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Skilled worker visas and UK dentistry – what changed one year on
A year after the government raised the skill threshold for the skilled worker visa, the effect on UK dentistry is becoming clearer.
New overseas sponsorship has largely closed for dental nurses, dental hygienists and dental technicians. Sponsored entry-clearance visa grants for dental nurses fell by 95% in the first three quarters for which a direct year-on-year comparison can be made after the rules changed.
For practices, the policy has narrowed an established recruitment route at the same time as sponsorship and registration costs have risen. For overseas dental professionals, visa status, General Dental Council (GDC) registration and access to the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE) remain separate hurdles. Clearing one does not guarantee the others.
What changed in July 2025?
The immigration rule changes published on 1 July 2025 took effect on 22 July 2025. They raised the normal skill threshold for skilled worker sponsorship to Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) level 6, broadly graduate level.
More than 100 occupations lost general access to the route. The changes also raised several salary thresholds and introduced restrictions on dependants for people newly sponsored in certain jobs below RQF level 6.
The changes split dental roles into two broad groups. Dentists and dental therapists remain open to new applications, subject to the relevant requirements. Dental nurses, dental hygienists and dental technicians are closed to new sponsorship, although conditional arrangements protect some people already in the route. The role-by-role position is explained below.
The £41,700 general skilled worker threshold is not a universal minimum for every dental appointment. Different salary rules apply to eligible health and care jobs, including occupation-specific going rates and, in some cases, national pay scales. Employers should check the current rules for the role and applicant before issuing a certificate of sponsorship.
Which dental roles can still be sponsored?
Dentists
Dentists remain eligible for sponsorship. They must have an eligible job offer from an approved employer, meet the relevant salary and immigration requirements and hold the registration needed to practise.
For most dentists whose primary qualification was gained outside the UK or European Economic Area, passing the ORE is one route to GDC registration. Immigration permission and professional registration are separate processes.
Dental therapists
Dental therapists remain eligible for sponsorship, subject to the normal requirements.
This is an important correction to some of the information published immediately after the July 2025 announcement. In a corrected parliamentary answer, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that dental therapists met the RQF level 6 threshold and continued to qualify for the Health and Care Worker visa.
The job must be assigned to the occupation code that reflects its actual duties. Employers should not choose a code simply because it is eligible.
Dental hygienists and dental technicians
Dental hygienists and dental technicians are classed within a medium-skilled occupation group in the government’s current eligible occupations table. Their roles were not added to the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List, so they cannot be used for new skilled worker applications.
Dental nurses
Dental nursing is also classed as medium skilled and is closed to new sponsorship.
A dental nurse who received their first certificate of sponsorship before 22 July 2025 and has continuously held permission on the route may be able to extend or update their visa under the transitional rules. Eligibility depends on the person’s immigration history, role, occupation code, pay and proposed employment.
This article gives a general account of the rules, not immigration advice. Employers and workers should check their circumstances against current Home Office guidance or take regulated advice before acting.
What has happened one year on?
The first hard measure of the change is the collapse in new visa grants for affected roles. Home Office figures recorded six sponsored work entry-clearance grants for dental nurses in Q4 2025 to Q2 2026, compared with 122 in the previous three quarters. The figures cover main applicants applying from outside the UK and do not include in-country extensions or switches.
That does not mean the dental nurse workforce has fallen by 95%. Visa grants measure one overseas recruitment route, not vacancies, retention, hours worked or the number of people available for clinical employment.
The GDC’s register has continued to grow. Its snapshot on 17 August 2026 recorded 69,824 dental nurses, 11,407 dental hygienists and 8,824 dental therapists. Registration figures also do not show whether somebody is working clinically, how many hours they work or where they are based.
The route from overseas qualification to practice has changed too. Since March 2023, an overseas-qualified dentist cannot use a dentistry qualification alone to apply for registration as a dental care professional. They need a relevant dental care professional qualification or must qualify for dentist registration through another route, such as the ORE.
The GDC has expanded ORE capacity under a new contract.
But costs have also increased. The ORE Part 2 fee rose by 65% to £6,967 for 2026/27, although the Part 1 fee fell to £485. Home Office sponsor licence and visa application fees increased in April 2026, and the immigration skills charge paid by employers, where applicable, is now £480 for the first year for a small or charitable sponsor and £1,320 for a medium or large sponsor.
How has dentistry been affected?
The immediate impact has been felt by practices that relied on overseas recruitment to build their dental nursing, hygiene and therapy teams.
The policy also affected people who had invested in the UK registration process. Some overseas-qualified dentists had registered as dental hygienists or dental therapists while preparing for the Overseas Registration Examination. Others had secured work, paid for registration and built lives in the UK before the rules changed.
