Process for Diploma Accreditation

What are the requirements for diploma accreditation?

Attendance at all 10 days of face-to-face teaching (there can be no progression unless ALL 10 days have been attended).
Complete the reading requirements for all 10 days (this should be done prior to attendance at the relevant day).
Complete the quiz for each day (only to be done after attendance at each relevant day).
Reflect, write and submit your reflective diary submission (see later) after each day attended.
Present a clinical case discussion (CCD) as allocated by the course tutors during one of the face-to-face days.
Anytime after (and not before) the completion of the 10 contact days (and subject to the above requirements being fulfilled) you will then be eligible to start work on the three components required for submission (essay, clinical case portfolio and complete reflective diary).

Essay – You will be provided with an essay title at the completion of the 10 days of teaching. You should use the reading material provided during the course, and/or textbooks, as resources for your submission. The essay should be between 1500-2000 words long and should contain some references.

Clinical case portfolio – Portfolio of 10 clinical cases which should be written up using a standardised template (see example). You are not obliged to use the example template, but are welcome to, if you would prefer.

Reflective diary of each module for which you should ideally have made notes after each of the 10 face-to face days. The idea of the reflective diary is to thoughtfully discuss how your learning has specifically influenced your clinical practice. There is no template for this, as it should be your own work. Please do not rewrite the learning aims and objectives, the focus should be on personal self reflection.

Examples of clinical case and reflective diary

Please bear in mind links below are examples for guidance only, they are not intended as model answers to be copied and pasted to your submissions.

Your clinical cases should adhere to the following 3 main pillars of care:

Assessment, diagnosis and treatment should be safe and clinically appropriate
All aspects of care should be carried out to an appropriate standard
All care should be in accordance with accepted clinical guidelines and principles e.g. GDC Standards, ESE Guidelines, BES Guidelines, CGDent Guidelines and RCS guidelines

What is the process for submitting the clinical case portfolio and reflective diary?

The specific requirements for the submissions are as follows:

Send your essay, ONLY your FIRST case write up and your COMPLETE reflective diary (each as a single PDF) to [email protected]. If these meet the requirements go to step 4.
We will review, first case and reflective diary only and give you specific feedback which can be applied to this, and all subsequent cases/diary submissions. Essays cannot be resubmitted.
If required, we will review the resubmission of the SAME case and/or reflective diary a further maximum of two times (total three times) after which we will not accept any more revisions and you will not be eligible for any further submissions, and as such, the Diploma in Endodontics.
If your essay, case and diary have met the requirements you may proceed to write up all ten cases and your reflective diary and submit these to [email protected]. If you have not met the requirements, we will provide only limited feedback for the essay, 10 cases and/or reflective diary and you will be permitted to resubmit these only ONCE more. We will not accept any further submissions and you will not be eligible for the Diploma in Endodontics. If you have met the requirements you will go to Step 5.
You will be invited to an assessment day where we you will sit a one hour written test followed by a clinical viva to discuss your cases and reflective diary. If you have met the requirements the EndoArt Diploma in Endodontics will be awarded.
In the event that you have not met the requirements on the assessment day, the examiners may award an outright fail or pass pending certain resubmissions or assessments which will be discussed on the day.

Important – Step 4. Has a deadline 2 years from the last day (Day 10) of the face-to-face teaching.

How long will the process take and will any additional fees apply?

As a guideline, here is an approximate timeline to try and help, which if you don’t follow you may struggle to get everything done:

Send us the essay, first case draft ONLY and COMPLETE reflective diary.
We will take 2-4 weeks to review and send back with amendments. If the required standard has been met – see point 5.
Resubmit first case and/or diary again if requested.
We will take 2-4 weeks to review the case and/or diary. If the case and/or diary is/are still not to the required standard, you will be given one more chance (a third submission).
If the submissions have been deemed as satisfactory then we will ask you to write up and send all 10 cases.
We will take 2-4 weeks to review – if the completed submissions are of the required standard we will invite you for the assessment day (see point 9) – if not then see point 7.
Resubmit everything one more time. Please note that an outright fail after submitting the essay, 10 cases and reflective diary will require reapplication. You will not be required to re-attend the contact days but will be required to resubmit the essay, 10 cases and the reflective diary. The fee for this is £1100.
We will review again one last time and if not to required standard then you will not be eligible for any more submissions and so will not be able to obtain the diploma.
If all submissions are of the required standard we will invite you for the assessment day (written examination and viva).
If you fail as a result of performance on the assessment day, you will be given specific feedback and requirements for a final attempt. This may either require further submissions and/or reattendance at a further assessment day. This will be an absolute final attempt. The fee for this is £1100.

What should my clinical case portfolio cases include?

We have included a template for the clinical cases which suggests a proposed format for the portfolio. You do not have to use this, but you should include all of the necessary information. When submitting the completed portfolio of 10 cases, ensure this is sent as a single PDF document (do not send the cases separately). All cases and pages should be numbered.

