SLMC ERPDS study guide
SLMC ERPDS · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Examination for Registration to Practise Dentistry (ERPDS) is administered by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), the national regulatory authority that the source describes as regulating medical, dental, and allied healthcare professionals to protect patients and maintain public confidence in healthcare services. ERPDS is a registration examination for dental practitioners, and it is organised in parts: the SLMC's 02 November 2026 announcement refers specifically to "ERPDS Part I – October/November 2026," for which the timetable and examination instructions were published. The same announcement series shows ERPDS operating alongside the ERPM examination for medical practitioners, with a Degree Approval Portal opened for both ERPM and ERPDS Exams 2027. Candidates should treat ERPDS Part I as a written, scheduled sitting whose timetable and instructions are issued by the Council shortly before the examination, so the primary preparation step is to obtain those official documents and work backwards from the published dates. Beyond that, the source does not enumerate the content domains, item formats, duration, pass mark, fees, or retake rules, so candidates must confirm these from the Council's own examination instructions rather than from secondary summaries. Preparation should therefore combine the published timetable and instructions with the SLMC's standards, ethics, and scope-of-practice material, and any queries should go through the Council's support-ticket system rather than informal channels. Topics on this exam: Dentistry (content domains not enumerated by source). The SLMC ERPDS study guide has 1 section and about 468 words.
01Dentistry: Applied Clinical Decision-Making
This domain tests applied clinical dentistry: caries and endodontic diagnosis, periodontal staging and grading, oral medicine, minor oral surgery, prosthodontics, paediatric care, dental materials, radiology and infection control. Items reward the reasoning behind a decision - the classification arithmetic, the dose calculation - rather than recalled slogans. Caries: judge lesion activity and depth first. Remineralise non-cavitated lesions (1,450 ppm fluoride toothpaste, varnish), seal susceptible pits, and operate only when the lesion is cavitated or prevention has failed.
468 words, about 2 minMore study resources for SLMC ERPDS
- Practice questionsA patient presents with a chief complaint of pain in the lower right first molar.
- FlashcardsCaries risk assessment. A structured evaluation of factors such as diet, fluoride exposure, salivary flow, biofilm, and past caries experience used to determine preventive and restorative treatment intensity.
- Cheat sheetDental caries is a multifactorial, biofilm-mediated, diet-modulated disease; the operative restoration addresses the lesion, not the disease process, so caries-risk assessment and prevention must accompany restorative care.
- Key termsEnamel. The hardest, most highly mineralized tissue of the body, forming the outer protective layer of the tooth crown.
- Study planMap the full SLMC ERPDS blueprint against your current knowledge by writing a one-page inventory of every dentistry content area the exam can test.
- Common mistakesCandidates often prepare from dental school review materials or foreign board-review resources, which emphasize clinical science and never cover the regulatory framework, so study time is spent on content that is not examined.
- Exam-day guideBring the original, unexpired ID with a signature and photo.