Dental standards and guidance documents from the Faculty of General Dental Practice (FGDP)(UK) are now available for all dental professionals through the Open Standards Initiative.

The Initiative offers all dental professionals access to the highly regarded standards and guidance documents produced by FGDP(UK), whether they are members of the Faculty or not.

As part of a programme designed to ensure the documents reach the widest possible audience, the Open Standards Initiative means every dental professional will be able to view the full text of all FGDP(UK) standards and guidance documents online. The first phase of the initiative started with the removal of the paywall that exists around the Faculty's standards. Documents including Selection criteria for dental radiography guidelines and Clinical examination and record keeping amongst others are now available for everyone.

'The FGDP(UK) exists to raise standards of oral health through standard setting, publications, postgraduate training and assessment, education and research. We want our standards and guidance documents to reach the widest possible audience for the benefit of the profession and the patients we treat in order to fulfil this mission,' said Dr Trevor Ferguson, Dean of the FGDP(UK).

'We are releasing e-book versions of our standards and guidance, as well as continuing to sell the existing book versions. This is phase 1 of the Open Standards Initiative,' continued Trevor. 'We shall be releasing details of phase 2 of the Open Standards Initiative later this year!'

To access the documents Faculty members will need to log onto the website www.fgdp.org.uk as usual. Non-members will be required to register but at present will be able to log on using 'openstandards' as both the user name and password. There will be no charge to view the text online.