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Chief Dental Officer
The Chief Dental Officer provides professional leadership for dental advisors in the Department and its agencies and has close links with the professions and other staff across government both to provide expert advice and to ensure a coherent input to policy across Government
About the Chief Dental Officer
The Chief Dental Officer, Barry Cockcroft is the Government’s most senior dental advisor for England and the professional head of dental staff in England.
What's new
The latest dental policy publications, guidance documents and consultations, related policy information and events.
Oral Health
Information about dental public health in the NHS, improvements in oral health over the past 30 years, the Government’s oral health plan for England and guidance for strategic health authorities on water fluoridation.
NHS dental services
Reforms introduced in April 2006 are designed to help provide better access to dental services and simplify the system of patient charges.
Promoting high-quality dentistry
Guidance, policy statements and other information relating to issues such as clinical governance, prescribing, decontamination, cross-infection control and supply of local anaesthetic.
The dental workforce
The Government undertook to recruit the equivalent of 1,000 additional dentists by October 2005 in response to the July 2004 publication, Report of the Primary Care Dental Workforce Review.
Dental education and professional self-regulation
The Department works closely with the General Dental Council, which is responsible for professional self-regulation and standards of education, and with the postgraduate dental deans, the Faculty of Dental Surgery and other organisations involved in dental education.
Information technology and dentistry
The Department is working closely with NHS Connecting for Health, to ensure that dentistry is completely integrated within the National Programme for IT, thereby giving dental practices and community clinics access to all its benefits.
CDO letters
CDO letters are the main way in which the Chief Dental Officer communicates with dentists and their teams. They are issued to inform dentists of policy changes and to advise on key issues of the day in terms of the practice of dentistry in England. They are issued as appropriate. Copies of the most recent letters are located here.
CDO Update
CDO Update is a newsletter sent by the Chief Dental Officer to all dentists and associated professionals in England. It incorporates topics that might otherwise have required an individual letter, progress reports on earlier letters, and other information from the Department of interest to practising dentists.
Contact the CDO's office
The office of the CDO welcomes comments and queries.
Additional links
NHS dental services
Reforms introduced in April 2006 are designed to help provide better access to dental services and simplify the system of patient charges.
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