Wider labour market comparison

To provide a consistent comparison with the wider labour market, these hourly rates are benchmarked against average weekly earnings. In 2025, average weekly earnings across Great Britain stood at approximately £679 per week (1), equivalent to around £18.11 per hour, based on a standard 37.5-hour working week, or approximately £35,321 annually before tax.

This provides a useful benchmark for comparing dental roles with wider labour market conditions. For example, a dental nurse earning £15 per hour and working a 37.5-hour week across a full year would earn approximately £29,250 annually before tax, equivalent to around 83% of average earnings.

Across the wider economy, average weekly earnings increased by approximately 34.5% between 2019 and 2025, broadly comparable with increases seen across several roles within the dental team. While wage growth for dental nurses over this period exceeded growth across the wider economy, hourly earnings for dental nurses remain below the wider Great Britain average hourly equivalent.

Recruitment and retention

Recruitment conditions have improved compared with earlier peak pressures, though challenges remain in certain roles and regions.

Survey evidence indicates that:

Many practices continue to report some difficulty recruiting
Among the roles highlighted, recruitment pressures remain most evident for dental nurses, although this has eased from earlier levels, with 90% of practice owners seeking to recruit dental nurses reporting difficulties in 2022, compared to 77% in 2025
Recruitment pressures continue to vary geographically, with the proportion rising to 82% in Northern Ireland in 2025
Practices with higher NHS commitment continue to report greater recruitment challenges.

In 2025, among the 77% of practice owners who sought to recruit dental nurses reporting difficulties, 68% stated that applicants were seeking higher salaries than practices felt able to offer, up from 63% in 2024.

However, rising pay and stabilising labour market conditions appear to be contributing to gradual improvements in recruitment outcomes compared with the immediate post-pandemic period.

Structure and composition

Alongside changes in pay and recruitment conditions across the wider dental team, there has also been a gradual shift in the composition of the dental workforce in recent years.

Structure of the dental workforce (2)

Indicator	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22	2022–23	2023–24	Change
NHS GDS dentists	29,491	28,550	29,041	28,817	29,009	-482 (-1.6%)
Private-only dentists	5,980	7,000	7,100	8,426	9,136	+3,156 (+52.8%)
Total dentists	35,471	35,550	36,141	37,243	38,145	+2,674 (+7.5%)
Share of dentists in private practice	16.9%	19.7%	19.6%	22.6%	24.0%	+7.1 percentage points

The number of private-only dentists has increased significantly in recent years, rising from 5,980 in 2019-20 to 9,136 in 2023-4. Consequently, the share of dentists working in private practice increased from 16.9% to 24%, indicating a clear shift in workforce allocation towards private provision. At the same time, overall participation within the dental workforce has remained broadly stable. This is reinforced by GDC data (March 2026), representing 75% of the UK dentist register, which confirms that 99% of dentists are actively working within the sector, with the remaining 1% actively seeking work within it (3).

This reflects a gradual rebalancing in how dentists allocate their clinical time across the NHS and private care, rather than a reduction in overall workforce participation. The data suggests that dentists are largely remaining within the profession while adapting their activity mix in response to changing market conditions.

Access and capacity

Changes in workforce and practice composition have also been reflected in measures of access and patient demand. Across most UK nations, the population per GDS dentist has increased since 2019-20, highlighting continuing pressure on NHS capacity and the importance of workforce retention, and investment.

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