The General Dental Council published new research on artificial intelligence in dental education on 15 October 2026. Its message is relevant to anyone using AI during ORE or MFDS preparation: a tool can support learning while still creating problems if its output substitutes for your own reasoning.
The GDC commissioned the work from Queen Mary University of London. Its announcement describes possible benefits from personalised support, case-based learning and feedback, alongside risks from inaccurate answers and over-reliance. It calls for clear expectations about acceptable use and preparation for learners and educators. Read the GDC announcement.
Read the findings within their limits
The full rapid evidence assessment examines a varied and developing literature. It combines evidence synthesis with interviews and recognises limitations, including small studies, single-institution settings and restricted generalisability. Its conclusions guide thinking about opportunities and risk; they do not establish that every AI tutor improves exam performance.
The report also identifies particular limitations in tasks involving images. For a dental learner, that is a reason to examine how a resource handles radiographic interpretation and the connection between an image, the clinical history and a decision. A convincing explanation is not independent confirmation that the interpretation is correct.
This article applies those findings to revision. The research itself concerns dental education broadly and does not evaluate iatroX or prescribe a new ORE or MFDS revision method.
Attempt the question before asking for help
Start a question with the information available to the candidate. Choose an answer and write a brief reason. You might identify the finding that matters most, the closest alternative and the detail that makes it less appropriate. Only then open the explanation or ask a tutor for help.
This creates something you can compare with the feedback. Without an initial answer, it can be difficult to tell whether you understood the problem or simply found the explanation easy to follow. Your original reasoning also makes a useful starting point for a discussion with a colleague or teacher.
After reviewing the answer, change one feature of the fictional case. Would a different age, medicine history or examination finding change your decision? Explain why. Keep the exercise within the question’s educational context and verify any clinical principle against an appropriate current source.
Check the claim that drives the answer
Not every line of a long explanation deserves equal attention. Identify the claim on which the answer depends. Is it an examination requirement, a treatment recommendation, a legal principle or a description of a finding? Choose the source accordingly.
For ORE Part 1, the GDC describes two papers testing the application of knowledge to practice: dental science and human disease in Paper A, and clinical dentistry, law, ethics, health and safety in Paper B. That breadth makes it important to distinguish clinical guidance from examination administration. Use the official ORE information for the assessment’s scope.
For MFDS, confirm your route as well as your topic. The qualification is changing over 2026 and 2027, and the new unified examination assesses a different training level from the legacy route. The college’s MFDS information explains the transition. An accurate explanation of dentistry can still be attached to outdated exam-format advice.
Make image practice an explicit task
When studying an image-based item, begin by describing what you can actually see. Separate observation from interpretation. Then explain how the history affects the significance of the finding and what further information would be useful.
Check your account against the provided explanation and an appropriate teaching reference. If the interpretation remains unclear, take the item to someone qualified to discuss it. More generated text is not necessarily the best next step when the uncertainty concerns an image you cannot confidently describe.
Keep a short list of recurring difficulties. It might concern recognising a pattern, using the correct terminology or integrating the image with the rest of a case. That list helps you select the next learning activity more precisely than a general instruction to do more radiology.
Use AI feedback as material to examine
Within supported question sessions, the iatroX Socratic Tutor can help you examine the item you attempted and the reasoning behind your choice. Useful prompts include asking which assumption needs testing, why a distractor seems plausible, or how the answer changes when a case detail changes.
The ORE Part 1 and MFDS Part 1 banks provide separate places to organise that question practice. Check the available material against the published syllabus for your route and identify what requires another resource. No single format covers every practical, communication or clinical skill.
Try a small audit of your own study process
Take a recent question session and review how you used help. Choose a few items: one you answered correctly with confidence, one you guessed and one you answered incorrectly. For each, reconstruct the reason you chose the answer before reviewing the feedback again.
On the confident item, ask whether the reasoning still holds if an important detail changes. On the guessed item, identify the information that would let you choose deliberately next time. On the incorrect item, describe the mistaken assumption in one sentence. Those three tasks produce different learning needs.
Then examine the explanation you relied on. Follow the decisive reference if one is supplied. Check that it exists, concerns the right setting and supports the claim being made. If the explanation includes examination rules, compare them with the current awarding-body information rather than a clinical reference.
Finish by choosing a follow-up for each unresolved issue. You might read a source, practise another case, review images with a teacher or rehearse an explanation with a colleague. Keep the task specific enough to complete.
This audit is a suggested study exercise, rather than a GDC requirement. Its value lies in making your use of feedback visible: what you attempted independently, where assistance helped, and which uncertainty remained. Repeating it occasionally can help you decide whether a tool is supporting the sort of learning you intended.
Record the learning without assuming CPD status
For registered dental professionals, a revision note and evidence of verifiable CPD are not interchangeable. The GDC’s existing scheme requires relevant learning, a personal development plan, links to development outcomes and supporting evidence. Check the scheme requirements for the activity you intend to record.
An iatroX learning record can help organise what you studied and reflected on. Review its relevance and any evidence requirements yourself. Our existing guide to building a dental PDP after ORE or MFDS explores that distinction further.
The most useful response to the new research is a deliberate study habit: answer first, explain your thinking, examine the feedback and check the decisive claim. Finish by naming what you can now explain more clearly and what still needs another form of practice.
Frequently asked questions
Does the GDC report endorse a particular AI revision platform?
No. The commissioned report examines AI in dental education and its implications for education and regulation. It does not evaluate iatroX or establish a ranking of ORE or MFDS preparation platforms.
Does the report change the ORE or MFDS syllabus?
The research announcement is not an examination syllabus update. Use the GDC’s ORE information and the relevant MFDS awarding-body documents for your assessment route. Apply the research as a prompt to examine how you learn with AI.
Does an AI-supported revision session automatically count as verifiable dental CPD?
No automatic status follows from using AI or creating a learning record. Registered dental professionals should check relevance, development outcomes and supporting evidence against the GDC scheme requirements for the activity they intend to record.
Sources
-
GDC: AI in dental education offers benefits but needs clear safeguards, 15 October 2026
-
QMUL/GDC: Understanding the Role of AI in Dental Education, full report October 2026
Put independent reasoning at the start of your next session. Explore the iatroX dental question banks, attempt a question, then use the feedback to choose a precise next learning step.