Published 20 July 2026 · data snapshot of the nightly-verified directory
Written by Dr Sam — practising dentist, Australia, and the clinician behind this directory. About the author →
Key findings
- 2,463 verified free courses from 70 providers — 2,570 hours of free CPD, an average of 1.0 hr per course.
- 94% of free courses carry a certificate (2,321 courses) — free no longer means unverifiable.
- Restorative dentistry dominates: 644 courses (26%), more than the bottom eight specialties combined.
- Supply is concentrated: the top 10 providers account for 63% of all listed courses; the top provider alone lists 404.
- The webinar hour is the unit of free CPD: 96% of courses run an hour or less; none exceeds four hours.
- The catalogue is fresh: every one of the 2,463 listings carries an added-or-reviewed date inside the last three tracked months.
Where the courses are: specialty coverage
Free CPD supply does not mirror clinical practice evenly. Restorative dentistry and general-practice material dominate; the specialties where free content is scarcest — lasers and technology (32 courses), oral surgery and regeneration (36), and prosthodontics and occlusion (37) — are arguably where a free certificated hour is most valuable for the clinicians who need it.
Who supplies free CPD
Supply is heavily concentrated. The ten largest providers account for 63% of all listed courses, led by Viva Learning (404), VOCO Learning (265), CDEWorld (226). The long tail matters differently: the remaining 60 providers contribute smaller, often more specialised libraries.
The webinar hour is the unit of free CPD
The one-hour webinar is the dominant format — 96% of all courses run an hour or less, and the average across the directory is 1.0 hr (median 1). Long-form free education is rare: no listed course exceeds four hours.
Publishing pace over the last year
Free CPD keeps moving. Every course currently listed was added or re-verified within the last three tracked months — a figure that reflects this directory’s rolling build-out and nightly re-checking as much as provider publishing pace.
Certificates: free no longer means unverifiable
2,321 of 2,463 courses (94%) indicate a certificate of completion — the paper trail that turns a free webinar into auditable CPD. Certificate coverage varies sharply by provider (see the provider directory for per-provider rates), which is the practical reason provider choice matters for regulated cycles.
Method
Figures are a 20 July 2026 snapshot of the FreeDentalCPD directory: 2,463 courses listed as free at the point of access, re-verified nightly, classified by provider, specialty, stated CPD hours and certificate availability. Counts reflect what providers publish and this directory verifies — not the entirety of free education that may exist. To cite: "FreeDentalCPD, The State of Free Dental CPD 2026" with a link to this page.
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These are a sample — the full directory view has every course with live search and filters.