Changing your registration

If you have completed additional training, or fulfilled the requirements of your registration conditions, you can apply for a change in your scope of practice. You can also request to be removed from the register, or apply to be restored.

You are required to keep your name and contact details up to date on the register, and provide an email address for communication. You can choose to publish some of your contact details on the register available to the public, and can change these preferences at any time.

You can update your address, email, and other contact information through the practitioner portal. If you change your name, you will need to provide supporting evidence, such as a certified copy of your marriage certificate or deed poll.

Some practitioners have exclusions on their scope of practice because a particular area of practice was not included in their initial training for registration. The following exclusions may apply:

Oral health therapists	Dental therapists	Dental hygienists	Orthodontic auxiliaries
restorative treatment on patients 18 years and older orthodontic procedures (for AUT Bachelor of Health Science completed between 2009 and 2010)	pulpotomies stainless steel crowns radiography diagnostic radiography	orthodontic procedures local anaesthesia intra-oral radiography extra-oral radiography	intra-oral radiography extra-oral radiography

How to remove an exclusion

If you have an exclusion on your registration, you must apply for it to be removed and ensure that you have been issued with an updated practising certificate before you can legally perform the tasks covered by the exclusion.

To remove an exclusion, you can complete a Council-approved course and then apply to have the exclusion removed via the practitioner portal. If there are no Dental Council approved courses for your exclusion, you can complete an overseas course and apply for it to be assessed using the 'non-approved' removal of exclusion application form.

If you are an oral health therapist with an exclusion of restorative treatment for patients 18 years and older, you must complete a Dental Council accredited programme in order to remove the exclusion.

See below for approved courses.

If you trained overseas

If you can provide satisfactory evidence that you have received appropriate training and instruction in the excluded areas of practice, and you have maintained your competence to practise in that area, you can apply to have the exclusion removed using the 'non-approved' removal of exclusion application in the practitioner portal.

Current Dental Council approved courses for removal of exclusions

Course title	Education provider
Approved courses
Radiography course for dental hygienists and dental therapists	University of Otago
Radiography course for orthodontic auxiliaries	University of Otago
Stainless steel crowns for dental therapists	Community Oral Health Services for Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora
Accredited programmes for removal of adult restorative exclusion from oral health therapy scope of practice
Postgraduate certificate in Health Sciences (endorsed in Adult Restorative Dental Care)	University of Otago	31 December 2028 (accredited 7 August 2023)
Graduate certificate of Health Science (Oral Health)	Auckland University of Technology	31 December 2029 (accredited 9 July 2024)
Graduate certificate in Dental Therapy (Advanced Clinical Practice)	University of Melbourne	31 December 2027 (accredited 8 November 2022)

If you are already registered and have completed a qualification in another scope of practice you will need to make a new application for registration via the pathway relevant to your qualification.

If you are a dental therapist or a clinical dental technician and have completed additional training for an additional scope of practice relevant to your registered scope, you can apply using the 'additional scope' application form in the practitioner portal. You must be registered in the foundation scope to register in the additional scope.

Foundation scope	Additional scope
Dental therapy	Adult care in dental therapy
Clinical dental technicians	Implant overdentures

Some practitioners will have registration conditions or limitations placed on their scope of practice. These conditions are designed to support the practitioner's entry to the New Zealand practice environment, or reflect differences in overseas training determined at the point of registration, or where practitioners have self-limited their scope of practice. For other practitioners, conditions may be placed after an application for an annual practising certificate, particularly if they have taken a break from practice.

These conditions do not relate to those placed on existing oral health practitioners because of disciplinary action, health monitoring, or concerns arising from notification that a practitioner is practising below the expected standard of competence.

You can apply to have these conditions altered once you have completed the requirements relating to the condition by using the removal of conditions application form in the practitioner portal.

Similarly, you can apply to have limitations on your scope removed or altered once you have completed additional training in that area of practice or your circumstances have changed.

You cannot apply for the removal of conditions or limitations on your scope of practice if they were set following a conduct, competence or health process, or another compliance matter.

You can ask to have your name removed from the register provided you are not subject to criminal or disciplinary proceedings. The simplest way to do this is via your annual practising certificate renewal form. Alternatively, you can ask us by email to remove your registration at any time.

The Council may remove your entry from the register if your practising status has lapsed, and you do not respond to review of the register correspondence that we send you.

If you were previously registered with the Dental Council you can have your entry to the register restored, providing you meet the fitness for registration requirements set out in our Registration policy, and the section of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA Act) you were removed under allows for restoration.

Usually your entry on the register can be restored if it was removed following:

your request in your practising intentions renewal form, or
a Council review of the register initiated under section 144 of the HPCA Act.

If your entry on the register was removed because of disciplinary action, you cannot restore it. Instead you will need to submit a new registration application.

In your restoration application, you will be asked to indicate your practising intentions. To be granted an annual practising certificate you will need to demonstrate that you have maintained your competence to practise to the standard required in New Zealand, and satisfy any recency of practice requirements as set out in the Practising certificates policy.