UK Dental Technicians & CDTs

CPD. Built for the bench.

CPD written specifically for UK GDC-registered dental technicians and clinical dental technicians. Satisfy your statutory GDC Enhanced CPD requirements through two flexible pathways: a steady monthly 1-hour reading habit or a 10-hour authentic case portfolio.

✓ GDC Outcomes A, B, C & D✓ MyGDC CSV export✓ Live QR Audit Registry
Current Monthly Issue · Click to Preview
SEPTEMBER
Orthodontic appliances: wires, acrylics, retention

A monthly hour on removable appliances, retainers, and the material interfaces that fail in the mouth, not on the model.

Duration1 hour
TypeVerifiable
OutcomesC · D
Tailored GDC Compliance

Choose Your Ideal CPD Pathway

Whether you prefer continuous monthly technical reading or completing your annual requirements in a single authentic laboratory case, Bench Hour gives you full control.

Pathway 1 · Monthly£8 / month

Standard Membership (12 Issues)

One focused hour per month. Read an in-depth laboratory module covering implants, occlusion, materials, or digital design, pass a 3-question MCQ check, and record your reflection.

  • ✓ 12.0 CPD Hours/Year (1.0h each month)
  • ✓ Pre-mapped Personal Development Plan (PDP)
  • ✓ Complimentary live webinar & study club access
  • ✓ 5-Year Cycle Passes available (£320 one-off)
Start Monthly Route (£8/mo) →
Pathway 2 · Casework£100 / year

10-Hour Work-Based Portfolio

The first CPD pathway built around your work, rather than a generic course catalogue. Turn your everyday bench work into your entire annual CPD requirement. Document a real patient case with 3–5 photographs, answer 3 academic review inquiries, and receive university-assessed feedback.

  • ✓ 10.0 Verifiable Hours in 1 Project
  • ✓ Covers GDC Development Outcomes A, B, C & D
  • ✓ Complimentary live webinar & study club access
  • ✓ Assessed by Higher Education Academic Lead
  • ✓ GDPR compliant with full audit certificate
Enrol in Work-Based CPD (£100) →
50 hours
Dental technicians / 5-year cycle
75 hours
CDTs / 5-year cycle
10 hours
Every two consecutive years
100%
Technician & CDT tailored
Why Bench Hour?

CPD is easier when you keep up with it.

CPD does not have to become a scramble at the end of the year. Bench Hour gives you a simple way to keep learning throughout the year, with one focused session each month and a complete audit trail of what you've completed.

The learning is written for dental technicians and clinical dental technicians, with practical laboratory topics mapped directly to GDC development outcomes (A–D). Every subscriber receives a pre-mapped Personal Development Plan (PDP) template alongside invitations to live clinical webinars and evening study clubs.

Your completed learning, reflections, PDP, and verifiable certificates stay together in your CPD portfolio, ready for you to review, export, and record on MyGDC. Every certificate is permanently logged and searchable in our Public Audit Registry, ensuring your certificates, reflection statements, and GDC outcomes are immediately verifiable under inspection.

Technician-specific CPD covering materials, occlusion, digital workflows, implants and laboratory practice.
Relevant professional topics alongside technical subjects.
Clear aims, learning outcomes and GDC development outcomes for each session.
Complimentary access to Dental Apptitude live CPD events.
A personal record of completed CPD, reflections and certificates with live QR verification.
One hour each month, so your portfolio grows throughout the year rather than all at once.
The 12 Issues · August to July GDC Cycle

Twelve hours. Mapped to the bench.

Structured around the UK dental registrant year running 1 August to 31 July. Complete each issue month by month or access past unlocked modules from your archive.

AUGUST

Implant restorations on the bench

Screw-retained versus cement-retained, analog and digital abutments, and the torque values that belong in the notes.

Start Module
SEPTEMBER

Orthodontic appliances: wires, acrylics, retention

A monthly hour on removable appliances, retainers, and the material interfaces that fail in the mouth, not on the model.

Start Module
OCTOBER

Safeguarding and raising concerns from the lab

What a technician can see in a model, a photograph, or a conversation — and the duty that follows.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
NOVEMBER

Complaints, records, and the work ticket as evidence

When a restoration comes back: the ticket, photographs, and lot numbers on the case. How to keep them.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
DECEMBER

Radiography awareness for technicians

A GDC highly recommended subject, taught for people who read films and CBCT slices to design — not to expose.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
JANUARY

Medical emergencies in the laboratory

Emergency protocols, anaphylaxis, and hypoglycaemia on the bench — and the first aid, kits, and records a lab must keep.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
FEBRUARY

Disinfection, decontamination, and the work ticket

Incoming impressions, revised records, and devices — a practical decontamination path that survives an audit.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
MARCH

Zirconia, lithium disilicate, and the firing schedule

How sintering, glaze, and cooling actually change strength and shade — and the failures that start in the furnace.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
APRIL

Occlusion for the technician

Articulators, dynamic guidance, and why a "high crown" is usually a communication failure, not a milling one.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
MAY

Scans, design, and the analog finish

Intraoral scans, design software thresholds, and where a technician's eye still decides the case.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
JUNE

GDC Standards from the laboratory

Scope of practice, raising concerns, and the legal shape of a prescription — written for people who never see the patient.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
JULY

Shade, light, and talking to the surgery

Photography, mixed lighting, and a vocabulary that stops "make it warmer" coming back as a remake.

