Jonathan Meadows explains why dentists can be struck off for dishonesty even without a finding of risk to patients – and why restoring public trust takes more than admitting wrongdoing.
Here is a question worth asking before you ever need the answer. Can a dentist who has admitted what they did and apologised for it, and against whom there is no finding of risk to patients, still be struck off?
For a dentist recently erased from the register for dishonesty after writing his own job references, the answer was yes.
I was not surprised. I used to prosecute for the GDC and I now defend the professionals I would once have charged. From either side of the room, the pattern is the same. Dishonesty very often ends this way.
What does surprise me, again and again in practice, is how rarely the reason is properly explained to the people it affects.
It is natural to assume a hearing asks one question: am I a safe practitioner? Registrants prepare for it accordingly, with courses, audits and testimonials from patients. That work matters. But it answers only part of what a committee is asking.
The rest sits in two words that appear in almost every fitness to practise decision and are almost never explained: public confidence.
What actually happened?
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