Dental Council recertification programme for oral health practitioners

Until 2021, Dental Council recertification worked like most CPD schemes: you collected a set quota of continuing professional development hours and peer contact activities, then declared them. On 1 October 2021 the Council replaced that model with a recertification programme made under section 41 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003.

The headline change is that hours are no longer counted at all. The practitioner handbook says there is no mandatory quota of professional development hours or credits, and that activities do not have to be verifiable or delivered by approved providers. What the Council wants instead is evidence that you have thought about your own learning needs, acted on them, and talked them through with someone who knows your work.

Each year, every oral health practitioner with a current annual practising certificate (APC) moves through the same loop:

1. Professional peer. Have a professional peer recorded with the Council and interact with them through the year.
2. Professional development plan (PDP). Set learning objectives from your own assessment of your learning needs.
3. Professional development activities (PDAs). Do the activities your PDP says will meet those objectives.
4. Written reflection. Write down what the activity taught you and what you now do differently in the surgery.
5. Peer confirmation and your declaration. Your peer submits an annual online confirmation, and you declare at APC renewal that you met the requirements.

Steps 1 to 4 are the four elements; step 5 is how the Council learns you completed them.

The programme applies to every oral health practitioner registered with the Dental Council who holds a current APC: dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral health therapists, orthodontic auxiliaries, clinical dental technicians and dental technicians. The core requirements are the same for all of them. What differs is the cycle date.

If you hold more than one scope, plan around the cycle that applies to you and check your online portal; the Council's policy and handbook set out the detail. Some people are not yet required to take part, including newly registered or restored practitioners in their first six months (you have six months after your first APC to nominate a peer), practitioners on the register without a current APC, and those the Council has granted an exemption, for example for parental leave or illness.

The handbook sets these ground rules for peers:

• Your peer must be registered with the Dental Council. They can be practising overseas if they hold New Zealand registration.
• They do not have to be in the same scope of practice as you, but they must be able to give credible feedback relevant to your scope. A dental technician could, for example, choose a clinical dental technician or a dentist who prescribes their work, if that person can comment meaningfully on their development.
• The relationship must be freely chosen and freely agreed. An employer cannot force a peer on you.
• A spouse, business partner or employer can be your peer, but both of you need to manage the conflict of interest.
• A peer or study group can act as your peer, with an identified registered practitioner submitting the confirmation.
• Peers cannot charge for the role.

How often you meet is up to the two of you, but the expectation is that you interact regularly through the 12-month cycle. Video calls, email, phone and messaging apps all count. Both of you should keep simple records of when you talked and what you discussed. You nominate, change or end a peer relationship through the Council's online services.

The Council does not impose a PDP template. It publishes examples (a one-page plan, a diagram and a step-by-step version) on its recertification page. Whatever format you use, the handbook says the PDP should contain:

• learning objectives based on your own assessment of your learning needs;
• how you will meet those objectives through professional development activities; and
• a record of your written reflection.

The PDP is meant to be a living document that you review and update with your peer during the year. Good objectives start from something real, such as a complaint, a gap in your records or a new technique. "Keep up to date" is hard to reflect on; "improve how I document consent for multi-stage treatment" is easy to act on and evidence.

With no hours quota or approved-provider list, the test is relevance to an objective in your PDP. Handbook examples include:

• courses and lectures, and e-learning;
• hands-on clinical training or workshops, and clinical observation;
• case-based review in a peer group or study group;
• a self-directed review of current research papers;
• postgraduate study, research, and publishing a peer-reviewed article.

Some things do not count as PDAs. Business and financial management, and health, safety and wellbeing activities, are not professional development activities for this purpose, although you can note them in your PDP for planning. CPR and medical emergency training is a separate requirement under the Council's Medical emergencies practice standard; it is not part of the recertification programme.

For each PDA, keep a record of the provider, the date and location, and how long it took. You must keep your PDA records, PDP and written reflection for at least three years.

Reflection is compulsory. The handbook asks you to reflect in writing on your professional development, whether your learning objectives were achieved and the impact on your practice, and describes it as a critical self-appraisal. It usually happens towards the end of your cycle and should be discussed with your peer. It must not include confidential patient information.

The Council's own reflection example uses five prompts, which make a sound structure for any profession:

1. What I did.
2. Why I did it.
3. How I feel about it.
4. What I have learned about my professional development.
5. What I will do next year.

The last prompt becomes next year's PDP. Our courses each finish with a reflection template that may help as a starting point, but your PDP reflection should be in your own words.

Here is how the elements join up for different professions. These are illustrations, not templates.

