ORE booking system failure leaves applicants without a seat

Dentists hoping to secure a spot to sit the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) reported payment issues, errors and overloaded servers preventing them from completing the process.

Accessing a place in ORE examinations has previously been compared to buying Glastonbury Festival tickets, with applicants flooding the General Dental Council’s (GDC) MyGDC portal as new dates are released. International dentists must pass both parts of the exam to practise in the UK.

On 30 June, 600 places were released for the ORE Part 1 at 2:30pm. One dentist told Dentistry that they were unable to log in for 10 minutes, at which point they were met with a blank page. They were eventually taken to a payment page, though this refreshed and showed an error before they could enter their details. After two hours of refreshing, they regained access to the website which informed them that the exam slots were full.

Another ORE hopeful said they were able to enter their payment details but were told the payment had failed, despite the total fee being deducted from their bank account. Following several failed attempts, they tried to contact the GDC but were unable to get through.

Many applicants reported a similar difficulty in contacting the regulator since the website crash. With no confirmation email but payment taken, dental professionals have been left unsure if they were successful in booking an exam place. Others were unable to secure their spot despite correctly completing the booking process.

The GDC told Dentistry it was aware of the difficulties candidates had faced. It said: ‘We apologise for the uncertainty and inconvenience this has caused. We understand how much preparation goes into this exam, and candidates deserve confidence that their booking and payment have gone through correctly.’

Affected applicants are encouraged to contact examinations@gdc-uk.org.

‘The ORE booking process has become a lottery’

The booking process for the exam has long been criticised as a ‘lottery’. Speaking to Dentistry, dentist Mohammed Ghafoor said: ‘For many, that one-second difference between pressing the button before or after someone else decides the course of their entire professional life. Those with faster internet connections, quicker reflexes, or sheer good fortune secure a slot. Others, equally deserving and equally prepared, are locked out yet again.

‘This is not meritocracy. This is not fairness. This is chance masquerading as order. The ORE booking process has become a lottery.’

In March 2026, the GDC announced changes to the ORE which could allow five times more dentists to qualify each year through the exam. It estimated that Part 1 capacity would increase from 1,800 to 2,400 annually, and Part 2 from 720 to 944 initially – eventually increasing to 1,500 per year.

These changes follow a new contract with UCL Consultants announced last year, which the GDC said ‘allows the exams to run at a larger and more planned scale, increasing capacity in a controlled way rather than reacting to pressure year on year’.

The regulator stressed that capacity could only be increased to a level that maintains patient safety and candidate experience, saying it ‘will not compromise’.

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