Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2019/20

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

Table 14.1: All self-employed GDS dentists – average gross earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry by dental type, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20

_^Notes: 

_{^{1. Small sample (<125)}} 

_{^{2. Statistical significance relates only to the fact of a year-on-year change in taxable income. See 'Statistical significance explained}}

Year-on-year differences between income before tax estimates have been tested for statistical significance at a 95 per cent confidence level. An increase or decrease in estimates that is statistically significant is likely to be a genuine change, rather than resulting from chance, and means that users can have greater confidence that any apparent differences are applicable to the entire population in question.

Statistical significance in this report relates only to the fact of an increase or decrease in average income before tax and does not consider the size of the change; in some cases, apparently large changes may not be statistically significant and vice versa.

Average gross earnings and total expenses have not been tested, as standard errors were not available. Throughout the rest of the report, results and comparisons have not been tested for statistical significance unless otherwise stated.

Cash and real term figures

Please refer to the accompanying Power BI visualisation for a time series of taxable Income and total expenses for Principal and Associate dentists in Northern Ireland, from 2010/11 to 2019/20, in both cash and real terms. 

Report population changes

It is important to note that figure 14.2 represents the changing report population that is used in the annual earnings and expenses estimates reports and does not represent the actual dental population. See Introduction for further explanatory notes.

^{_{Note: Numbers shown are Earnings and Expenses Estimates Report populations and will not match those found elsewhere}}

Earnings and expenses estimates by percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry

This section of the report looks at the earnings and expenses estimates of self-employed dentists by the percentage of total gross earnings from Health Service dentistry (Health Service gross earnings as a percentage of total gross earnings) for 2019/20. The measure is not comparable with the ‘percentage of time spent on Health Service dentistry’ presented in a later section, as the latter is based on a measure of time as reported by respondents to the Dental Working Patterns Survey, whereas figures in this section are based upon a measure of earnings.

The measure of percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry is subject to some caveats: due to the arrangements in place for payment between Principal and Associate dentists, it is likely to contain a certain amount of overstating of an Associate’s actual level of income from Health Service dentistry, while the opposite is likely to be true for some Principals.

Furthermore, the measure is affected by the fact that some Principal dentists will receive additional income from the Health Service for providing education for dentists in training (Assistants, Vocational Dental Practitioners (VDPs), and those in General Professional Training (GPTs). In most circumstances, and where the Self Assessment tax return has been completed correctly, this income will not be declared as gross earnings, but used to ‘offset’ the expenses incurred for providing such services. This income is, however, included as earnings in the data received from Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Business Services Organisation (BSO) for Health Service earnings. This means that for many dentists who provide such education services, the percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry will be overstated.

It is not possible to quantify the extent to which the issues described above affect the results of the analyses, but any effect is likely to be minimised by aggregating results to the all dentist level, and by employing wide bandings of percentage of income from Health Service dentistry, as shown in this section.

Although sample sizes allow results to be presented for Principals, Associates, and all self-employed dentists, the small sample sizes of each subgroup mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages.

Table 15.1: All self-employed dentists – average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry by dental type and percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes:

_{^{1. Total earnings from Health Service dentistry (based on BSO activity data from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020) as a percentage of total earnings from dentistry during the same period (based on HMRC Self Assessment tax return for 2019/20)}}

_{^{2. Small sample (<125)}}

_{^{3. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Introduction}} 

_{^{4. The lowest combined taxable income (from Health Service and private dentistry) for all dentists, of £51,500, was reported for those dentists whose Health Service earnings accounted for at least 75 per cent of their total gross earnings}}

Earnings and expenses estimates by gender

Although sample sizes allow results to be presented for Principals, Associates, and all self-employed GDS dentists, it is important to note that the small sample sizes of each subgroup mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages.

The results show that in 2019/20:

• as in previous years, regardless of dental type classification, male dentists had higher average gross earnings, total expenses, and taxable income than their female counterparts
• for all male self-employed GDS dentists, average taxable income was £82,000, compared to £52,300 for all female self-employed GDS dentists

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

Table 16.1: All self-employed GDS dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry by dental type and gender, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes: 

_{^{1. Small sample (<125)}}  

_{^{2. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

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

Table 17.1: All self-employed GDS dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry by dental type and age, Northern Ireland, 2018/19

^_Notes: 

^{_{1. Small sample (<125)}}  

_{^{2. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

^{_{3. Given the relatively low dental sample sizes in each age band, extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages; the results may be subject to more uncertainty and differences may not be statistically significant}}

Dental Working Patterns Survey findings: earnings and expenses estimates by working patterns

For all self-employed dentists, as the weekly working hours increase, so do gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income.

Table 18.1: All self-employed GDS dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry by dental type and weekly hours devoted to dentistry, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes: 

_{^{1. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

_{^{2. Small sample (<125)}} 

_{^{3. The bands of weekly working hours changed in 2012/13 (from ≥35<45 and ≥45 to ≥35≤45 and >45) so caution should be used when making any comparisons to data before 2012/13}} 

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

Table 18.2: Self-employed Principal dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes:

_{^{1. Small sample (<125)}} 

_{^{2. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results}}

_{^{3. Small sample sizes for some subgroups mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages}}

Table 18.3: Self-employed Associate dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

^_Notes:

^{_{1. Small sample (<125)}} 

^{_{2. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results}}

^{_{3. Small sample sizes for some subgroups mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages}}

Table 18.4: All self-employed GDS dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes:

_{^{1. Small sample (<125)}} 

^{_{2. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results}}

_{^{3.  Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

_{^{4. The bands of weekly working hours changed in 2012/13 (from ≥35<45 and ≥45 to ≥35≤45 and >45) so caution should be used when making any comparisons to data before 2012/13}}

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

Table 19.1: All self-employed GDS dentists – average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by percentage of time spent on Health Service dentistry, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

^_Notes:

^{_{1. Small sample (<125)}}

^{_{2. Results are based on responses from the Dental Working Patterns Survey. This Survey was only sent to dentists who carried out some Health Service work in 2018/19 or 2019/20; therefore, percentage of time spent on Health Service dentistry cannot equal zero}} 

_{^{3.  Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

^{_{4. Small sample sizes for each subgroup mean that the values are subject to additional levels of uncertainty beyond those already associated with estimates based upon sample data, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages}}

^{_{5. Due to the small population of dentists in each subgroup, the analyses in this section use different weighting to the rest of the report and means that the average values presented for all dentists will differ from those presented elsewhere}}

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

As discussed in the Known issues section of the Introduction, earnings and expenses can be counted more than once across tax returns, and this should be borne in mind when considering these results.

Table 20.1: Self-employed Principal dentists - detailed expenses breakdown, by age, gender and percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes: 

_{^{1. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

_{^{2. Small sample (<125)}}

Table 20.2: Self-employed Associate dentists - detailed expenses breakdown, by age, gender and percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

_^Notes: 

_{^{1. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}} 

_{^{2. Small sample (<125)}}

Table 20.3: All self-employed GDS dentists - detailed expenses breakdown, by age, gender, percentage of gross earnings from Health Service dentistry, weekly working hours and percentage of time spent on Health Service dentistry, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

^_Notes:

_{^{1. Further explanatory notes can be found in the Terms, definitions and report content chapter of this report}}  

^{_{2. Small sample (<125)}}  

^{_{3. The bands of weekly working hours changed in 2012/13 (from ≥35<45 and ≥45 to ≥35≤45 and >45) so caution should be used when making any comparisons to data before 2012/13}}