Resources
How to revise, whichever one you are sitting
What each qualification involves, a revision approach that works for multiple-choice recall, and the sources behind every explanation in every bank.
Before registration: the Level 3 Diploma
The NEBDN National Diploma in Dental Nursing (Level 3) is the qualification most trainee dental nurses in the UK take on the way to registration with the General Dental Council. It is assessed in two parts: a written Knowledge Test of multiple-choice questions, and a Record of Experience documenting what you have actually done in practice.
The Dental Nurse app is aimed squarely at the first of those. The Record of Experience is yours and your supervisor's work, and nothing here substitutes for it.
After registration: the certificates
Once you are registered, the usual next step is a post-registration certificate in a specialism. The Post-Reg Mastery app covers six of them, each assessed in its own right and each with its own question pool in the app:
Dental Radiography
Physics and dose, IR(ME)R duties, projection technique, image faults and radiographic anatomy.
220 questions · 5 topics
Oral Health Education
Caries and periodontal prevention, diet, fluoride, and the behaviour change techniques that make advice stick.
180 questions · 5 topics
Dental Sedation Nursing
Sedation drugs, patient assessment and consent, monitoring and equipment, and recovery and discharge.
200 questions · 4 topics
Orthodontic Dental Nursing
Occlusal classification and development, removable, fixed and functional appliances, materials and retention.
180 questions · 3 topics
Special Care Dental Nursing
Consent and capacity law, disability and reasonable adjustments, conditions and their oral impact, access and domiciliary care.
220 questions · 5 topics
Dental Implant Nursing
Bone biology and osseointegration, assessment and planning, chairside surgical support, and professional practice.
160 questions · 4 topics
For first responders: FREC 3 and FREC 4
Outside dentistry, the FREC 3 & 4 app covers the Qualsafe Level 3 Award and Level 4 Certificate in First Response Emergency Care (RQF). FREC 3 is the entry-level qualification most UK first responders, event medics and ambulance service staff hold, and it is the entry requirement for FREC 4. The app keeps the two levels apart, each with its own question pool and its own timed mock:
FREC 3
The Level 3 Award: scene and patient assessment, airway and resuscitation, trauma care, medical emergencies, and the anatomy underneath them.
383 questions · 4 topics
FREC 4
The Level 4 Certificate: patient assessment and management, emergency trauma care, focused emergency and urgent care, and ECG recognition.
202 questions · 4 topics
FREC 3's theory assessment includes a multiple choice question paper sat under examination conditions, which is the format the app's mock mirrors; FREC 4 adds invigilated exams of its own, one of them on ECG recognition. Entry requirements, exam dates, fees and the current syllabus for any qualification on this site come from NEBDN and Qualsafe Awards and your training provider — check them there, not here, because they change and we are not the authority on them.
The Diploma's 10 units
The Diploma is organised into 10 units, and so is its question bank. Their relative sizes reflect roughly how much ground each one covers.
| Unit | Covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Professional Practice | GDC standards, infection control, health and safety, consent and confidentiality. | 124 |
| 2. Leading and Team Working | Team roles and scope of practice, delegation, referral, appraisal and raising concerns. | 71 |
| 3. Communication | Communicating with patients, explaining treatment plans and costs, and overcoming barriers. | 44 |
| 4. Inclusive Practice | Equality law, protected characteristics and inclusive care in the dental setting. | 20 |
| 5. Assessment and Diagnosis | Anatomy and physiology, tooth morphology, caries, radiography, charting and periodontal assessment. | 133 |
| 6. Treatment Planning | Local anaesthesia, restorative materials, cavity preparation, impressions, prosthodontics and extractions. | 88 |
| 7. Promoting Oral Health | Fluoride, plaque and saliva, diet and free sugars, and oral health education. | 35 |
| 8. Health and Well-being | Occupational hazards, inoculation injury, immunisation and personal well-being. | 26 |
| 9. CPD | The GDC enhanced CPD scheme, hours, development outcomes, evidence and the PDP. | 35 |
| 10. Medical Emergencies | Basic life support, emergency drugs and equipment, and the collapsed patient. | 44 |
A revision approach that holds up
Start with the topics you avoid
The topic you keep not opening is the one costing you marks. Work out which it is by scoring badly on it once, deliberately, early — while there is still time to do something about it.
