Why CQC Does Not Rate Dental Practices
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. A common misconception is that dentists carry an "Outstanding" or "Good" rating like GP surgeries or hospitals. They do not. As the CQC states plainly: it does not have the legal power to rate dental services, so no dental practice has an overall CQC rating.
Rather than a rating, CQC inspects each dental practice against five regulations and records, for each area, whether the practice meets it. The wording changed in June 2024:
| Outcome (from June 2024) | Older reports | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Regulations met | No action | No breaches found. The CQC is not requiring any change in this area. |
| Not all regulations met | Improvements required | At least one regulation was breached. The CQC expects the practice to make changes. |
Safe — Are patients protected from avoidable harm? Infection control, equipment, safeguarding, medical emergency protocols.
Effective — Does treatment achieve good outcomes based on current evidence? Treatment planning, guideline adherence.
Caring — Are patients treated with compassion, dignity and respect? Consent, communication, patient experience.
Responsive — Are services organised to meet patients' needs? Appointment availability, complaint handling, accessibility.
Well-led — Does leadership ensure quality care? Governance, culture, continuous improvement.
For each practice we show the outcome of its most recent CQC inspection ("Regulations met" or "Not all regulations met") and the inspection date, with a link to the full CQC report. We never invent an overall star or word rating for a dentist, because none exists.
Where a practice also has independent patient reviews (for example a Google star rating), we show that separately, clearly labelled as an additional signal — it is not a CQC judgement.
Source: Care Quality Commission, "How we monitor dental services" and individual location reports, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.