Dental hygienist: consent for periodontal treatment

Objective: make sure patients understand the options, risks and costs before non-surgical periodontal therapy, and record that discussion clearly. Why: a patient later said they had not understood how many appointments were involved. Activities: read the Council's Informed consent practice standard (2018) and Rights 5 to 7 of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights; complete the Informed Consent and Communication course; discuss three de-identified consent notes with the peer. Reflection: notes now record options discussed, estimated number of visits and costs; patients are offered written information; next year's objective is consent for patients who need a support person or interpreter.

General dentist: clinical records after a records audit

Objective: bring treatment notes up to the Council's 2020 records and health-information privacy standard. Why: a self-audit found radiograph reports and late entries were inconsistent. Activities: review the practice standard; complete the Clinical Documentation and Record Keeping course; re-audit 20 records three months later and share the results with the peer. Reflection: what changed, what still slips under time pressure, and a plan to brief the practice team.

Oral health therapist or dental therapist: working with tamariki and whānau

Objective: improve communication with whānau when treating children, including Māori patients. Activities: work through the Council's 2021 standard on care for Māori patients and its Cultural competence standard; peer-group case discussion; consent learning focused on young people. Reflection: how appointment conversations changed, and feedback from whānau.

Clinical dental technician: boundaries in direct patient care

Objective: manage boundaries with long-term denture patients who are also friends or neighbours in a small town. Activities: the Council's Professional boundaries practice standard (2017); the Professional Boundaries with Patients, Whānau and Colleagues course; peer discussion of two real dilemmas. Reflection: where the line now sits on gifts, social media contact and treating close friends.

Dental technician: honest communication with prescribers

Objective: handle remakes and errors openly with the dentists and clinical dental technicians who prescribe work. Activities: study of professional standards on honest communication and working with colleagues; the Open Disclosure After Harm course; review of the lab's remake log with the peer. Reflection: how error reporting changed and what the lab now records.

The Council's Standards Framework for Oral Health Practitioners sets the minimum standards of ethical conduct and of clinical and cultural competence that patients and the public can expect. It has three tiers:

• Ethical principles that underpin everything else.
• 28 professional standards in five groups: put patients' interests first (1–7); ensure safe practice (8–12); communicate effectively (13–18); provide good care (19–22); and maintain public trust and confidence (23–28).
• Practice standards on specific topics, including Professional boundaries (October 2017), Informed consent (May 2018), Advertising (1 September 2020), records and health-information privacy (1 December 2020), care of Māori patients (best-practice standard, 31 March 2021), Blood borne viruses (16 May 2022), Cultural competence, Infection prevention and control, Medical emergencies, and Sedation (2026).

Using a standard as the anchor for a PDP objective makes the goal specific and gives your peer something concrete to discuss. It also prepares you for the Council's separate compliance monitoring, which each year asks a random 10% of each profession to answer a practice standards questionnaire.

About three months before your cycle ends, the Council generates a confirmation form for your peer. Your peer confirms online that they reasonably believe you have met the requirements, or declines to confirm and explains why. If the confirmation arrives before your APC renewal, it appears in your renewal form automatically.

When you apply for your APC, you declare that you interacted with your peer, have a PDP, completed your planned activities and reflected in writing. A declaration that you have not met a requirement does not, on its own, stop an APC being issued, but the Council may follow up, and a total lack of compliance or an ongoing pattern of non-compliance may be investigated. Section 43 of the Act lets the Council act when programme requirements are not met.

You may have to produce your records if you are audited, if the Council receives a complaint or notification about you, if you or your peer declare that requirements were not met, or if you return after extended time away. Under section 172, the handbook reminds you, a knowingly false or misleading declaration is an offence that can bring a fine of up to $10,000. If a concern is ever raised, a well-kept PDP is strong evidence of how you maintain competence. Our guide to the Dental Council complaint process covers what happens if that day comes.

We are an independent provider of online learning, and nothing we offer is approved, accredited or endorsed by the Dental Council or any other responsible authority, professional body or tribunal, and they do not award a set number of recertification points; the Dental Council's programme has no points system. Because the Council does not require approved providers, a course can be a legitimate professional development activity when it meets a learning objective in your PDP and you reflect on it. You and your peer decide whether it fits.

Each course is online and self-paced (2 or 3 CPD hours), with a 20-question assessment (80% pass), a certificate and a reflective account. A course is not a substitute for an individual recertification programme or competence programme set by the Council, or for education ordered by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, unless the Council or Tribunal accepts it. If you are unsure, check with the Council, your professional association or your indemnity provider. Browse all courses for New Zealand practitioners.