In 2025, the development of your dental practice will largely be influenced by the measures you take to further your professional development, expand on the services you offer to patients and increase your skillset as a dental practitioner. The dental subset of the medical field is probably the one that has gone through the most developments in the last couple of decades. Gone are the days in which a visit to the dentist was equivalent to slight anguish and pain that followed us for a couple of days.
The dental field is more advanced than ever, and your skills as a medical practitioner will be influenced by the continuous professional development you engage in and by the modules you select in order to further your clinical skillset. Why should you invest in a 12-month orthodontic course that will be equivalent to a level-7 EduQual-accredited qualification? It’s simple, really. An online course like this is the most financially advantageous way to improve your orthodontic skills, master novel treatment techniques and expand on the services you can offer in your practice, all without leaving your town and while continuing to work full-time.
By investing in orthodontic training, you could increase the revenue you can expect from the dental services offered in your practice. Likewise, you will further your professional development, gain the necessary practice hours in order to pass your CPD requirements, gain a new understanding of new facial occlusions and aesthetic-improvement techniques and of course, expand on your professional credibility. A 12-month orthodontic course will meet the requirements for a level-7 EduQual-accredited diploma, which will be equivalent to a Master’s qualification. Plus, the course will be fully online and will thus be ideal for dentists who are not willing to leave their practice for in-person modules.
How Can a Course Like This Help with CPD?
In the UK, continuous professional development is a mandatory requirement for all registered medical professionals, including those involved in the dental field. Are you a hygienist, orthodontic therapist or a dentist accredited by the General Dental Council? In that case, in accordance with the GDC’s Enhanced CPD scheme, you will need to complete at least 100 hours of CPD over a five-year cycle, out of which 10 hours must be completed in each consecutive 24-month period.
As a dentist, these 100 hours of CPD must be verifiable and be accompanied by completion evidence, such as certificates of course graduation, diplomas or official transcripts. A 12-month orthodontic course will help you cover the minimum CPD hours necessary for the continuation of your activity, as at the end, you will obtain a level-7 diploma approved by SQA Accreditation, under England’s Regulated Qualifications Framework. All 25 modules of the course you select will count as CPD activities and support your professional progression.
How to Enrol on an Orthodontic Training Program?
First, in order to legally participate in a 12-month orthodontic course, you will need to be registered with the General Dental Council and obtain your BDS or BChD from a GDC-approved university that offers five-year undergraduate dental programs. On top of this, you will have to complete your obligatory DFT under the supervision of a dental practitioner and have at least one year of experience working as a GDP. Plus, since the course you apply to will be fully online and presented via digital learning modules, you will also need to be proficient in the English language and have the necessary technological means to access the 25 modules of the program.
The 12-month orthodontic training program you enrol in will consist of three separate examinations carried out via multiple-choice tests and a final written case presentation for a provided clinical case. A course like this will typically be comprised of six separate digital learning units, containing 25 taught modules designed and presented by no less than 30 International lecturers. As for price, a training course like this will necessitate either a one-time payment of £9,495 or 12 separate monthly instalments of £785.
It will be a significant financial investment, but in the long term, the ROI you can expect will make such a course basically pay for itself. In the UK, private orthodontic treatments can cost anywhere between £1,500 for conventional braces to more than £10,000 for clear aligners. Realistically, with five extra orthodontic cases per month and a case profit of around £2,100, the money you spent on the orthodontic training course should be recouped in less than a month. Therefore, from a financial point of view, an orthodontic course like this will represent one of the best investments you can make for your dental practitioner career.
What Will You Learn During the Orthodontic Training Modules?
The curriculum of the Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopaedics course you enrol in will be expanded into six different units that will cover everything from the basic principles of orthodontics to the applied techniques of dental orthopaedics in a clinical setting. The first module will cover the basics of craniofacial development and will teach students how to conduct an orthodontic assessment, delve into the main causes of malocclusions, and refresh their clinical skills by covering the fundamentals of clinical photography and cephalometry.
The second module, on the other hand, will cover the foundations of orthodontic treatments, will teach students how to apply cast analysis and Bolton Ratios in the foundation of treatment planning and will go over the foundational knowledge of fixed appliance treatments. The third module will expand on the informational data present in the previous learning materials while also providing students with the foundational knowledge required for the implementation of clear aligner therapy, tooth alignment refining and removable appliances.
The fourth module will cover advanced clinical skills in the orthodontics practice and will consist of lectures about the principles behind TADs, digital orthodontics, class II and III malocclusions and computer tomography in the dental practice, while module five will cover the applied principles of orthodontics in real-life clinical cases. Not least, the last module of the course will provide an in-depth exploration of the practical considerations of complex orthodontic cases.
