Remediation in Dental Council cases
Dentists in Ireland are still regulated under the Dentists Act 1985. Unlike doctors, nurses and pharmacists, whose fitness to practise systems are set out in Acts passed in 2007 and 2011, dentistry relies on an older inquiry model: an application is made to the Dental Council's Fitness to Practise Committee, the Committee decides whether there is a prima facie case, holds an inquiry if there is, and reports to the Council, which then decides what, if anything, to do. Some parts of that model were updated when the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Act 2020 amended the Dentists Act from 6 May 2025.
The Council's own definition sets a high bar. Professional misconduct is described as a serious falling short in the standards expected of a dentist, and allegations must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. The Council is also clear that its process is not designed to settle private disputes between dentists and patients about fees or access to records, and that it has no power to make a dentist redo work or refund a patient. Its job is public protection, measured against the Code of Practice relating to Professional Behaviour and Ethical Conduct, which has applied since 1 March 2022.
This page explains how that process works, where structured learning can genuinely help, what good evidence looks like, and which of our courses fit the concerns that most often lead to complaints about dentists. No regulator vets or recommends remediation course providers, and no course can guarantee an outcome. Use this material alongside advice from your dental indemnity provider or defence organisation, the Irish Dental Association if you are a member, or a solicitor. It is not legal advice.
Before you start
No regulator vets or recommends remediation course providers, and no course can guarantee an outcome. Take advice from your indemnity provider, union or solicitor, and agree with them which learning is relevant to your case.
Common concerns about dentists, and the courses that address them
Match the learning to the specific concern raised. A general ethics certificate rarely answers a precise allegation about consent, fees or record-keeping on its own.
Consent and treatment information
Complaints often turn on whether a patient understood the risks, alternatives and costs before complex or irreversible treatment, or whether the plan changed mid-procedure without a fresh discussion. The Code of Practice treats the quality of information and the patient's understanding, not a signature, as what makes consent valid.
Dental records and documentation
Thin, late or altered notes weaken any defence and are themselves a professional failing. Learning should cover what a defensible dental record contains, how to record significant conversations and how to correct an entry honestly.
Fees, billing and commercial pressure
Concerns about treatment recommended for financial reasons, unclear estimates or inaccurate claims go to probity. The Council will not resolve a fee dispute, but dishonesty around money can still be misconduct.
Clinical standards and treatment planning
Where the concern is about the standard of treatment, show that you understand where your competence ends, how you plan and audit your work, and when you refer.
Infection prevention and cross-infection
Decontamination, instrument reprocessing and practice systems are core structured CPD areas in the Council's guide. A lapse here usually needs both personal learning and a documented change to practice systems.
Adverse events and openness
How a dentist responds after something goes wrong, including telling the patient promptly and honestly, is often judged as closely as the original event.
Boundaries, conduct and online behaviour
Inappropriate relationships, comments, or posts that identify patients undermine trust in the profession and are taken seriously regardless of clinical skill.
Prescribing and patient safety
Antibiotic, analgesic and controlled drug prescribing outside guidance, or without adequate history-taking, can raise both clinical and conduct questions.
How a Dental Council fitness to practise case moves
The stages below follow sections 38 to 47 of the Dentists Act 1985 as amended. The Act uses the term inquiry for the hearing stage and gives the final sanction decision to the Council, not to the Committee.
- 1
Application to the Fitness to Practise Committee
The Council or any person may apply to the Fitness to Practise Committee for an inquiry into a registered dentist's fitness to practise. Grounds include alleged professional misconduct and alleged unfitness to practise by reason of physical or mental disability, along with several statutory grounds added by later legislation.
- 2
Prima facie decision
The Committee considers whether there is a prima facie case for holding an inquiry. If it decides there is not, it tells the Council, which may decide to take no further action or may direct the Committee to hold an inquiry anyway.
- 3
Notice to the dentist
Before an inquiry, the dentist receives written notice setting out the evidence alleged and confirming the right to attend and to be represented. This is the point at which proper representation matters most.
- 4
The inquiry
The Registrar, or another person approved by the Council, presents the evidence. The Committee has the same powers as the High Court to compel witnesses and documents. Unless the dentist is found to have committed the alleged misconduct or other ground, the Committee's findings are not to be made public without the dentist's consent.
- 5
Report and Council decision
The Committee reports its findings to the Council. The Council then decides whether to advise, admonish or censure the dentist, attach conditions to their registration, suspend them, or erase them from the register. Published outcomes show cases where a dentist admitted the facts at inquiry and the Council censured them under section 41.
