct to the public, many do so but it illegal and this practice should be reported to the GDC.
Clinical dental technicians CAN provide dentures direct but at present they can only provide complete dentures (if you have none of your remaining teeth left). If you have any of your teeth left you must be referred by a dentist first or at least the Clinical dental techncian should have a prescription, this creates a lot of problems sometimes because the dentists do not want to refer as they lose money, this results in the patients choice being limited and the Clinical dental techncian being restricted as to the service they are trained and able to do. This is where you can help, by submitting your views on this issue the GDC could decide to allow patients direct access to Clinical Dental , we may even be able to change the law so we can get a goverment contract and you would be able to access them on the NHS, this will give the patients the ability to choose to go to someone who specialises in making dentures rather than being told we can only go through the dentists, they have a monopoly on this and you can change it . Please register your views on their website www.gdc-uk.org, the review process begins at the end of this month

Heres the link to the GDC
just copy and paste this into your address bar
http://www.gdc-uk.org/News+publications+and+events/News+releases/The+General+Dental+Council+%28GDC%29+has+begun+a+review+of+its+‘Standards+Guidance‘+and+‘Scope+of+Practi.htm