1.0 Hour VerifiableDetails →
How It Works

Subscribe. Complete. Record.

01

Subscribe

Monthly, annual, or 5-year cycle pass. One hour is reserved for you every month — no hunt for a last-minute course.

02

Complete the hour

Sixty minutes, technician-specific, with clear learning outcomes and GDC development outcomes A–D.

03

Audit-Proof Certification

Every certificate comes with a unique verification UUID and live QR code. GDC auditors can scan to instantly authenticate your completed hours.

Standard Membership · Monthly Verifiable Modules

One hour per month — Choose your plan.

Subscribe as an individual registrant, or register your whole lab with separate technician logins, individual verifiable certificates, and a lab admin dashboard.

Monthly
£8 /mo
Cancel anytime
✓ Live events included
Annual
£80 /yr
2 months free included
✓ Live events included
One-Off Pass
5-Year Cycle
£320 one-off
Save £80 vs annual
✓ Live events included

Purchase 5-Year Full Cycle Pass

One payment. Immediate access to all issues for the full 5-year GDC cycle.

Independent CPD. Not affiliated with the GDC. Registrants remain responsible for submitting on MyGDC.
Bespoke Work-Based CPD · Higher Education Quality Assured

Work-Based CPD: 10 Verifiable Hours From Your Own Bench Work.

Prefer authentic practical evaluation over monthly reading modules? Our Work-Based CPD portfolio allows you to fabricate a routine or complex patient case in your laboratory, as part of your daily work, and be awarded 10 hours of CPD for it. Identify a case, design/fabricate it as normal, document the rationale & quality assurance, and have the case evaluated by our Higher Education Dental Technology Lead.

How the 4-Stage Work-Based CPD Works

1
Planning & Rationale

Submit a 250–350 word outline detailing the clinical prescription, material selection rationale, and technical considerations for your chosen discipline.

2
Photographic Bench Evidence & QA Feedback

Upload 3–5 high-resolution photographs documenting fabrication stages and the finished device, alongside senior laboratory QA appraisal, or clinician feedback, or patient feedback.

3
Academic Inquiry

Answer 3 evaluation questions from the academic lead to critically assess your material choices and clinical communication.

4
Attain 10-hour CPD Certificate

Submit your final reflective statement to receive your 10-Hour CPD Certificate covering GDC Outcomes A, B, C, and D, with a public audit QR code.

✓ Complete annual requirement in 1 case✓ GDPR compliant✓ University-level feedback
Individual Case Sign-up

Work-Based CPD

£100one-off payment

Includes full workspace access, dedicated academic review, and a certificate for 10 CPD hours.

One-time fee · No recurring charges · Instant workspace access
CPD Learning Style · Self Assessment

How do you prefer to approach your CPD?

Every technician develops knowledge differently. Continuing education is most meaningful when it complements how you think, plan, and solve problems at the bench. This is why Bench Hour offers two distinct, purpose-built pathways.

This brief questionnaire will help you understand whether you would benefit more from structured, monthly modules, or deep inquiry into a live clinical case (Schön, 1983). Answer the five questions below to assess which pathway aligns with you.

01 · Problem Solving

When an unfamiliar or complex case lands on your bench, what is your first instinct?

02 · Cadence & timingPreference: 3 of 5

How do you traditionally find time for your CPD throughout the year?

Slide towards the side that best reflects how you balance learning with daily lab casework.

← Setting time aside to complete a solid project once in a whileA regular check-in once a month →
03 · Learning Focus

Which priority feels more valuable to you right now?

04 · Assessment & Checking In

How do you prefer to verify what you have learned?

05 · Reflection StyleDepth: 3 of 5

When writing a GDC reflective statement, what comes naturally?

Consider how you prefer to document evidence for your PDP.

← Recording 2–3 practical takeaways I can apply tomorrowWriting a detailed case analysis from prescription to delivery →
Pattern: Balanced / PragmaticObservation for your PDP

How this relates to your practice

You don’t fit neatly into one approach—and you shouldn’t have to. You appreciate broad updates that keep your core knowledge sharp, but you also recognise when a particularly complex implant or aesthetic case on your bench offers a genuine educational opportunity.

Our pedagogical perspective:

Many technicians find success with a combined approach: maintaining a light, steady monthly habit for general scope and GDC updates, while occasionally stepping aside to accredit a significant practical case when an interesting technical challenge arises.

Suggested CPD style: Both Pathways in TandemRead about this format above ↑
Reference: Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books, New York.
Support & Compliance Guidance

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about verifiable hours, laboratory billing, Work-Based CPD, and GDC audit compliance.