Last updated July 2026
Written by Dr Sam — practising dentist, Australia, and the clinician behind this directory. About the author →
Orthodontic free CPD is currently dominated by aligner education, and it needs reading with the right lens: much of it comes from aligner companies whose case-selection enthusiasm exceeds the literature’s. The genuinely valuable content teaches diagnosis first — skeletal versus dental discrepancy, growth assessment, the difference between crowding you can treat with expansion-lite aligner plans and crowding that will relapse or worse.
For general dentists, I’d weight three areas: honest case selection for GP-delivered aligner treatment, including recognising the Class II that looks simple and isn’t; interceptive orthodontics and referral timing in the mixed dentition, where a well-timed referral changes a child’s whole treatment trajectory; and retention, the phase everyone under-teaches and every patient eventually tests. If a course spends more time on attachment protocols than on diagnosis, treat it as product training.
A snapshot of the current directory: the strict topic matcher identifies 101 courses relevant to Orthodontics across 14 providers. 90 are marked as having certificates, and 0 run two CPD hours or longer.
Orthodontics is no longer a narrow area of interest for specialist practices alone. General dentists are increasingly involved in early assessment, aligner discussions, retention reviews, space management, restorative planning and the long-term monitoring of orthodontic outcomes.
Browse free orthodontics coursesWhat to look for in an orthodontics CPD course
Good orthodontic CPD should help with decisions that come up in real practice: when to monitor, when to refer, how to communicate limitations, and how orthodontics interacts with restorative, periodontal and paediatric care.
- Look for courses that cover assessment, diagnosis and appropriate case selection.
- Choose education that is clear about scope, risks, consent and referral pathways.
- Check whether a certificate is issued after completion.
- Include retention, relapse and long-term maintenance topics in your learning plan.
- Consider courses that connect orthodontics with restorative dentistry, periodontics and paediatric dentistry.
Comparing free orthodontic education providers
Orthodontics CPD appears across a mixture of specialist education platforms, aligner-related providers and broader dental learning networks. Some courses focus directly on orthodontic systems, while others cover diagnosis, paediatric development, interdisciplinary planning or post-treatment maintenance.
- CDEWorld
- Colgate Oral Health Network
- Viva Learning
- J Morita Learning
- Philips Oral Healthcare Learning
Which orthodontics CPD is right for you?
If you are a general dentist, start with courses on assessment, diagnosis, referral timing, consent and retention. These topics are useful even if you do not provide orthodontic treatment directly, because patients commonly ask about alignment, relapse and aesthetic options during routine appointments.
Clinicians offering aligner therapy may prefer education that covers case selection, attachments, digital workflows, treatment monitoring and managing complications. Those working with children and adolescents should also include growth, eruption guidance and interceptive orthodontic topics as part of a balanced CPD plan.
Latest orthodontics courses from the directory
- Benefits of Clear Aligner Therapy
- Drastic Plastic: Taming Aligners to Improve Predictability
- Mastering Clear Aligner Attachments: Precision,...
- Optimizing Class II treatment with aligner therapy: Integrating distalization mechanics and fixed auxiliary approaches
- Treating growing patients with aligners: A holistic approach to diagnosis, function and development
- Improving Predictability in Clear Aligner Therapy
- Clear Aligner Therapy: How Advances in Monitoring, Service, and Specialist Support Allow Adding Orthodontic Treatment to Your Practice Today
- Malocclusion Neglect: How Ignoring Orthodontic Treatment Jeopardizes Your Patients’ Oral Health
- You Should Be Getting More Out of Your Clear Aligner Partner
- How AI is Reshaping Orthodontics
- Managing Complex Aligner Cases: Strategies for Predictable Outcomes
- Treating White Spot Lesions Before, During, and after Orthodontics
Showing 12 of 108 relevant courses from the directory. 97 are marked as having certificates. Open the filtered directory.
Frequently asked questions
Are free orthodontics CPD courses suitable for general dentists?
Yes. Many orthodontic CPD courses are relevant to general dental practice, particularly where they cover assessment, case selection, referral decisions, retention, aligner discussions and communication with patients.
Do free orthodontics courses include certificates?
Many providers issue certificates after successful completion. Certificate availability varies by course and provider, so check the course listing if certificated CPD is important for your records.
Are these courses only for clinicians providing orthodontic treatment?
No. Orthodontic CPD can also be useful for clinicians who do not provide treatment directly, because it supports diagnosis, communication, referral decisions and long-term patient monitoring.
How often are new orthodontics courses added?
I add new courses weekly as providers release them, and the course list on this page reads live from the directory — so what you see is current.
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