Four of Britain’s biggest dental firms have raked in £1.2 billion over the past two years, as the competition regulator prepares to look in to rising costs in the sector.
The gross profit figures for private equity-owned My Dentist, PortmanDentex and Rodericks Dental, and Bupa Dental Services, a subsidiary of the health insurance giant, rose by 20 per cent year-on-year between 2023 and 2024.
It comes as the Chancellor revealed last week she had ordered the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate the sector, saying a ‘scourge of hidden costs, lack of transparency and overtreatment’ had ‘blighted families in need of dental treatment for too long’.
The four firms, which declared gross profits of £528 million in 2023 and £631 million last year, were originally highlighted by a Mail on Sunday investigation in August. Analysis showed treatments such as a white filling, costing £75.30 on the NHS, could rise to hundreds of pounds at private equity-owned practices.
Investigation: Soaring prices come as the health service battles with a lack of dental professionals
The CMA said: ‘This is an important market that needs to work well for consumers. We have been exploring the merit of work in the area and will be developing a proposal to put to our board.’
Soaring prices come as the health service battles with a lack of dental professionals. Just 40 per cent of adults have seen an NHS dentist in the past two years, against half before the pandemic.
Swathes of the country are NHS ‘dental deserts’, forcing patients to go private.
The Association of Dental Groups told the Financial Times: ‘Without a significant increase in new dentists, consequential inflationary pressures are bound to be felt across the sector.’
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