GDC Enhanced CPD: Hours by Registrant Title, Development Outcomes & the 5-Year Cycle (UK)

How many CPD hours do you need? (by registrant title)

The minimum number of verifiable CPD hours you must complete over each five-year cycle depends on your GDC registrant title. If you hold more than one title, you must meet the requirement for the title with the higher number of hours.

Two rules apply to every registrant regardless of title. The two-year minimum: you must complete at least 10 hours of CPD in any two consecutive years of your cycle — you cannot leave all your hours to the final year. Verifiable only: under Enhanced CPD (which replaced the old verifiable / non-verifiable split in 2018), only verifiable CPD counts towards your total. There is no separate non-verifiable quota.

The five-year cycle, CPD year and declaration deadlines

CPD is measured over a rolling five-year cycle, and you make an annual CPD statement to the GDC each year as well as a final declaration at the end of the cycle. The CPD year and the annual deadline differ between dentists and DCPs:

The GDC's portal asks for your annual total in whole hours. Your own cycle start and end dates depend on when you registered — always confirm your specific deadline on the GDC's MyGDC/eGDC portal.

The four Development Outcomes (A, B, C, D)

Every piece of CPD you count must be linked to at least one of the GDC's four Development Outcomes, and across your cycle your CPD should address the outcomes relevant to your field of practice. The four outcomes are, in the GDC's own words:

• Outcome A — Communication. "Effective communication with patients, the dental team and others across dentistry, including when obtaining consent, dealing with complaints, and raising concerns when patients are at risk."
• Outcome B — Management & leadership. "Effective management of self and effective management of others or effective work with others in the dental team, in the interests of patients; providing constructive leadership where appropriate."
• Outcome C — Clinical knowledge & skill. "Maintenance and development of knowledge and skill within your field of practice."
• Outcome D — Patient confidence & professionalism. "Maintenance of skills, behaviours and attitudes which maintain patient confidence in you and the dental profession and put patients’ interests first."

What you must record and keep

Enhanced CPD is built around meaningful, reflective learning, not just accumulating hours. For each activity you should record:

• the activity title, date, number of hours and provider;
• the Development Outcome(s) it maps to (A / B / C / D);
• evidence of participation (certificate, attendance record, etc.) and the provider’s quality-assurance confirmation;
• a written reflection — what you learned and how it will change your practice. Reflection is required for each activity, not optional.

You must also keep a personal development plan (PDP) and your CPD record, and retain your CPD records and documentary evidence for five years from the end of your five-year cycle — the GDC may ask to see them. Keep certificates and reflective records safe — losing evidence is a common reason CPD cannot be counted.

Recommended (not mandatory) topics. No single subject is mandatory by hours under Enhanced CPD, but the GDC highly recommends topics with suggested minimums: medical emergencies (at least 10 hours per cycle and at least 2 hours per year), disinfection and decontamination (at least 5 hours per cycle), and radiography and radiation protection (at least 5 hours per cycle for those who undertake radiography — dental technicians are instead pointed to materials and equipment, at least 5 hours per cycle). The GDC also recommends (without set hours) legal and ethical issues, complaints handling, early detection of oral cancer, and safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults. These are recommendations, not legal minimums — though employers, NHS contracts or indemnifiers may set their own expectations.

Track your CPD in Nosht

This page gives you the requirements. To track your own CPD against them, Nosht has a dedicated CPD logger: pick your registrant title and the tool sets the right cycle target (100 / 75 / 50 hours); log each activity against a Development Outcome (A–D) with hours, date, provider, notes and a reflection; and see your running total, percentage to target, the 10-hours-in-two-years floor, and your annual-declaration deadline. You can export your log to CSV. The CPD logger is deterministic — it counts and categorises what you enter against the GDC's published structure; it does not use a language model to decide your hours. Your CPD data is stored on your device only (local storage) — nothing is uploaded.

The CPD logger sits inside the wider Nosht app. Nosht's note-writing features can optionally use Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5 (clinician-reviewed) to help structure clinical notes from your input; the clinical and compliance tools — including this CPD logger — are deliberately deterministic reference and tracking tools, not AI-generated. The logger is a personal record and does not make your GDC declaration for you — you still declare on the GDC's MyGDC/eGDC portal.

How many CPD hours does a dentist need?

A dentist must complete a minimum of 100 hours of verifiable CPD over each five-year Enhanced CPD cycle. At least 10 hours must fall within any two consecutive years, every activity must link to one of the four Development Outcomes (A–D) with a reflection recorded, and you submit an annual CPD statement to the GDC (for dentists, by 28 January, with the CPD year running 1 January to 31 December). Confirm your own cycle dates on the GDC's MyGDC/eGDC portal.

How many CPD hours does a dental nurse need?

Dental nurses (and dental technicians) need 50 hours of verifiable CPD over the five-year cycle — not 75. The 75-hour requirement applies to dental hygienists, dental therapists, orthodontic therapists and clinical dental technicians; dentists need 100 hours. All DCP cycles run 1 August to 31 July, with the annual declaration due by 28 August, and at least 10 hours must fall within any two consecutive years.

How many CPD hours do hygienists and therapists need?

Dental hygienists and dental therapists each need 75 hours of verifiable CPD per five-year cycle — the same figure applies to orthodontic therapists and clinical dental technicians. Their CPD year runs 1 August to 31 July (declaration by 28 August). If you hold more than one title, you must meet the requirement for the title with the higher number of hours.

What are the GDC Development Outcomes?

There are four Development Outcomes that your CPD must address: A — effective communication (with patients, the team and others, including obtaining consent, handling complaints and raising concerns), B — effective management of self and effective work with or leadership of the team in patients' interests, C — maintenance and development of knowledge and skill within your field of practice, and D — maintenance of skills, behaviours and attitudes that maintain patient confidence in you and the profession and put patients' interests first. Each activity you log should be mapped to one or more of these, with a reflection.

How do I log my CPD?

Record each activity as you go: its title, date, hours and provider, the Development Outcome(s) it addresses, your evidence of participation, and a written reflection on what you learned and how it changes your practice. Keep these in a CPD record alongside a personal development plan (PDP), and submit your annual statement to the GDC each year. The official declaration is made on the GDC's MyGDC/eGDC portal; a personal tracker such as the Nosht CPD logger (/tools/cpd) helps you keep the running total and reflections in one place, but does not replace the GDC declaration.

Is the five-year cycle the same for everyone?

The cycle length is five years for all registrants, but the CPD year and deadlines differ: dentists run 1 January to 31 December (declare by 28 January), while DCPs run 1 August to 31 July (declare by 28 August). Your individual cycle start/end depends on when you registered, so always confirm your own dates on the GDC portal.