General Dental Council (CDC) Expands Tooth Whitening Duties, UK

Main Category: Dentistry
Article Date: 14 Jul 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Dental hygienists and dental therapists can carry out tooth whitening on the prescription of a dentist if they have the necessary additional skills, says the GDC.

This clarification from the GDC follows its public consultation on the scope of practice of the dental team earlier this year. The consultation sought views on which groups of professionals should be able to do what, including tooth whitening.

"This explanation should provide clarity to registrants who advised us that they wanted clearer guidance on which members of the dental team could carry out tooth whitening," GDC President Hew Mathewson says.

"This clarification, however, does not alter the GDC's position that tooth whitening carried out by non dental professionals is illegal," he says.

The GDC also decided that taking impressions to a dentist's prescription and making bleaching trays to a dentist's prescription are within the scope of additional skills for dental nurses.

The GDC has approved the baseline and additional skills for each group in its scope of practice of the dental team. We will be publishing these as a new guidance document in the autumn together with ethical guidance on working with non-registrants. In the meantime the consultation results together with the scope of practice and the additional skills for each group are available on our website www.gdc-uk.org