- 6
High Court stage
A dentist has 21 days to apply to the High Court to cancel a decision to erase, suspend or attach conditions. If no application is made, the Council may apply to the High Court to confirm the decision, which the Court will do unless it sees good reason not to. Since 6 May 2025, an advise, admonish or censure decision can also be challenged in the High Court within 21 days.
- 7
Notification and restoration
The Council notifies the HSE and, where their identity is known, employers, as well as regulators in other jurisdictions where relevant. An erased dentist may later be restored by direction of the Council, which can attach conditions, and the Council can end a suspension or remove conditions.
Powers that sit outside the inquiry itself
Several provisions of the Dentists Act operate alongside, or instead of, a full inquiry. Knowing them helps you understand what is at stake at each point.
High Court suspension order (section 44)
Where the Council considers it in the public interest, it may apply to the High Court for an order that a dentist's registration is suspended for a specified period. The application is heard otherwise than in public, and the Court can make interim or interlocutory orders.
Erasure after conviction (section 42)
The Council may decide to erase a dentist convicted in the State of an indictable offence, or abroad of conduct that would be indictable here. The same 21-day High Court route applies.
Attaching conditions (section 40)
After an inquiry, the Council may attach whatever conditions it thinks fit to a dentist's continued registration. Conditions can be removed in whole or in part at any time, which is where documented, sustained improvement becomes relevant.
Notifying others (section 47)
Sanctions, conditions, suspensions and restorations are notified to the HSE. Employers and regulators in other jurisdictions may also be told, so the consequences of a finding can reach well beyond Ireland.
Legislative change in progress
On 7 August 2026 the Government approved the General Scheme of a Bill amending the Dentists Act 1985 to make CPD a statutory requirement and let the Council act on non-compliance without waiting for a complaint. The Council has said further amendments are expected before a fully revised Act. Check the current position before relying on any detail here.
Recommended Dental Council remediation courses
All 40Each course is self-paced and online. You get scenario-based questions with an 80% pass mark, reflection prompts and a certificate of completion showing your name, the course title and the estimated learning time.
Ethics and Ethical Standards for Dentists and Dental Professionals
Applying the Dental Council Code of Practice to Everyday Ethical Decision-Making in Irish Dentistry
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Dentists and Dental Practitioners
Patient Welfare, Competence, Communication, Accountability and Public Trust in Irish Dental Practice
Dental Consent, Communication and Record-Keeping
Consent, communication, and records as one connected professional duty in Irish dental practice
Probity for Healthcare Professionals
Honesty, Integrity, and Trustworthiness in the Irish Regulatory Context
Remediation for Fitness to Practise
Designing, Evidencing, and Sustaining Individualised Remediation in Irish Healthcare
Insight for Fitness to Practise
Understanding Conduct, Impact, and Change in Irish Healthcare Practice
Reflection for Fitness to Practise
Developing Genuine Reflective Practice, Insight, and Evidence of Learning in Irish Healthcare
Rebuilding Trust of Patients, the Public, and the Healthcare Regulator
Restoring Trustworthiness in the Irish Healthcare Context
Duty of Candour in Healthcare Practice
Openness and honesty when things go wrong, in the Irish healthcare context
Building evidence the Fitness to Practise Committee and Council can weigh
The Council's decision ranges from advice to erasure, and conditions can later be lifted. Evidence that is specific, dated and linked to the concern gives your representative something concrete to put forward at each of those points.
What to put in your bundle
- Certificates of completion showing your name, the course title and the estimated learning time, matched to the specific concern raised
- A written reflective account for each course explaining what you now do differently and why
- Revised consent forms, treatment-plan templates or estimate letters you have introduced, with dates
- A sample of anonymised records before and after your learning, showing the change in quality
- A clinical audit of your own work in the area of concern, with a re-audit after changes
- Updated practice policies on decontamination, complaints handling or patient communication
- A personal development plan with dated goals, reviewed with a mentor or colleague
- Testimonials from colleagues who have observed your practice since the concern arose
- Your CPD record for the current five-year cycle, showing structured and self-directed hours as the Council's guide describes
- Evidence of any supervision, peer review or mentoring you have arranged voluntarily
Writing your reflection
- Describe what happened plainly, without minimising it or blaming the patient or your team
- Explain the effect on the patient and on public confidence in dentistry
- Link your learning to specific parts of the Dental Council's Code of Practice
- Show the concrete changes you have made to your own practice and your practice systems
- Say how you will keep those changes in place and how you will know if they slip
When to start, and how to use the time well
Start as soon as you know about the complaint, after you have spoken to your indemnity provider or solicitor. The steps from application to prima facie decision to inquiry take time, and learning completed early gives you a period of practice in which to apply it and gather proof that the change is real. Learning crammed into the weeks before an inquiry is easy to see through.
