Free Dental CPD in Australia: Where to Find It and What to Check

Free dental CPD is easy to find and hard to trust. Type it into Google and you’ll get supplier webinars, overseas lecture libraries, and the occasional gem. The tricky part isn’t finding free hours, it’s finding free hours that actually change how you practise.

This post covers what counts towards your CPD requirements in Australia, where the genuinely good free education lives, and the questions worth asking before you give a webinar your evening.

First, what actually counts as CPD?

The Dental Board of Australia expects practising dentists, oral health therapists, dental hygienists and dental therapists to complete at least 60 hours of CPD across each three year cycle. The activities you claim need to be relevant to your scope of practice, and you need to keep your own records, because the Board can ask to see them. The full CPD registration standard is on the Dental Board of Australia website.

Nothing in that standard says CPD has to cost money. Free activities count exactly the same way paid ones do, provided they’re relevant to your scope, properly documented, and genuinely educational.

Where to find free dental CPD

• Free live webinars from education providers. Many Australian providers, us included, run free webinars alongside their paid events. Ours come with clear learning objectives, MCQs for reflection, and a certificate for your records. You’ll find upcoming sessions on our webinars and events page.
• Your professional association. If you’re a member of the ADA, ADOHTA or the DHAA, your membership usually includes member webinars, journal access and clinical resources you’ve already paid for. Use them.
• Industry sponsored education. Suppliers and manufacturers fund a lot of free CPD, and some of it is excellent. Just keep an eye on the line between education and product placement, and note who is paying the presenter.
• Universities and public health. University public lectures, hospital grand rounds and public oral health programs are often free to attend and fly under the radar.
• Structured self-directed learning. Journal reading, journal clubs and online study can count towards your hours when you document what you learned and how it applies to your practice.

How to tell good free CPD from a sales pitch

Free is not the same as low value, but it’s also not the same as neutral. Before you commit an evening, check the session against this list:

• Learning objectives stated up front, so you know what you’re meant to walk away with.
• Evidence-based content with references, not just opinion and before-and-after photos.
• A named presenter with relevant credentials, and transparency about who is paying them.
• Some form of reflection or assessment, like MCQs, that helps the content stick.
• A certificate that states the hours, so your CPD record looks after itself.

If a session fails most of that list it might still be interesting, but be honest with yourself about whether it belongs in your CPD record.

Free dental CPD from Collective Dental Education

Some of our live webinars are free to attend, and every session we run, free or paid, is built the same way: evidence-based content, clear learning objectives, take-home resources, and a presenter we pay for their time. Free for you should never mean unpaid experts.

Browse what’s coming up on our webinars and events page. And if your goals for this cycle include supervising students or new graduates, our Clinical Educators CPD Course is a 16 hour program built exactly for that.

Free dental CPD in Australia is out there, and some of it is genuinely excellent. Wherever you find it, build your cycle around education that respects your evening, whatever it costs.