UK Private Dentistry and the CMA Market Study Opened in March 2026

What a market study is

A market study is a statutory examination of how a market works, opened under section 130A of the Enterprise Act 2002. It is not an enforcement action against a named business and does not presuppose a breach. The regulator stated explicitly that the study is not a criticism of clinicians or the care they provide. Outcomes range from published guidance and recommendations to governments, through direct regulatory action, to a market investigation reference.

What the CMA said it would examine

The published scope names seven areas: availability of private dental services and ease of switching provider; how people search for care, compare providers and understand the information they receive; how prices have changed against inflation; whether any business practices are unfair, misleading or anti-competitive; how practices compete for patients; whether complaint and redress mechanisms work when something goes wrong; and whether the regulatory frameworks, and their enforcement, support good outcomes. The study does not examine NHS dentistry on its own, but does consider how NHS arrangements influence the private market.

The market picture the regulator described

Three figures anchor the regulator's account. The private dental market was valued at 8.4 billion pounds in 2023 to 2024. Private services accounted for 69 per cent of provision in 2025, a majority rather than a supplement. One in five people in Great Britain used private dental care during 2024, and in England 29 per cent of adults used private care exclusively in 2023 to 2024.

Price movement was cited alongside volume. Between 2022 and 2024, an initial consultation rose by over 23 per cent to 80 pounds and a routine check-up for an existing patient by over 14 per cent to 55 pounds. The regulator described the shift towards private care as partly driven by difficulty accessing NHS treatment.

Why patients report moving to private care

The General Dental Council's 2024 survey of the UK public supplies the reasons behind that shift, and they are predominantly involuntary. Among people who turned to private dental care, 36 per cent could not get NHS treatment at all, 31 per cent could not get it quickly enough, and 25 per cent said their practice stopped offering NHS treatment. Only 18 per cent cited a preference for private care.

Among those receiving private or mixed care, just over two in five had started only within the previous three years, most attributing the move to access difficulty rather than choice.

Treatment obtained outside the United Kingdom

The same survey asked respondents who had seen a dental professional whether they had received dental care outside the UK in the previous year. Nine per cent of that group said they had, equal to 6 per cent of all respondents, naming nearly 30 different countries. Uptake was concentrated by age: 18 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 had done so, against none of those aged 65 and over. Respondents who had tried and failed to join a practice, to book an appointment, or who had had an appointment cancelled, reported higher rates.

Two qualifications belong with that figure. Almost all of these respondents had also seen a UK dental professional in the same year, so treatment abroad generally supplemented domestic care rather than replacing it. The survey also identified family and cultural connections abroad as a factor, not only price.

Reported figures at a glance

Limitations: what this data does not establish

The market study is open, not concluded. Nothing in the March 2026 scope constitutes a finding. Any statement that the regulator has established a problem in UK private dentistry is premature until the report is published, by 4 March 2027.

Several figures cited by the regulator originate with commercial research organisations and industry surveys rather than official statistics, and the regulator listed those origins openly. Market valuations and average price series from different providers use different definitions of the market and of the treatment basket, and are not directly comparable.

The General Dental Council survey is self-reported and covers the UK public rather than a clinical population. Percentages describing treatment abroad rest on subsamples that become small once broken down by age or background.

None of this data compares treatment quality between countries. Price changes, access difficulty and the share of patients treated abroad describe a market, not clinical outcomes.

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