Dental Professionals Hearings Service determination — substantive hearing
Suspended from practice — 4 months
The regulator’s term: suspension
What does “suspended from practice” mean?
A suspension is a fixed-term pause on the right to practise. The practitioner cannot work in the regulated profession during the suspension. At the end of the period the suspension may be extended, replaced with another sanction, or lifted on review.
Concerning Serenidade Bela Do Nascimento Fernandes, dental nurse (General Dental Council 292903).
Decision date: 2 April 2026 · Hearing started 1 April 2026 and ended 2 April 2026
In plain English
The GDC tribunal decided that Ms Fernandes, a dental nurse, was convicted in 2023 of assaulting two police officers. She also failed to inform the GDC of her charge and conviction, which the tribunal found amounted to misconduct. The tribunal found her fitness to practise impaired by misconduct and conviction. Mitigation included remorse, good character, and challenging personal circumstances. The tribunal imposed a 4-month suspension with a review and immediate effect.
Charges
Ms Fernandes was charged with: (1) two convictions on 14 February 2023 at Manchester City Magistrates' Court for assaulting emergency workers (police officers) by beating on 22 May 2022; (2) failing to immediately inform the GDC that she had been charged with those offences in October 2022 and subsequently convicted in February 2023.
Findings
Ms Fernandes admitted all charges. The Committee found her fitness to practise impaired by both misconduct and conviction. The failure to inform the GDC was found to amount to misconduct as it undermined the GDC's ability to regulate effectively. The Committee found limited insight, noting she had not informed her current employer of the proceedings. Impairment was found on both public protection (misconduct) and public interest (conviction and misconduct) grounds. A 4-month suspension with a review was imposed, with an immediate suspension order.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
A history of previous good character; demonstrated remorse and an apology; steps taken to prevent recurrence of the behaviour that led to the conviction; personal challenging circumstances leading to the criminal behaviour; no repetition of the criminal behaviour.
Aggravating factors
Significant delay in informing the GDC of the charge and subsequent conviction; lack of insight; a disregard for the GDC and the systems for regulating dental professionals.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Dental Professionals Hearings Service determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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