Sir, does the recent GDC ruling/recommendation on the provision of implant treatment stifle GDP development, reduce dental implant availability to patients, risk an increase in dental tourism for dental implants and artificially increase the cost of dental implants for UK patients? Should such GDC directives be accepted by the profession without consultation if we are truly self-regulating? Surely we should debate such questions.

Should a dentist fail in their duty of care in implant or any treatment a patient can have redress through the courts and should such a claim be substantiated the insurance companies will restrict their practice to limit their financial liability. The GDC might cite a number of complaints as the reason for its action. Is this because implant treatment is now mainstream, being no different from complaints made when other advances in restorative dentistry became commonplace, ie crowns and bridges?

Is it not now appropriate for the GDC to direct the dental schools to teach implant skills to undergraduates? I well remember having to reach a creditable standard prior to being allowed to construct a bridge as an undergraduate which is now routine practice. Dentistry has moved on and implant treatment is now core dentistry and should be taught as an undergraduate.

Currently a dental graduate is expected to be able to reflect a flap, remove bone, elevate tooth roots yet little more training would be needed for the insertion of a simple dental implant.1 The construction of crowns and bridges is routinely taught to undergraduates yet it can hardly be claimed that much more skill is required to fix a suprastructure to an osseointegrated implant. I accept that undergraduate implant teaching by the dental schools would increase dental training cost but funding must be found from some source. This would curtail the mushrooming of run for profit, unregulated, expensive implant courses and perhaps the GDC should now dictate a standard. The general public has a right to expect their local GDP to be fully capable of undertaking implant treatment at reasonable cost without the need for specialisation.