Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2018/19

This is the first time that figures have been presented separately for England and Wales, and the combined averages for England and Wales are no longer available. This coincides with a change in the way we determine dental type which has resulted in increases in the number of dentists identified as Providing-Performers and decreases in the counts of Associate dentists. These changes mean that population counts and earnings and expenses estimates are not comparable with those from previous years.

Falling numbers of dentists working on PDS contracts have resulted in our removal of contract type from the strata used for weighting purposes, which we do to mitigate for uncertainty associated with reporting on sample data rather than for the entire population.

However, to allow comparisons to be made with 2017/18 figures, we have calculated separate England and Wales figures for that financial year using the new methodology for determining dental type. This means there are now new time series figures starting at 2017/18 for both England and Wales. Please refer to the accompanying methodology and methodological change notice for more details.

This section shows average gross earnings, total expenses, and taxable income estimates by dental type and contract type for dentists in England. The expenses to earnings ratio (EER) is also shown as a percentage for ease of understanding.

Providing-Performer dentists

Providing-Performer dentists had higher gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than Associate dentists across all contract types, in keeping with previous years.

For Providing-Performer dentists in 2018/19 average taxable income from NHS and private dentistry was £113,100, compared to £113,200 in 2017/18, a 0.01 per cent increase, which is not statistically significant

Table 1.2: Providing-Performer dentists – average earnings and expenses, by contract type, England, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Notes:  1. Small sample (<125)    2. Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology 

Associate Dentists

For Associate dentists in 2018/19 average taxable income from NHS and private dentistry was £57,600, compared to £57,000 in 2017/18, a 1.0 per cent increase, which is not statistically significant.

Table 1.3: Associate dentists – average earnings and expenses, by contract type, England, 2017/18 and 2018/19

^{_{Note: Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}} 

All self-employed primary care dentists

For all self-employed primary care dentists in 2018/19 average taxable income from NHS and private dentistry was £68,600, a 0.1 per cent increase from £68,500 in 2017/18, which is not statistically significant.

Earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry varied by contract type, whereby those working under GDS arrangements had the lowest average taxable income compared to those working under PDS or Mixed GDS/PDS arrangements.

Changes in the distribution of the population across dental and/or contract type will inevitably have some effect on the estimates for gross earnings, total expenses, taxable income, and EER.

Table 1.4: All self-employed primary care dentists – average earnings and expenses, by contract type, England, 2017/18 and 2018/19

^{_{Note: Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}} 

Cash and real term figures

Please refer to the accompanying Power BI visualisation for a time series of taxable Income and total expenses for Providing-Performer and Associate dentists in England, for 2017/18 and 2018/19, in both cash and real terms. 

Report population changes

Figure 1.4 shows report population numbers by dental type and year and highlights the changing dental population.

This is the first time entirely separate figures for England and Wales have been published. A new methodology has also been implemented for determining dental type, which has resulted in the reclassification of some dentists from Associate to Providing-Performer. Following a revision in methodology the earnings, expenses and report population have been recalculated for 2017/18. Using the new methodology, Providing-Performer dentists now account for approximately 19.9 per cent of the workforce in England compared to 20.5 per cent in 2017/18. (The previous methodology, which applied to England and Wales combined, classified 14.5 per cent of dentists in 2017/18 as Providing-Performers). 

It is important to note that this chart represents the changing report population that is used in the annual earnings and expenses estimates series of reports and does not represent the actual dental population. See the Introduction for further explanatory notes.

Earnings and expenses estimates by gender

The results show that:

• regardless of dental type classification, on average in 2018/19, male dentists had higher gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than their female counterparts
• for all male self-employed primary care dentists, average taxable income was £82,900 compared to £55,100 for all female self-employed primary care dentists, which could be partly explained by the higher proportion of male dentists being Providing-Performers

It is important to note that this report includes both full-time and part-time dental earnings and expenses, and given that on average male dentists tend to work longer weekly hours compared to their female counterparts (Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale - 2018/19 and 2019/20), this could be a contributory factor to the differences observed in earnings and expenses by gender.

Table 2.1: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by dental type and gender, England, 2018/19

^{_{Note:Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}} 

Earnings and expenses estimates by age

For the purposes of this report, dentists’ ages were calculated as at 30 September 2018 – the mid-point of the 2018/19 financial year.

The results suggest a general trend for dentists to earn their highest taxable income between the ages of 45 and 54. This apparent trend may in part be explained by the characteristics of each age band: for example, those aged under 35 years are more likely to be an Associate than a Providing-Performer dentist, while according to responses to the Dental Working Patterns Survey, on average dentists aged 55 and over tend to work fewer hours than those in the other age bands (Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale - 2018/19 and 2019/20).

Table 3.1: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by dental type and age, England, 2018/19

_{^{Notes: 1. Small sample (<125)  2. Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK Chapter of this report}} 

Earnings and expenses estimates by age and gender

The results show that across all dental types:

• dentists aged 45-54 earned the highest taxable income, while those aged under 35 earned the lowest 
• male dentists earned more than their female counterparts in every age band; this will be due to a number of factors including variation in the number of weekly hours worked and the fact that a higher proportion of men are Providing-Performer dentists whilst a higher proportion of female dentists are Associates

Table 4.1: Self-employed primary care Providing-Performer dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by gender and age England, 2018/19

• Female Associate dentists consistently have a lower expenses to earnings ratio (EER) when compared to their male counterparts, with female dentists under 35 years having an EER of 27.1% compared to an EER of 31.0% for male dentists under 35.

