The Faculty of Dental Surgery currently runs twenty-two run examinations on a regular basis. The examination portfolio is a mixture of Collegiate, Bi-Collegiate, Tri-Collegiate and Quad-Collegiate examinations at Diploma, Membership and Fellowship level. In 2025, RCSEd managed examinations were held across four UK and twenty international centres involving fifty-two different examination diets with a total of 3543 examination candidates compared to 1464 in 2024. Examiners, assessors, question writers, question bank managers and staff are thanked for their hard work.
Within the portfolio, the Faculty runs a series of Collegiate dental examinations. These include five of the new Dental Diploma Examinations complementing the existing Diploma in Special Care Dentistry, three Membership Examinations (Membership in Implant Dentistry, Membership in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Membership in Advanced General Dental Surgery), Dental Care Professional examinations and our four Speciality Membership examinations (Specialty Membership in Endodontics, Specialty Membership in Orthodontics, Specialty Membership in Periodontics and Specialty Membership in Prosthodontics).
2026 will be a significant year for examination transformation within the Faculty of Dental Surgery. MFDS and the dental specialty examinations will move to a new Tri-Collegiate operating model. The new MFDS and Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations (DSFE) will also have a new governance structure across the three UK colleges. These are Examination Boards, an MFDS Executive Committee, a DSFE Executive Committee and a new Dental Assessment Planning and Review Group (DAPRG) which will oversee the system. RCSEd will be appropriately represented at all levels by both volunteers and college staff.
With the move to Tri-Collegiate examination arrangements for MFDS and the Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations (DSFE), the current intercollegiate examination boards will come to a close as the existing intercollegiate examinations are phased out. For the RCSEd Collegiate examinations, these will continue to be governed internally through our existing Advisory Boards and Specialty Advisory Boards.
MFDS will continue to operate at Membership level within RCSEd. The introduction of the DSFE examinations mean that from 2026, successful candidates become Fellows through examination. Previously, Fellowship by examination was only possible for UK candidates. The Dental Diploma Examinations and our Dental Care Professional Examinations will continue at Associate level. For the Membership in Implant Dentistry, Membership in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Membership in Advanced General Dental Surgery, holders will be at Membership level.
The UK diets of the new MFDS and DSFE examinations will be run by the three UK colleges in partnership with a delivery team comprising staff from each of the three colleges. Candidates will select the College of their choice when applying to sit the examination or confirm their continued membership with their College of choice as part of the application process.
International diets will be run on a collegiate basis and will be ‘branded’ by each college, mirroring the operation of surgical examinations within RCSEd. Candidates will be clear when sitting an international examination that this will be run by a specific college, which they will join on passing. Trainees, employers and regulators can be reassured that the international diets will be run using the same question bank, standards and policies used in the UK diets.
All RCSEd examiners have ‘automatically’ been enrolled in the Guild of Examiners and you will be invited in due course to participate in one of the meetings of the Guild.
The increase in examination candidate numbers during 2025 was substantial and the appetite for the new MFDS and DSFE examinations as makers of excellence is significant. Growth will therefore continue in 2026 and as the step-change in the RCSEd dental examination portfolio for MFDS and dental specialty examinations takes place, the Faculty is well-placed to deliver on our key objectives both in the UK and internationally. As the transition to the new tri-collegiate examination system takes shape, further information will be provided for examiners, assessors and college staff. The new system will ensure fairness, equality and standards expected of a modern assessment portfolio. One final point, the dental acronyms will also be simpler.
Professor Grant McIntyre, RCSEd Vice President (Dental)