Article
The College of General Dentistry (CGDent) is now part of the dental firmament, setting standards, supporting careers, the unified voice of the dental team. A tremendous amount has been achieved since the College was established on 1st July 2021. Among other attributes, the College now has an open access, ever-expanding member register, with opportunity to include postgraduate qualifications and message other members, career pathways for all member of the dental team, and faculties for the different categories of oral healthcare professionals.
The setting of standards and supporting of careers is intrinsically linked and woven through all workstreams at CGDent. It is crucial that standards in dentistry reflect the real world challenges the dental team face in optimising care for our patients. To this end a current CGDent workstream is updating the CGDent publication ‘Standards in Dentistry’. The third edition will see all sections updated to reflect advances in practice, with new sections on digital dentistry and aesthetic dentistry included, topic matter regularly discussed in Dental Update, including this issue. The updates of ‘Standards in Dentistry’ have gone to all Fellows of the College for consultation to ensure the standards are set by the team, for the team. This consultation will help to ensure standards are relevant and realistic, in line with contemporary practice. Following in the wake of the recently launched register for mentors in implant dentistry, more initiatives, including a register for dento-legal expert witnesses are close to being launched, as part of the seamless transition of the presidency of the College from Dr Abhi Pal to Dr Roshni Karia. CGDent, which is unique (no other collegiate body across the world offering membership to all oral healthcare professionals, the whole dental team), will continue to have an ambitious agenda in the interests of the profession and the patients it serves, with eligibility for the award of a Royal Charter remaining a top priority, albeit that this eligibility may be another 2–3-years away. Such recognition will be hard won, but a resounding triumph for the profession and our patients.
The increasing appreciation of the need for dentistry to have its own independent Royal College is a spur to the College Trustees and College Council to ‘up the momentum’. Achieving this goal, and in the process acquiring parity with all other mainstream healthcare professions, requires, among other things, oral healthcare professionals, individually and collectively to put their ‘shoulders to the wheel’ by joining and contributing to the further growth, development and impact of their College – CGDent. The sooner dentistry has its own, independent Royal College the better. An important step towards this goal has been the honour bestowed on the College of being considered worthy of being granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms. The ancient and historic process of heraldic recognition continues to have relevance and importance in bringing all concerned under one ‘banner’, with a common mission and purpose: ‘All for one and one for all’.
On the subject of mission, CGDent is in the process of articulating a forward-looking vision for the future of dentistry. As with its work on standards, CGDent will embrace all its members in maintaining an up-to-date vision for the future of the profession and its role in society. Such inclusivity, a hallmark of the College, enables the profession to reclaim important elements of self-regulation. Destiny should not be written for the profession but by it collectively, and what better body to do this than CGDent.
‘Together we are stronger’ – an often quoted but important maxim, and our collective voice (often ignored) becomes a ‘clarion call’ when we unite together under one banner, the banner to be granted by the College of Arms, or if you prefer the vision to be articulated by the membership of the College. If colleagues want dentistry to play the role it deserves, and ought to have, in the future of holistic healthcare and wellbeing provision, then reliance on smart phone connectivity is not the answer. Engagement, commitment, and shared determination to be recognized and heard is what is required. To quote one of the great, possibly the greatest leaders of the last century, Sir Winston Churchill: ‘Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it’.
Historically, dentistry was persuaded to forgo the opportunity to create its own, independent Royal College on two occasions, once in the 1860s and more recently in the 1990s; now is the time to put things to rights, not repeat, what in hindsight were untoward decisions in history. This is not the time to stand back and let others take the strain. Your profession needs your engagement and commitment to secure its promising and important future. With no collective vision and commitment to the future, a lost cause looms large. The last thing dentistry should allow itself to become is a lost cause. It is a dynamic biomedical healthcare science, with a huge role to play in the future of healthcare and wellbeing. Your career, your provenance, your legacy, and the care to be extended to patients, existing and generations to come, hang in the balance. The future of dentistry must not be written by politicians, driven by expediency, or a regulator, which should not be ‘calling all the shots’, but it should be crafted by the profession itself. Could this happen? Yes! Your college (CGDent) needs you, and you and the profession need CGDent, hopefully RCGDent.
Much as CGDent sits at the heart of our community of practice, Dental Update continues to provide all team members with practical updates and tips necessary to optimise outcomes for our patients. The June editorial discussed leadership in the context of clinical dentistry. CGDent provides the forum for leaders and followers alike to have their voices heard and optimise arrangements for the whole dental team and the patients we serve.