On 1 October the General Dental Council (GDC) published a statistical report detailing the registration of dentists and dental care professionals, providing a snapshot of register data as of 31 December 2019.

The report shows that there were 42,470 dentists on the Register and 70,969 dental care professionals (DCPs). Of the DCP figure, 58,898 were dental nurses, followed by 7,563 dental hygienists as the next largest group. Clinical dental technicians (CDTs), the smallest group, numbered 375.

The report provides statistics from the GDC Registers, including the total number of dental professionals by title and the equality and diversity profile of the Registers. It also provides annual statistics relating to additions and removals, and the categories of those changes.

In analysis of the data, the regulator says it has identified an under-reporting of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) information by dental professionals, and is calling for professionals to check if their data is complete.

GDC Head of Regulatory Intelligence, David Teeman, said: 'Whether dental professionals choose to share this EDI data is entirely a decision for them. However, of course, the more complete our EDI data, the better able we are to identify, explore, understand and respond to potential issues that correlate with EDI across everything the GDC does. It is for this reason that we are going to be talking more about the importance of this over the coming months'.

The full report is available on the GDC's website: https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/the-registers/registration-reports.