GDC & GMC

OMFS, as a dual degree specialty, must interact with both the medical (General Medical Council – GMC) and dental (General Dental Council – GDC) regulators.

The 2008 documents below were generated after trainee doctors working in and OMFS department were reported to the GDC for ‘illegal practice of dentistry’ because they were being trained in dentoalveolar surgery but were not yet dentists.

2008 Practice of Dentistry - GDC statement 2008

2008 Practice of Dentistry March 2008 BAOMS Guidance

In 2014, after a meeting with the General Dental Council to discuss the issue of ‘double jeopardy’ for OMFS specialists – a short hand description of the fact that patient complaints about OMFS specialists would be processed separately and treated differently by both regulators – the GDC agreed that OMFS specialists could practice without dental regulation.

2014-09-30 GDC BAOMS OCT 2014 Notes from Meeting

2014-10-01 FAQs about OMFS and GDC

The 2014 notes (which are GDC notes of a meeting with BAOMS representatives) the GDC said that an OMFS consultant could work in hospital practice without dental registration and that it did not feel dual registration was necessary.  Dental registration would be needed to ‘work in a dental practice or somewhere that looked like a dental practice’. BAOMS sought clarification on this but none has been forthcoming to date.

BAOMS continues to seek clarification and will update these documents when new ones become available.