Professional registration and immigration permission are separate issues. Registration with the General Dental Council does not, by itself, create a right to work in the UK.
The effect on patient care depends on how practices respond. Dental nurses, hygienists, therapists and technicians form part of the wider skills mix used to provide preventive care, periodontal treatment, oral health advice and routine treatment. Where those roles cannot be filled, dentists may have to absorb work that could otherwise be delivered by another registered member of the team.
How has the dental profession reacted?
Shushaanth Sounthararajan – practice and business manager at Dentartistry
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It’s been a year since dental nurses, hygienists and technicians came off the Skilled Worker eligibility list on 22 July 2025, and I still believe it was a short-sighted decision.
At the time I said it would create real challenges for recruitment, continuity of care and morale. A year on, what we have lost is the pipeline: fewer applicants for nurse and hygienist roles, and gaps that stay open far longer than they used to.
The effects show up in ways that don’t get counted. More locum cover. More overtime. Experienced nurses training colleagues on top of a full clinical day. I’m training as a dental nurse myself so I can go chairside when the rota won’t cover, and the management work then gets done in the evening.
There is also trust. A lot of our patients arrive frightened, carrying bad experiences from years ago. It can take months before they will accept treatment, and that trust sits with a particular nurse or hygienist rather than the practice. When they leave, the patient often starts again.
We are not the worst affected, and I put that down to starting with AI early. It is not a replacement for people, but it takes weight off the team we have: task lists so nurses can see what is outstanding, stock ordering that stops us over ordering. Plenty of practices are struggling far more than we are, and among managers the barrier is knowledge of AI. But none of it replaces the nurses and hygienists we can no longer recruit.
Hope isn’t a workforce plan. The government needs to rethink its position on skilled workers and answer a simple question: where are trained dental nurses going to come from? There is a shortage now, and until someone answers that, patients carry the cost.
Fiona Ellwood – executive director of the Society of British Dental Nurses
Read more here
There are currently 69,808 dental nurse registrants on the GDC register. The broader discussion which is fitting for those affected by the visa situation is the status, value and working conditions associated with being a dental nurse, particularly if the dental nurses’ salary is the primary source of the household income. Equally, the educational and progressive opportunities can be challenging.
It is difficult to quantify suggestions that there is a shortage of dental nurses, not just because the GDC numbers are not a true reflection of those practicing clinically as a dental nurse. What is apparent is that there are less applicants per vacancy and less prepared to work in low paid jobs and poor conditions. Of course with the rise of dental nursing agencies and dental nurses working in a self employed arrangement, with more control over their work-life balance and often with higher salaries, this could be framed by some, as the well documented ‘shortage’ but in reality, dental nurses working patterns have simply changed and so have their expectations.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if dental nursing in the UK met the requirements of the Skilled Worker visa, the conversation would certainly be different for everyone in the profession. I am of course a realist and this is unlikely to happen in my lifetime.
Finally, I could take up so much space debating the title ‘Skilled Worker’ which in itself is dreadful and the inference it gives to a profession and the professionals of dental nursing, when we are not deemed to be within the criteria, but perhaps that one is for another day.
It certainly seems that the whole profession is in a similar place other than general dental practitioners and of course professions beyond dentistry.
Jeff Sherer – clinical director at The Dental Design Studio
‘I remember very clearly the day when the government announced widescale changes to the visa system. Ironically, I was just in the process of renewing my passport when I was read it. I was both angered and horrified to see that dental nurses, hygienists and therapists would no longer be eligible for visa sponsorship.
‘Just over a year later I am pleased to see that it is still possible to sponsor dental therapists albeit with a different code than before. Changes to the salary threshold have made it almost impossible to sponsor a dental nurse unless it is a renewal of a previous visa. What is still incredibly frustrating is the complete hit or miss situation with securing a spot for ORE exams.
‘Several of our team are still struggling to get a seat and this is hampering their dental career progression. In addition to this, the hike in costs has made it sadly simply unaffordable for some individuals to pursue. Similarly, as a business we face increased sponsorship visa costs and it is now a large financial outlay at the start for employing any overseas candidate especially if there are any agency fees to pay or joining bonus.
‘I would really like to see a situation where those clinicians and business who pay visa fees are refunded in exchange for NHS dental commitment. That would provide access to areas where NHS services are lacking and offer an incentive for practises to use overseas sponsorship as a recruitment option for hard to fill NHS roles.’
What impact has it had on international dentists and DCPs?
Akhil Anil, dental therapist, Thurso
Read more here
I was working as a trainee dental nurse in Inverness from March 2024, and qualified as a dental therapist in February 2025.
I was on a Post-Study Work Visa (self-sponsored, two-year duration) when the July 2025 rule change happened. Overnight, dental therapists could no longer get skilled worker visas. The timing was catastrophic. My visa was expiring, and I had a hard deadline of a few weeks to secure a new sponsorship or face deportation.