Pace matters too. Our courses are self-paced, with gated lessons that must be completed in order and scenario-based questions with an 80% pass mark, so they cannot be rushed through. Two to five hours of estimated learning time per course is enough for focused learning without burying a precise concern under a pile of unrelated certificates. Plan two or three closely matched courses, then spend most of your effort on applying what you learn in the surgery.
Dental hygienists, dental nurses and the wider team
The Dental Council keeps registers of dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental nurses and clinical dental technicians. The Council has stated that practising as a dental hygienist without registration is illegal and that dentists are responsible for checking their clinical staff are registered, warning that failing to do so may itself lead to an allegation of professional misconduct.
If a concern involves the wider team, think about supervision, delegation and team communication as well as your own clinical work. Courses on teamwork, documentation and incident reporting can support a practice-level response, but always check with your adviser how the Council's process applies to your specific registration.
CPD now and after the proposed CPD legislation
For now, CPD remains an ethical obligation for dentists. The Council's guide recommends at least 250 hours over five years, with at least 100 structured, and at least 50 hours a year, and you are not currently asked to submit evidence. Courses you take for remediation can also count towards that record if you keep proper documentation.
Once the proposed legislation is enacted, CPD will become a statutory requirement and the Council will be able to act where dentists do not comply. Keeping a clean, reflective CPD record now is good preparation for that change, as well as useful evidence if a concern is ever raised.
Mistakes dentists make when remediating
- Waiting for the inquiry date before doing anything, which leaves no time to show sustained change
- Collecting general certificates that do not address the actual allegation
- Writing reflection that defends the treatment instead of examining what went wrong
- Contacting the complainant directly about the complaint without advice
- Describing a course as Dental Council approved, when the Council has not approved CPD activities since 2020
- Ignoring practice systems, such as estimates, consent templates or decontamination logs, when the concern is partly systemic
Core course
Remediation for Fitness to Practise
Our core remediation course: 4 hours estimated learning time and 30 scenario questions on planning, evidencing and sustaining remediation, with a certificate when you pass.
Dental Council remediation: common questions
Who decides my case: the Fitness to Practise Committee or the Dental Council?
Both have a role. The Fitness to Practise Committee decides whether there is a prima facie case, holds the inquiry and reports its findings. The Council then decides what action to take, such as advising, admonishing or censuring you, attaching conditions, suspending you or erasing your name. Several of those decisions can be challenged in the High Court within 21 days.
What does the Dental Council mean by professional misconduct?
The Council describes professional misconduct as a serious falling short in the standards expected of a dentist, and says allegations must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. A dispute about fees or a poor outcome on its own is not automatically misconduct.
Are Dental Council inquiries held in public?
The Dentists Act provides that, unless the dentist is found to have committed the alleged misconduct or other ground, the Committee's findings are not made public without the dentist's consent. The Council publishes outcomes where allegations are proven, including erasure, censure and conditions. Ask your representative how this applies at each stage of your case.
Can the Council suspend me before an inquiry finishes?
Under section 44 of the Dentists Act, the Council may apply to the High Court for an order suspending your registration where it considers this in the public interest. That application is heard otherwise than in public, and the Court can make interim orders.
Will completing a course stop the inquiry?
No. No course can stop a regulatory process or guarantee an outcome, and the Dental Council does not approve remediation courses. Well-targeted learning, with reflection and evidence of changed practice, is something you and your representative can choose to put forward when it is relevant.
Who should I contact first if I receive a complaint?
Contact your dental indemnity provider or defence organisation before you respond. The Irish Dental Association may also help members, and a solicitor can advise on the legal process. Do not contact the complainant about the complaint without advice.
Can I be restored to the register after erasure?
The Dentists Act allows the Council to restore an erased name by direction, and it can attach conditions to restoration. Evidence of what you have learned and changed is likely to matter, so keep a complete record of your remediation from the start.
Official sources
This page was checked against Dental Council of Ireland guidance in October 2026. Processes and guidance change, so always confirm the current position with the regulator and your adviser. This page is general information, not legal advice.
- Dental Council: Fitness to Practice
- Dental Council: Making a complaint
- Dentists Act 1985, section 38 (revised)
- Dentists Act 1985, section 39 (revised)
- Dentists Act 1985, section 44 (revised)
- Dental Council: Competence (CPD)
- Dental Council: Legislating for Ongoing Competence
- Department of Health: General Scheme of a Bill introducing statutory CPD for dentists