How you conduct yourself. The GDC's standards underpin this area, and questions typically place you in an awkward situation — a complaint, a colleague's error, a safeguarding concern — and ask what a registrant should do.
What professionalism covers in the Knowledge Test
- GDC Standards for the Dental Team and the duties they impose
- Communicating with anxious, distressed or angry patients
- Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults
- Raising concerns and duty of candour
- Working within your scope of practice
- Complaints handling
Where candidates lose marks
Choosing the tactful answer over the correct one. Where a duty exists, it applies.
Assuming safeguarding is someone else's responsibility.
Acting outside scope of practice because a colleague asked.
The nine GDC principles
Standards for the Dental Team is the document this topic is built on, and it is worth knowing the nine principles as a list. Questions rarely quote them directly, but they decide which answer is correct when two options both look reasonable — the one aligned to a principle wins.
| # | Principle |
|---|---|
| 1 | Put patients' interests first |
| 2 | Communicate effectively with patients |
| 3 | Obtain valid consent |
| 4 | Maintain and protect patients' information |
| 5 | Have a clear and effective complaints procedure |
| 6 | Work with colleagues in a way that is in patients' best interests |
| 7 | Maintain, develop and work within your professional knowledge and skills |
| 8 | Raise concerns if patients are at risk |
| 9 | Make sure your personal behaviour maintains patients' confidence in you and the dental profession |
Valid consent
Consent must be given voluntarily by someone with capacity, who has been given enough information to decide. All three parts matter: a signature on a form from a patient who did not understand the alternatives is not valid consent. Consent is also ongoing rather than a single event — it can be withdrawn, and a change in treatment means revisiting it.
Scope of practice
A registrant must work within their knowledge, skills and training. For a dental nurse that means not carrying out tasks reserved to other registrants, and not taking radiographs or providing oral health education without the relevant post-registration qualification. Exam questions often place a colleague's request against this boundary; being asked does not extend your scope.
Raising concerns
Principle eight requires a registrant to raise concerns if patients are at risk, and it applies regardless of seniority. The answer that involves saying nothing to keep the peace is reliably the wrong one — as is waiting to see whether the problem recurs.
Worked examples
Real questions from our bank, with the reasoning. No sign-in needed.
A patient arrives angry about a delay at a previous appointment. What is the best first action?
- AExplain that the schedule was not your fault
- BListen calmly and acknowledge the frustrationCorrect
- CTell them delays are unavoidable
- DRefer them to the complaints form and move on
Why: Acknowledging the concern de-escalates and is consistent with the GDC's principles on communication and complaints. Defending the practice first tends to escalate.
Both free mocks draw from this topic in the same proportion as the real paper — 65 questions in 90 minutes, with an explanation for every answer and a per-topic breakdown at the end.
Start a free mock examProfessionalism questions, answered
What are the GDC's nine principles?
Put patients' interests first; communicate effectively; obtain valid consent; maintain and protect patients' information; have a clear complaints procedure; work with colleagues in patients' best interests; maintain, develop and work within your knowledge and skills; raise concerns if patients are at risk; and make sure your personal behaviour maintains confidence in the profession.
What makes consent valid?
It must be voluntary, given by someone with capacity, and informed — the patient understands what is proposed, the alternatives and the risks. A signed form on its own does not make consent valid, and consent can be withdrawn at any point.
Can a dental nurse be asked to work outside their scope of practice?
They can be asked, but they should not agree. Working within your training and competence is a GDC principle, and being instructed by a senior colleague does not extend your scope or transfer the responsibility.
What should I do if I have a safeguarding concern?
Raise it, following your practice's safeguarding policy and named lead. Principle eight applies to every registrant, and the duty is to raise the concern rather than to prove it first.
How should a complaint be handled?
Under a clear, published procedure, promptly and without defensiveness. Listening and acknowledging the concern is almost always the correct first step in an exam scenario — explaining why the patient is wrong is not.
The other nine topics
Independent study material, not affiliated with or endorsed by NEBDN. Always check the official NEBDN website for the current syllabus. NEBDN does not publish a pass mark for the Knowledge Test.