Men are more likely to be involved in a General Dental Council's Fitness to Practise case than women and dentists were significantly over-represented at all stages of the process.

That's according to the GDC, which has just published its first analysis of its Fitness to Practise case data.

However, it cautions: 'The report reveals some important insight into the types of cases and dental professionals that appear in fitness to practise. However, this is just one source of information in a complex landscape, and is not, on its own, able to establish the factors that are causing these findings.'

It also reveals that dentists who came onto the register by taking the Overseas Registration Exam were less likely to be involved in a FtP case compared to their UK qualified counterparts but that dentists coming on to the register, having qualified in an EEA country, were overrepresented.

Also, the odds of having been involved in an FtP case were 22% higher for dental professionals identifying as ‘Asian’ or ‘Other’ compared to those identifying as ‘White’.

However, it should be noted there are significant gaps in this data, as it is provided by dental professionals to the GDC on a voluntary basis.

The GDC will be considering how to encourage dental professionals to provide voluntary information so any analysis can provide better insight.

The results will be shared with the GDC’s partners, to work together to discuss the findings, and establish areas of future work and collaboration.

It will also be used to develop the GDC’s internal processes, policy development and external engagement with partners in dentistry to collaboratively formulate solutions to any emerging problems that have been identified.

A ‘state of the nation’ report is to be published at the beginning of 2019.

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