The role of dental ethics in the Safe Practitioner Framework (2023): a dental educator’s personal viewpoint

AI Summary

Curriculum shift from cultivating a 'safe beginner' to developing a 'safe practitioner', reframing expectations for graduate competence and responsibility.
Introduction of explicit behavioural learning outcomes alongside knowledge and clinical outcomes to formalise professional behaviours within dental training.
An implicit ethics of care appears to underpin changes but lacks formal teaching, risking unprepared students and educators facing ethical dilemmas and moral distress.

AI Summary

From September 2025, dental education in the UK followed a new curriculum called the Safe Practitioner Framework.

This represents a departure from the previous curricula in three key ways: 1) a shift from the previous developmental goal of becoming a 'safe beginner' to that of a 'safe practitioner'; 2) creating a set of explicit behavioural learning outcomes in conjunction with the existing knowledge- and clinical-based learning outcomes; and 3) the addition of contemporary issues into the formal curriculum, including equality, diversity and inclusion topics, mental health and wellbeing, and sustainability.

Considering that there has been 'reliance on professional regulation as shorthand for the ethical development of students' in dental education, this paper will offer a perspective on how dental ethics are represented in the new curriculum and what it means for aspiring and future dental professionals in the UK.

Basic summary

Br Dent J. 2026 Jun;240(11):755-758. doi: 10.1038/s41415-026-9641-7. Epub 2026 Jun 12.

ABSTRACT

From September 2025, dental education in the UK followed a new curriculum called the Safe Practitioner Framework. This represents a departure from the previous curricula in three key ways: 1) a shift from the previous developmental goal of becoming a ‘safe beginner’ to that of a ‘safe practitioner’; 2) creating a set of explicit behavioural learning outcomes in conjunction with the existing knowledge- and clinical-based learning outcomes; and 3) the addition of contemporary issues into the formal curriculum, including equality, diversity and inclusion topics, mental health and wellbeing, and sustainability. Considering that there has been ‘reliance on professional regulation as shorthand for the ethical development of students’ in dental education, this paper will offer a perspective on how dental ethics are represented in the new curriculum and what it means for aspiring and future dental professionals in the UK. In this paper, it will be argued that an ethics of care philosophy appears to underpin these curricular changes, though it is not named explicitly. The lack of formal engagement with ethics of care means that students and educators alike may be ill-prepared for the ethical dilemmas, moral distress and pedagogic challenges the new curriculum will create.

PMID:42286302 | DOI:10.1038/s41415-026-9641-7

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