Practise retrieval, not recognition
Re-reading notes feels productive and is not. Answering a question you might get wrong is what builds the recall you need under time pressure. That is why the free quizzes here show the explanation only after you commit to an answer.
Read the explanation when you are right
A lucky guess and solid knowledge look identical on a score. The explanation tells you which one it was — and why the other options were wrong, which is often the more useful half.
Decide before you read the option list
Extended matching questions put eight to ten options in front of you, and reading them all first is how you talk yourself out of the right one. Answer the stem in your head, then find your answer in the list. This matters most in the post-registration certificates, where a large share of the bank is set this way.
Sit a timed mock before you think you are ready
65 questions in 90 minutes for the Diploma, 75 in 90 for a certificate, 40 in 60 for a FREC level — either way, that is a pace, and pace has to be practised. Finding out how it feels the week before is far better than finding out on the day.
Space it out
Four half-hour sessions across a week beat one long session at the end of it. Revisiting a topic after you have half-forgotten it is precisely when the practice does the most good.
What the explanations are written against
Every one of the 2365 questions across all three apps carries an explanation that names its source. These are the works cited most often in each bank.
Dental Nurse · 620 questions
- Levison's Textbook for Dental Nurses, 12th edition
- GDC Standards for the Dental Team
- GDC Enhanced CPD Scheme
- British Society of Periodontology BPE guidelines (2019)
- Resuscitation Council UK guidelines
Post-Reg Mastery · 1160 questions
- Rogers, Basic Guide to Dental Sedation Nursing, 2nd edition
- Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment (FGDP/PHE, 2nd edition 2020)
- Delivering Better Oral Health (DBOH), 4th edition
- Grist, Basic Guide to Orthodontic Dental Nursing, 2nd edition
- Craig, Practical Conscious Sedation, 2nd edition
- Diz Dios & Kumar, A Practical Approach to Special Care in Dentistry (2022)
- Darbar, Dental Implants for Hygienists and Therapists (2022)
- Whaites & Drage, Radiography and Radiology for Dental Care Professionals
- GDC Standards for the Dental Team, and the Scope of Practice in force from 1 November 2025
- Fiske et al., Special Care Dentistry (Quintessentials of Dental Practice)
- The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its Code of Practice
- British Society of Periodontology BPE guidelines (2019)
FREC 3 & 4 · 585 questions
- Greaves & Porter (eds.), The Trauma Care Pre-Hospital Manual (2018)
- OpenStax, Anatomy and Physiology, 1st edition, used under CC BY 4.0
- Resuscitation Council UK Guidelines 2025 (adult and paediatric basic life support, anaphylaxis)
- Gregory & Mursell (eds.), Manual of Clinical Paramedic Procedures
- Brady (ed.), The ECG in Prehospital Emergency Care (2012)
- Willis & Peate (eds.), Fundamentals of Paramedic Practice, 3rd edition (2024)
- NICE guidelines on major trauma, head injury, spinal injury, sepsis, anaphylaxis and fever in under-5s
- NHS England's Ten Second Triage and Major Incident Triage Tool
- NHS and nidirect public information, and the Highway Code, under the Open Government Licence v3.0
- The Qualsafe FREC 3 and FREC 4 qualification specifications, for syllabus structure
Check the current edition. Guidance, editions and scheme rules change, sometimes between one sitting and the next — and radiation, conscious sedation and resuscitation guidance in particular is actively revised. Where anything here disagrees with the current published document or with your training provider, they are right and we are out of date, and we would appreciate you telling us .
Try the free questions
217 questions across all three apps — 65 from the Diploma, 72 from the certificates and 80 from FREC. Exactly what each app's free tier unlocks, no sign-up, nothing recorded.
Start a free quiz