12.—(1) A registered dentist is an existing specialist for the purposes of regulation 8(2) if he applies to the Registrar, within the period referred to in paragraph (2), for his name to be entered in any list of orthodontists or (as the case may be) oral surgeons kept pursuant to regulations made under section 26(4) of the Act (paying any fee determined by the GDC) and satisfies him that he falls within paragraph (3).
(2) An application under paragraph (1) shall be made before the expiry of the period of two years beginning with the date on which the regulations mentioned in that paragraph come into force in relation to the specialty in question, unless the applicant satisfies the Registrar that there was good reason for not applying by then.
(3) A person falls within this paragraph if—
(a)he is, or has been, a consultant in the National Health Service in the specialty in question; or
(b)he has been accredited in the specialty in question before the date on which the regulations referred to in paragraph (1) come into force in relation to that specialty; or
(c)he has satisfied the GDC that—
(i)he has been trained in the United Kingdom in the appropriate specialty and that training complied with the requirements relating to training in that specialty current in the United Kingdom at the time he undertook it;
(ii)he has qualifications awarded in the United Kingdom in such a specialty that are equivalent to a CCST in that specialty; or
(iii)he has acquired experience in that specialty which has given him a level of expertise equivalent to the level of expertise he might reasonably be expected to have attained if he had a CCST in that specialty.
(4) In paragraph (3)(b), “accredited” refers to the former practice whereby certain Royal Colleges and Faculties acknowledged the satisfactory completion of a period of specialist training in dentistry, to a level previously determined by that body, by granting an application for accreditation made by the person who had completed the training.