No abstract

Objective There is little information available on journal based verifiable continuing professional development (CPD). The aim of this study was to survey those dentists who have undertaken this form of CPD and elicit their views. Design A questionnaire survey. Method Four hundred dentists who had registered to undertake CPD with the British Dental Journal (BDJ) were randomly selected and sent a questionnaire. Results Three hundred and twelve questionnaires were returned (78%) of these 181 (58%) were male and 131 (42%) were female. Of the 312, 307 had undertaken the BDJ CPD initiative. Two hundred and sixty eight respondents (87.3%) agreed/strongly agreed that the BDJ CPD satisfied their personal CPD needs. Two hundred and eighty three (92.2%) agreed/strongly agreed that their knowledge has been increased as a result of undertaking the BDJ CPD initiative. Two hundred and twenty agreed/strongly agreed (71.7%) that an element of their clinical practice had changed as a result of undertaking the BDJ CPD initiative. Conclusion Journal based learning appears to be an effective way of undertaking verifiable CPD.

Competence in complete dentures falls short of what is expected. With a single exception all the schools seem to have low expectations for their undergraduate students to be practically trained and experienced in the production of complete dentures. Despite the advent of implants and the introduction of clinical dental technicians, there is and will continue to be a need for the competent treatment of the edentulous population by general practitioners.

There is a disparity between the comments which indicate a lack of confidence in complete denture treatment and the response to the questionnaire. Other authors have commented on the lack of experience that has resulted in new graduates entering vocational training with little confidence in complete denture techniques. This report has highlighted these difficulties with respect to a current cohort of DF1s.