Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve training on cleft in (a) undergraduate dental education and (b) ongoing dental professional development.

The standard of training for dentists is the responsibility of the General Dental Council (GDC) who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses and dental schools to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the GDC’s outcome standards.

Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all nevertheless emphasise the skills and approaches a dentist must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.

NHS England commissions services for children, young people, and adults with a cleft lip and/or palate. The patient pathway can start from pre-birth and continues into adulthood. Cleft services provide care through multi-disciplinary teams, and the comprehensive care pathway will include elements such as paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry, and orthodontics. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d07-cleft-lip.pdf