Sir, we write to raise awareness on the DCT 2 equivalence certification and share our experience and success on how we managed to apply for and achieve the certification.

As a brief background our career journey begins with obtaining our BDS degree from the University of Liverpool and King's College London, respectively. We then worked as Dental Officers in Community Dentistry and have also had experience working as general dental practitioners. Having not completed DCT in the conventional manner through national recruitment, we wondered if there was a route to gain an equivalency of the experience we had accumulated. This led us to the discovery of the DCT 2 equivalence certificate which is recognised and awarded by COPDEND.1

On realising that we wanted to obtain the equivalency, the COPEND website1 provided guidance as to what was needed for our applications. This included supervised learning events (Direct Observation of Procedural Skills - DOPS, case-based discussions and more), reflections, logbooks of experience and teaching events.

The application process begins in August of each year and there are multiple pieces of evidence required to be submitted. We found it was extremely useful to get organised early on. Using the checklist proved handy to ensure we submitted everything we wished to. Having a contents page for each section helped us and the assessor in reviewing our evidence.

We then uploaded our evidence as PDF files and waited upon a decision. Success! We had both received our emails to acknowledge we had been awarded the certificate of equivalency.

We hope other clinicians find this motivating and helpful to begin preparing a portfolio for applying for a DCT 2 equivalence certificate.