Dental Council Ireland Exam study plan
Dental Council Ireland Exam · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
General dentistry clinical knowledge and skills
Map the domain 1 syllabus into a checklist of clinical topic areas and rate your confidence in each from 1 to 5
Work through restorative and endodontic decision-making: diagnose pulpal and periapical status and select a treatment pathway for at least 10 written case vignettes
Summarise current guidance on caries risk assessment and minimally invasive management in your own notes
Draft a one-page emergency differential for acute dental pain that separates odontogenic from non-odontogenic causes
Your checkpoint
A completed domain 1 confidence grid plus 10 written case vignettes with your diagnosis and justified treatment plan
General dentistry clinical knowledge and skills
Compare periodontal diagnosis and staging/grading against radiographic and clinical findings across 8 vignettes
Explain indications, contraindications and complications for extraction and minor oral surgery scenarios
Review prosthodontic treatment planning including crown, bridge and removable options and justify material choices
Identify paediatric and special-care modifications to routine treatment planning
Your checkpoint
A 15-question self-written mixed clinical quiz with an answer key citing the reasoning for each option
Infection control and health and safety & Ionising radiation
Build a written checklist of standard precautions covering hand hygiene, PPE sequencing and instrument reprocessing
Trace the decontamination cycle from dirty to sterile and identify the validation records required at each step
Explain the principles of ALARA, justification and optimisation as applied to intraoral and panoramic imaging
Calculate and interpret typical radiation doses and state the regulatory duties of the dentist as referrer and operator
List the quality-assurance and equipment-testing requirements for dental X-ray sets
Your checkpoint
A two-page infection control and radiation safety reference sheet you can revise from in under 10 minutes
Dental ethics and professional conduct & Scope of practice and professionalism (CPD, fees, patient information)
Write out the core ethical duties around consent, confidentiality and capacity and apply them to 5 short scenarios
Distinguish the roles of the regulator, the professional body and the complaints route in the Irish context
Draft a patient-facing explanation of fees, treatment options and informed financial consent
Define the CPD obligations including recording, verification and audit and plan your own annual CPD cycle
Identify the boundaries of scope of practice and when referral or further training is required
Your checkpoint
A portfolio of 6 written scenario answers on ethics and professionalism, each with the principle applied and the action you would take
Medical emergencies and sedation
Memorise and rehearse the recognition and immediate management of syncope, hypoglycaemia, anaphylaxis, asthma and cardiac events
State drug, dose and route for emergency medicines and practise drawing up each from a written kit list
Explain conscious sedation patient selection, consent, fasting and monitoring requirements
Design a drill for your practice emergency team covering roles, equipment location and escalation
Your checkpoint
A one-page emergency drug and equipment card plus a written practice emergency drill plan
Prescribing and medicines
Classify the commonly prescribed dental medicines by indication, mechanism and key contraindication
Apply prescribing principles: dose calculation for children, renal and hepatic adjustment, and antibiotic stewardship
Identify high-risk drug interactions and allergy cross-reactivity relevant to dentistry
Write complete, legally defensible prescriptions including all required particulars
Explain adverse drug reaction reporting and the local reporting route
Your checkpoint
A personal formulary of 20 dental medicines with indication, adult and paediatric dose, contraindications and interaction flags
General dentistry clinical knowledge and skills & Medical emergencies and sedation
Re-run your week 1 confidence grid and close the three weakest clinical areas with targeted reading
Work through 20 timed mixed clinical questions and review every error to its underlying knowledge gap
Rehearse two medical emergency scenarios aloud, timing your response from recognition to definitive care
Consolidate a single list of facts you keep forgetting and convert it into spaced-repetition cards
Your checkpoint
A completed error log of 20 reviewed questions with the corrected reasoning written for each
Dental ethics and professional conduct & Infection control and health and safety & Ionising radiation & Prescribing and medicines & Scope of practice and professionalism (CPD, fees, patient information)
Complete two full-length timed mock exams under exam conditions and score them against the domain weightings
Audit your weakest two domains from the mock and re-read only those notes
Recite your ethics, infection control, radiation and prescribing reference sheets from memory
Finalise logistics: exam format, timing strategy and a plan for flagging and returning to uncertain items
Your checkpoint
Two scored mock exams with a written remediation note identifying your three remaining risk areas and the action for each
Milestones
Week 2: You can produce a defensible diagnosis and treatment plan for any domain 1 vignette within 90 seconds without notes
Week 4: You can state the consent, confidentiality and CPD obligations accurately and apply them to an unseen scenario
Week 6: You can write a complete prescription and name the emergency drug, dose and route for five emergencies from memory
Week 8: Both mock exams are scored above your target pass mark with no domain falling below 60 percent