Dental education and the European context

The GDC's remit for standards of training for dentists qualifying in the UK does not extend to other European countries whose dentally qualified nationals are free under European law to practise dentistry in this country.There are concerns that standards of training and practice are not uniform across all European countries and that significant numbers of EU dentists are migrating to this country.Projects such as DENTED, a voluntary system of visitations of schools across Europe, and SOCRATES/ERASMUS which fosters cross-European staff and student exchanges, offer a realistic prospect of a gradual convergence of standards across all of Europe.