Your description of the clinical findings/examination should be thorough. For example, if there are periodontal issues, these should be assessed, described and managed accordingly. The diagnosis and treatment plan for this should be included in the case write up. Likewise, caries, defective restorations and/or toothwear should also be treated the same. Remember you are treating a patient not a tooth! Please avoid copying and pasting information such as BPE, occlusion, etc as it will be obvious if all 10 cases have the same information.

Consider spelling and grammatical very carefully. Please avoid unecessary capital letters. Brands of products (e.g. files) and materials should have a capital letter with ® or ™ next to it. You may keep sentences in note form and descriptive but these should be structured appropriately so they are easy to follow.

Clinical pictures are not essential but desirable. These should be included within the text, numbered (e.g. Figure 1., etc). Do not put these at the end of the text.

All images should include a figure number and title e.g. Figure 1: pre-operative PA UR1

All radiographs should be of a good standard, taken with a beam aiming device and include the apices of the tooth/teeth being treated, as well as the surrounding area. Avoid scratched films or those with other defects. All diagnostic (working length/cone fit) images should include the apices of all of the roots being imaged. Each pre-operative (and where necessary others) radiograph should have a legend below it which describes the image (and not just the tooth you are treating) in detail. Include the teeth imaged, bone levels, presence of calculus, restorations and/or caries. The radiographs and images should be original images and not photos or screenshots of the images on a monitor or other device.

What are some of the most important things that we should include in the cases?

An accurate pulpal AND periapical diagnosis are essential. If there is no pulpal/periapical disease you should still state that the pulp/periapical tissues are healthy. Just to remind you, don’t ignore periodontal or restorative issues in the diagnoses and treatment plan.

As you have been taught on the course, complete coronal disassembly and restorability assessment is considered the gold standard prior to non-surgical endodotic treatment. Submitted cases should follow these principles. Of course there may be cases, where with careful clinical and radiographic assessment, and consideration of when and where the crown/onlay was placed, that treatment is carried out through the restoration. If a case where this has been done is submitted, you should justify this decision both from a treatment planning and patient consent perspective. The justification, limitations

When discussing the treatment options/plan, ensure you discuss all aspects of the patient’s dental needs. Also, make sure you discuss the post-endodontic restorative plan. If the patient needs a crown/onlay, then this should be discussed. If you have not provided this yourself you must make the plan clear.

Do not forget the follow-up after endodontic treatment. You should refer to the appropriate guidance (The European Society of Endodontology) for this. Discuss the follow-up plan clearly.

Your discussion should be relevant to the case. Effectively, this should have two aspects to this. Firstly, ou should discuss what went well, and what you have learnt (reflection). Secondly,it should ideally include a specific aspect of the case/treatment and how the availableevidence base, preferably with a few references, determined what you did. Try to use ‘good’ evidence, the papers we have provided for your reading are a good place to start. Please ensure the discussion is different for each case. Again, you should not be a copying and pasting these. References should be included; avoid repetition here.

If you plan to use abbreviations then you should provide a bibliography of these as a preface to your cases.

When you submit your cases, these should be emailed to [email protected]. As mentioned previously, this should be sent as a single PDF document with each case numbered (1-10). Each case should start on a new page.

What should my reflective diary include?

The reflective diary is an opportunity for you to discuss what you learnt on each day of the course, but more importantly how this relates to your clinical practice. This requires some consideration of what you did before, what you learnt, and how it will affect what you do going forward. Actual clinical scenarios are a great way to show that you have reflected and changed your practice. There should be at least 8 reflective diary entries. You can include Days 1 & 2, and also, Days 9 & 10 together. Days 3-8 should be separate diary entries. The content for each day broadly aligns with the unit aims and objectives which can be found at https://endoart.co.uk/course-specification/. You should not just rewrite these objectives, this is not reflection.

Once completed, you should email the diary for all 10 days to [email protected] as single PDF document.

There is no template for this but an example is available.

What if I miss the deadline?

It is imperative that you abide by the dates you have been advised of during the course.

Once the essay, first case and reflective diary have been approved, the absolute deadline for the complete clinical case portfolio (10 cases) with the final reflective diary is 2 years from the completion of the face-to-face teaching (Day 10).

It is important to acknowledge, that if any resubmissions are required, no extension to the above dates can be offered.

We will not provide reminders for individuals or cohorts, and it is entirely the candidate’s responsibility to work within the required timeframe.

Please bear in mind that any resubmissions may require the same timescale as the original submission and that you may effectively be ‘timed out’ of the process. No extensions will be granted for these circumstances.

If any extenuating circumstances exist, these must be made known at the time of occurrence and not after. Under no circumstances can extenuating circumstances be considered if they are only made known after the final completion deadline has passed.