Sir,- Mr Tidy's letter (BDJ2003, 195: 423) raises some questions about the GDC's charging of a fee for specialists on the orthodontists and oral surgeons, and queried the arrangements for erasure for non-payment. At its meeting in June the Council decided to suspend charging fees to orthodontists and oral surgeons.
The General Dental Council is a non-profit making organisation; the organisation does not make profits. The power to charge a fee is clearly provided for in Regulation 5(1) of the European Primary and Specialist Dental Qualifications Regulations 1998 and the GDC's 1998 regulations.
The cost of registering specialists was high in the past years due to the transitional arrangements. Now that transition is almost completed the cost of retention is reduced. The £40 quoted by Mr Tidy is the cost of providing registration services shared equally among all type of registrants. The power to erase someone from the specialist lists for non-payment of the fee is clearly set out in the 1998 regulations.
