The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to dentistry across the UK. On 12 March 2020, Wales and the rest of the UK moved from the containment phase to the delay phase of the response to COVID-19.1 All routine dental care in Wales stopped and only urgent dental care was permitted. Urgent dental care hubs were set up across Wales to carry out aerosol generating procedures that were deemed absolutely necessary. A number of dental core trainees (DCTs) in Wales were involved in the service delivery at these hubs. Some were redeployed to other clinical areas (often non-dental) to help in the response to the COVID-19 crisis. The impact the pandemic has had on the training of DCTs and dental specialty registrars (StRs) in Wales is yet to be explored fully. There is limited evidence in the literature, in the form of letters and opinion pieces, on the effect of COVID-19 on dental education.2-4 One recent piece comments on the potential effects of the pandemic on postgraduate dental training in a London hospital but does not mention the impact COVID-19 has on the mental health and wellbeing of trainees.5 This article, on the other hand, does explore this important topic as well as the impact COVID-19 has on Welsh trainees’ learning and development, redeployment experience and future careers. To our knowledge, this is the first study undertaken to determine the impact the pandemic has on postgraduate trainees in a devolved UK nation (Wales).
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