Dental Professionals Hearings Service determination — substantive hearing
GDC panel erases dentist Colin McLauchlan over widespread clinical failings and dishonesty
A GDC Professional Conduct Committee has erased dentist Colin Duncan McLauchlan from the register with immediate suspension, finding widespread failings in the care of 39 patients between 2018 and 2023 and dishonest conduct towards four patients, in a hearing held in his absence.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 5 June 2026 · Updated 8 July 2026
Erasure (struck off the register)
Added to MedicWatch: 8 July 2026Report a correction
What does “struck off the register” mean?
Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.
Concerning Colin Duncan McLauchlan, dentist (General Dental Council 60088).
Decision date: 5 June 2026 · Hearing started 19 January 2026 and ended 5 June 2026
In plain English
The GDC tribunal decided that dentist Colin Duncan McLauchlan should be erased from the register with immediate suspension. The Professional Conduct Committee, sitting in his absence, found widespread failings in examinations, radiograph reporting, diagnosis and consent across 39 patients between 2018 and 2023, and found he acted dishonestly towards four patients, including denying he had left a dental bur in a patient's mouth and misattributing his own root canal work to another dentist.
Charges
It was alleged that Mr McLauchlan failed to provide an adequate standard of care to 39 patients between 2018 and 2023, including failures to conduct extra-oral, soft tissue, periodontal and oral hygiene examinations, failures to report on radiographs, failures to diagnose and treat caries, bone loss and periodontal disease, poor standard crown, bridge and restoration treatment, failures to discuss risks, benefits and alternative treatment options, and failures to obtain informed consent. Further allegations concerned probity: denying he had left a dental bur in Patient B's mouth and claiming swallowing it would cause no harm; giving Patient H an incomplete account of a specialist's opinion of his crown treatment; incorrectly advising Patient K that gums normally take six months to heal after extraction and failing to urgently refer a non-healing socket; and stating in a referral letter that another dentist had provided Patient N's poor quality root canal treatment when he had provided it himself. The conduct in these probity matters was alleged to be misleading, lacking integrity and dishonest.
Findings
The hearing proceeded in Mr McLauchlan's absence. The Committee found the great majority of the clinical charges proved, accepting the expert evidence of Dr Pal that assessments, radiograph reporting, diagnoses and consent discussions were not carried out, drawing the inference from the absence of records. It found his conduct misleading, lacking integrity and dishonest in relation to Patient B (denying leaving a dental bur in her mouth and minimising the risk of swallowing it), Patient H (misrepresenting a specialist's opinion when responding to a complaint), Patient K (advising that sockets normally take six months to heal when he knew they should heal within about eight weeks, and failing to urgently refer a non-healing socket later found to be an invasive squamous cell carcinoma), and Patient N (dishonestly attributing his own root canal treatment to another dentist in a referral letter). The Committee found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of misconduct and directed that his name be erased from the register, with an immediate suspension order.
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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