GIRFT’s detailed guidance helping to standardise and improve outpatient coding across four key hospital dentistry specialties has now been updated to reflect the new codes available in OPCS-4.11 from April 2026.
The guides for outpatient activity coding – covering orthodontics, paediatric dentistry, oral surgery and restorative dentistry – were first issued in June 2023, with the aim of better capturing consistent and accurate coded data for dental interventions. This in turn can be used for more meaningful comparison of activity across outpatient, day case and inpatient settings.
The 2026 updates now include any new codes featured in the new OPCS-4.11 and should replace the previous versions. Download them by clicking the links below:
In developing the original guidance, GIRFT formed working parties with the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons, as well as the British Orthodontic Society (including Consultant Orthodontist Group), British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, Restorative Dentistry UK, British Association of Oral Surgeons and the Association of British Academic Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, to look at the codes commonly used and to agree standardised and recommended OPCS-4 procedure codes.
These guidance documents should be used by dentists and others involved with capturing OPCS-4 procedure codes for dental procedures in an outpatient setting, with the aim that the improved data will input into care quality metrics, support service design and visibility of activity, help understand rates of specialised care, and support future commissioning.
The guidance delivers on a recommendation in GIRFT’s national report for hospital dentistry (2021), which highlighted how poorly defined treatment codes made it difficult to identify variation in clinical outcomes.
