Sir, the subgroup for education of the Association of British Academic Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (ABAOMS) are currently working towards the production of a document outlining a competency based oral surgery undergraduate curriculum for the United Kingdom. As part of this process it was necessary to review a number of pertinent documents.1,2,3,4,5,6 In addition, following the Bologna Declaration of 1999, we had to consider the guidance that has been distributed by DENTED, the Thematic Network Project Achieving Convergence in Standards of Output of European Dental Education.7,8 The most recent document from this group outlines a profile and 17 competencies that all European dental schools will be expected to adhere to. The reviewing process for this document will begin in 2007 with the expectation of completion in 2009 for implementation in 2010.

The major competence of specific interest to our specialty is Domain VI in this document:

'On graduation, a dentist must be competent to treat and manage conditions requiring simple reparative surgical procedures of the hard and soft tissues in patients of all ages, including the extraction of teeth, the removal of roots when necessary and the performance of minor soft tissue surgery, and to apply appropriate pharmaceutical agents to support treatment.'

This major competence is dependent upon a number of supporting competencies, examples of which are given in the document but are subject to modification to suit 'national or regional needs'. It is these supporting competencies 6.28 to 6.33 that need to be more prescriptive to reflect the level of surgical competency expected of UK graduates; at present there is a suggestion within the document that the graduating dentist should be 'competent to perform surgical extraction of an uncomplicated unerupted tooth' (6.30). This, although achievable, is a definite move away from our traditional standard of a degree of ability to 'undertake the extraction of teeth and the removal of roots, where necessary utilising surgical techniques'1 and would need further clarification of the 'uncomplicated unerupted tooth'. In addition to this there is a suggestion within the major competency text that 'minor soft tissue surgery' should be within the competence of a graduating dentist — this could be interpreted as biopsy, a subject of much recent public debate in this publication.9,10

The standardisation of a European competency based curriculum is to be encouraged but we urge each UK dental institution to contribute towards the feedback on this current document to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the finalisation of what may become an essential standard in European dentistry and to ensure its clarity with regard to each dental specialty.