My original practice owner was reluctant to sponsor me, then claimed he had no visa allocation. I was juggling work as both a trainee nurse and therapist, preparing for my LDS exams, and frantically contacting practice owners across the country to find someone with visa allocation – all while managing this from outside the UK as I was back home getting engaged.
This wasn’t just me, hundreds of dental students and professionals were trapped in the same situation with zero notice and impossible timelines. I spent four-to-five months fighting this, burned through all my savings, and took a significant mental and physical toll.
I was fortunate to have incredible support: Dr. Archie McLellan at Union Dental in Inverness connected me with Dr. John Barry at Bridgend Healthcare Centre in Thurso, Scotland. Dr. Barry and his business manager, Miss Shona Grant, went above and beyond – working day in and day out, through weekends and late nights, coordinating with immigration agencies and legal firms. They helped me relocate to Thurso and even provided accommodation for two months without rent. Without their intervention, I would have lost everything.
Despite everything, I didn’t give up, but I want others to understand what we went through and the human cost of these policy changes.
Anonymous, dental hygienist, London
Read more here
‘When I initially came over to the UK, I was initially advised that I would have to wait around 16 to 20 months to gain registration. The route allowing overseas-qualified dentists to register as dental hygienists had closed, but there was still had a backlog of applications.
‘At first, I only had a two-year visa, so pursuing registration did not seem practical. My visa was later extended to three years, which gave me more time. However, by the time registration became a realistic option, dental hygienists had been removed from the Skilled Worker visa route.
‘Although the registration wait had become shorter, the opportunity to work in the UK as an overseas dental hygienist had been taken away. It felt like a double blow: the GDC delays and the government’s visa changes both affected me. I also think I was unlucky with the timing.
‘What frustrates me is that dental hygiene has been removed from the Skilled Worker visa route, even though hygienists help to prevent some of the most common diseases affecting people in the UK. Dental disease also costs the government a considerable amount of money, so why would it not want to support this profession?’
Anonymous, dentist, Birmingham
Read more here
As an international dentist, I came to the UK to advance my skills and contribute to the dental system. I pursued a master’s in advanced general dental practice, inspired by the UK’s reputation for excellence and the chance to work under the NHS. Leaving my career and life behind in my home country, I arrived hopeful to help patients struggling with access to dental care.
This journey demanded immense sacrifice – years of savings and emotional resilience. The master’s program honed my clinical skills to work as dentist and dental therapist. I dreamt of registering with the GDC and joining a practice. But in July 2025, my plans crumbled. The government removed SOC 3213 from the visa eligibility list, barring me from sponsorship as a dental therapist.
Despite my training and the NHS’s growing waiting lists, I can’t work here. This rule feels like a betrayal of my efforts and the patients I’m ready to serve. The impact is crushing. I face uncertainty and heartbreak, my degree useless for a UK career. Many international students share this struggle. The UK needs dental professionals, yet these rules push us away.
I urge policymakers to reinstate SOC 3213 or create pathways for graduates like me. Let my story spark change for professionals and patients alike.
Sponsor compliance is part of the workforce question
Eligibility is only one part of overseas recruitment. Practices that sponsor eligible workers must continue to meet Home Office duties after a visa is granted.
Licensed sponsors must monitor workers’ immigration status, retain relevant documents, track attendance, keep contact details up to date and report specified changes to UK Visas and Immigration. A licence can be downgraded, suspended or revoked if an employer fails to meet its duties.
Dentistry HR’s guide to employing overseas workers
Dentistry HR has produced a guide for dental employers. It covers advice before recruitment, ownership of sponsor duties, right to work checks, record keeping, reporting changes, attendance management and regular reviews of sponsored workers.
The guide covers compliance when sponsoring an eligible worker or managing somebody already sponsored under the transitional rules. It does not change which roles qualify for sponsorship.
Anushika Brogan, head of Damira Dental Group, previously told Dentistry that practices should not underestimate the work involved after her group’s sponsor licence was suspended following a Home Office visit.
‘We went into it blind. We didn’t know what was required of us, and we had to unpick it all after the event,’ she said.
What does the government say?
In a September 2025 parliamentary answer, the Department of Health and Social Care said overseas recruitment into dental roles was ‘relatively low’ compared with recruitment of doctors and nurses. It confirmed that dentists and dental therapists remained eligible, while people already sponsored in affected roles before the cut-off could continue to work and extend their visas if they met the relevant salary requirements.
That response did not set out a dental-specific plan to replace the overseas recruitment route that practices used for nurses, hygienists and technicians.
The Department of Health and Social Care have been contacted for an updated response.
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