Table 4.2 Self-employed primary care Associate dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by gender and age England, 2018/19 

Table 4.3: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by gender and age England, 2018/19

Dental Working Patterns Survey findings: earnings and expenses estimates for dentists by weekly hours devoted to dentistry

Table and Figure 5.1 show earnings and expenses estimates for self-employed primary care dentists by the average number of hours per week they devoted to NHS and private dentistry, including clinical and administrative work according to their responses to the Dental Working Patterns Survey. It is important to note that some survey respondents may have also included time spent in employed, as opposed to only self-employed, dental work (such as time spent working in dental schools) and as a result, the measure of weekly working hours is not restricted to self-employed work within a dental practice.

As might be expected, the table shows:

• in general the average taxable income for all self-employed primary care dentists increased with the average weekly hours worked

Table 5.1: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by dental type and weekly working hours, England, 2018/19

^{_{Note:Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}} 

Dental Working Patterns Survey findings: earnings and expenses estimates by gender and weekly hours devoted to dentistry

Tables and Figures 5.2-5.4 show by dental type, earnings and expenses estimates from NHS and private dentistry by both the average weekly hours worked (including clinical and administrative work for both NHS and private dentistry) and gender.

As one would expect, Providing-Performer dentists who work fewer than 30 hours per week have a considerably lower taxable income than those working 45 hours or more.

Male Providing-Performer dentists had a higher taxable income than their female counterparts for all weekly working hours band, except for between 30 and 35 hours where female dentists earned more. 

It is important to note that the small sample size of these subgroups, mean that values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages

Table 5.2: Self-employed primary care Providing-Performer dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, England, 2018/19

^{_{Notes: 1. Small sample (<125)  2. Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK chapter of this report. 3. Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}} 

Table 5.3: Self-employed primary care Associate dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, England, 2018/19

^{_{Note: Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}} 

Table 5.4: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, England, 2018/19

_{^{Notes: 1. Small sample (<125) 2. Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK chapter of this report}} 

Dental Working Patterns Survey findings: earnings and expenses estimates by percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry

Table and figure 6.1 show gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income from Health Service and private dentistry for self-employed dentists broken down by percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry as identified from responses to the Dental Working Patterns Survey.

For Providing-Performer dentists, dentists spending between 25 and 75 per cent of their time on NHS dentistry earned the highest taxable income of £127,500 compared to £114,800 and £116,600 for those spending less than 25 per cent and over 75 per cent of their time on NHS dentistry, respectively.

For Associate dentists, average taxable income decreased as the percentage of their time spent on NHS dentistry increased. The lowest average taxable income of £55,300 was earned by those who spent at least 75 per cent of their time on NHS dentistry, and the highest taxable income of £69,700 was earned by those spending less than 25 per cent of their time on NHS dentistry. A potential explanation for these findings could be that Associate dentists may retain a higher percentage of the fees generated by performing private dentistry than they do for NHS dentistry as the Providing-Performer dentists might take a lower proportion of the private fees.

Table 6.1: All self-employed primary care dentists – average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry and dental type, England, 2018/19

^{_{Notes: 1. Results are based on responses from The Dental Working Patterns Survey.This survey was only sent to dentists who carried out some NHS work in 2018/19 or 2019/20; therefore, percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry cannot equal zero   2.Small sample (<125)    3. Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK chapter  4.Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the new methodology}}  

Detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and activity demographics

For Providing-Performer dentists:

• as in 2017/18, as a percentage of all expenses, Other expenses represented the largest cost (47.8 per cent), followed by Employee costs (31.1 per cent), and Premises (8.3 per cent)

Table 7.1: Self-employed Providing-Performer dentists - detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and activity demographics, England, 2018/19

_{^{Notes: 1. Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK Chapter of this report  2. Small sample (<125)}}

For Associate dentists:

• Other expenses accounted for a majority (59.4 per cent) of all expenses, followed by Office and General Business (13.6 per cent) and Employee (13.0 per cent)
• Associate dentists are less likely than their Providing-Performer counterparts to employ staff, and this is reflected in the percentage of all expenses that were Employee costs, at 13.0 per cent (£4,100) and 31.1 per cent (£84,000) respectively

Table 7.2: Self-employed Associate dentists - detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and weekly working hours, England, 2018/19

^{_{Note: Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK Chapter of this report}}

For all self-employed primary care dentists:

• Consistent with the results from 2017/18, the three largest expenses categories in 2018/19 were: Other (51.5 per cent), Employee (25.3 per cent), and Office and General Business (9.7 per cent)

Table 7.3: All self-employed primary care dentists - detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and weekly working hours, England, 2018/19

_{^{Notes: 1.Further explanatory notes can be found in the UK Chapter of this report}}