Dental Quality Improvement

• Dentists in the UK
• Dentists in Ireland
• Dental, dental therapy and oral hygiene students in South Africa and Namibia (Currently closed)

The details of each competition vary, with the Irish competition accepting submissions on patient safety, risk reduction, and the wellbeing of healthcare professionals. The UK competition is on patient safety and risk management, in one of the domains of:

• Professionalism
• Communication
• Leadership & management
• Clinical areas

The UK competition asks Foundation Year dentists, either individually or in groups of up to three dentists, to submit either:

• A quality improvement project related to patient safety, in one of the domains above.
• A case report of patient management related to one of the domains, and supported by a literature review.
• A practice research project, related to one of ‘patient safety, mitigating risk, or the wellbeing of healthcare professionals’

The MPS offer a guide on creating a submission, available here. The criteria to be used for assessment of submissions are also provided.

For interested applicants, you register in advance via the relevant competition page, and in the case of the UK competition, submit by 31 July 2026. The Irish competition closes on 27 February 2026.

Any Foundation Year dentists thinking about entering a Quality Improvement project could start out by looking at our guide to getting started with a QI project.

Image by Cedric Fauntleroy on Pexels.com