Hospital dentists provide secondary care services and consultant back-up for those in primary care in the General Dental Service and Salaried Service, together with emergency trauma services.
Career pathways for hospital dentists
Hospital dentists careers will usually start in dental core training (DCT) followed by a specialty training post. After a few years of training, there are options to become a career grade specialist or be employed as a consultant.
Find out more in our BDA careers guide.
DCT recruitment is centralised in Scotland and national recruitment has been introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Within the dental specialties, career pathways vary slightly, but all those aspiring to enter specialist training should complete two years of postgraduate training.
The dental specialties
The main specialties practised are oral surgery, orthodontics, paediatric dentistry and restorative dentistry, together with its sub-specialties of periodontics, prosthodontics and endodontics.
There are also the additional dental specialties, which include oral and maxillofacial radiology, oral pathology, oral medicine and oral microbiology.
Information and advice on how to get into dental specialty training can be found in our Guide to dental specialty training.
Working for you: representing hospital dentists
Dentists working in hospitals throughout the UK are supported by the Central Committee for Hospital Dental Services (CCHDS) and the Hospital Dentists Group.
CCHDS represents hospital dental staff, and works with the British Medical Association (BMA), who negotiate on terms and conditions for medical hospital staff.
The Hospital Dentists Group offers high-quality CPD for dentists working in hospitals, runs study days, events and courses, and provides opportunities for networking.
