​The Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP(UK)) has announced that it will be publishing new national standards on implant dentistry next year.

The work is being led by Professor Cemal Ucer, a former President of the Association of Dental Implantology, together with co-authors Dr Simon Wright and Dr Andrew Shelley, and will be widely consulted on before it is finalised.

FGDP(UK) already publishes Training Standards in Implant Dentistry, which is used by the General Dental Council to define the training that should be undertaken to carry out implant dentistry in the UK, and the standards which should be met by training courses.

Professor Ucer and Dr Wright are Directors of Implant Centres of Excellence (ICE) Postgraduate Institute and Hospital, and Academic Leads for the MSc in Dental Implantology at Edge Hill University, and Dr Andrew Shelley is a Specialist in Prosthodontics, and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Due to be published in the second half of 2018, Standards in Implant Dentistry’s evidence-graded recommendations will be categorised using the Faculty’s ‘ABC’ (Aspirational, Basic, Conditional) notation.

Dr Mick Horton, Dean of FGDP(UK), said: 'Implant dentistry is one of the most significant advances in oral healthcare of the last 30 years, and is now routinely available, and an increasingly popular treatment from which thousands of patients are benefitting every year. Since 2008, the profession has agreed on the standards to which dentists must be trained in order to place implants safely and competently, and while a range of guidance on clinical care is available, the FGDP(UK) recognises the need to establish clear national standards for the benefit of patients. I would like to thank Professor Ucer and his team on behalf of the Faculty for their ongoing work.'

Professor Cemal Ucer said: 'Delivery of satisfactory dental implant treatment, and its long-term success and maintenance, requires complex and invasive surgical and restorative procedures using a variety of highly specialised products, biomaterials and equipment. Constantly emerging new materials, techniques and treatment modalities can give rise to variance in the standard of treatment between practitioners and institutions, and we are developing Standards in Implant Dentistry to enable dentists to optimise their quality of patient care and reduce variations in treatment outcomes. Based on a systematic review of the evidence and critical appraisal of the benefits and harms of all treatment options, our best practice guidelines should be seen to set national standards on how patients who are candidates for dental implant treatment should be assessed and treated.'

The Faculty recently published Dementia-Friendly Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines, and to mark its 25th anniversary is currently offering a discount on its other guidance and standards publications, Standards in Dentistry, Clinical Examination and Record-Keeping, Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography, and Antimicrobial Prescribing for General Dental Practitioners.

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