Dental professionals are hailing the newly implemented European Alert Mechanism as it will give patients more protection from potentially unsafe practice and help improve the image of dentistry.

The system aims to make the European dental industry much more transparent, covering the whole European Economic Area (EEA). It gives regulators the power to identify dental professionals who have been banned from practising to their European counterparts.

The British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT) points towards the opportunity the system gives patients to be alerted to unsafe practitioners when having dental treatment in the UK and abroad.

President of the BSDHT, Michaela ONeill, said: ‘As dental professionals, patients need to know that they can trust us to give them the best treatments we possibly can.

‘We are thrilled at the implementation of this system as it allows for this to happen in a highly effective and wide reaching way, giving them much greater visibility and security when it comes to their oral health.

‘I see this leading to better standards when it comes to dentistry and that means better practices and overall happier patients.’

The information which regulators will have access to includes the name, date and place of birth to help identify restricted DCPs. Alerts must also state the period that the restriction applies for and the date of the decision.

For more information on the European Alert Mechanism visit http://bit.ly/1KHEWJ2.