Due to the design of the study, the data collection was only based on the information available online or in dental journals. This inevitably carried the risk of the information being outdated or exclusion of further details that were available via other methods. This was particularly relevant when reviewing the core modules of the academic courses identified. A considerable number of courses only displayed the title of the core modules without further expansion on topics covered within each module. Hence, detailed review of the core modules and direct comparison of identified courses were impossible. This explains why the findings had to rely on statements from the institutions confirming whether or not the courses were compliant with the FGDP (UK) TSID 2016 guideline and GDC requirements.

‘Guidelines for selecting appropriate patients to receive treatment with dental implants: priorities for the NHS [9]’ is a national guideline provided by the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS Eng) that specifies the selection criteria for National Health Service (NHS) dental implant therapy in the UK. This document details eight main groups of patients who should be prioritised for treatment with dental implants within the NHS (Table 5).

The demand for dental implants from patients outside these priority groups had to be met by the private sector and this subsequently led to an increase in the number of dental practitioners practising Dental Implantology in the recent years. According to Ucer in his article ‘Educational Pathways in Implant Dentistry in the UK’ [7], an unpublished research had shown that most dental practitioners place 20–50 implants per annum, while a small number of referral dentists place 200 to 400 yearly.

The number of specialists in periodontology and prosthodontics were 377 and 446, respectively, according to the statistics provided by the GDC. However, these figures do not include specialists in other specialties who may be practising implant dentistry, which refers to 294 restorative specialists and 734 specialist oral surgeons. Moreover, these figures are immensely underestimated in predicting the number of dental practitioners practising Dental Implantology because they do not account for those who are not on the GDC specialist register and the appropriately trained practitioners who practise Dental Implantology following completion of academic or CPD courses.