myTribe publishes new private dentist pricing research covering over 8,500 practices

myTribe Insurance Experts has published new private dental pricing research, covering over 8,500 UK dental practices.

The research was completed as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) continues its market study into private dentistry. It is a different piece of work from myTribe’s study of just under 500 practices that first drew attention to steep increases in the cost of everyday private dental treatments, a new dataset, built to cover the market rather than sample it.

What data was collected

The new research, collected in early August 2026, captured prices from over 9,269 UK dental practices, 70.7% of the 13,110 listed across the UK's four regulators. After checking every price page back to the practice it belongs to, 8,571 practices (65.4% of the register) remain in the dataset, and the 8,158 that publish standard private fees (62.2%) form the basis of the published figures.

The methodology was purposely built for this scale. Each figure is the median of per-clinic medians, so every practice counts once and no single price list can skew a national or regional figure. The dataset includes only advertised private fees, excluding membership plans. Each of the 68 treatments analysed are held to a stated definition so that like-for-like comparisons can be made consistently across thousands of practices.

The one point of contact with the original myTribe study is a matched comparison: 446 of its practices were traced to their current records, and six everyday treatments are compared at the same dental practices in 2024 and 2026. 

What the research covers

myTribe’s new dataset goes beyond simply pricing more practices. It also examines:

• Coverage and reach: how many of the UK's dental practices publish prices online at all, and how that varies across the four regulators' registers.
• Typical treatment costs: median advertised prices across core treatments, from routine examinations to crowns and implants, alongside the range of prices practices charge.
• Price movement since 2024: how prices have changed at the practices that appear in both the 2024 study and the new dataset, comparing like-for-like treatment definitions. 
• How treatments are described: the inconsistency in how practices label identical treatments online, and how often key details such as tooth, material or unit basis are missing from a price.
• Conditional pricing: how often practices quote an open-ended “from” price rather than a fixed figure or a stated range.
• Independents versus groups: how the largest dental chains price against independent practices in the same local area.
• Where price variation comes from: how much of the difference in prices is explained by region, by local authority, and by the individual practice a patient chooses.
• How prices are presented online: the accessibility and transparency of fee pages themselves. This includes hidden price sections and pages that restrict zooming.

Why the CMA is watching

Launched on 5 March 2026 at the request of the then Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the CMA's private dentistry market study remains active. The study is examining whether competition between private dental providers works effectively, whether patients can make informed treatment choices, and whether consumers are getting good value for money.

The CMA has cited myTribe's previous private dental research, which showed initial consultation fees rose more than 23% to £80, and routine check-ups rose over 14% to £55, between 2022 and 2024.

A market study isn't an investigation into wrongdoing, but is a test of whether the sector is working as it should. It gives the CMA the tools to look into how dental practices set prices, how supply and demand pressures play out across the market, how consumers behave when choosing a dentist, and ultimately whether competition between providers is delivering for patients. Most CMA market studies run for around a year.

What the research shows

With a much larger sample, myTribe's latest research can isolate where price variation actually comes from. Region explains only around 5% of the variation in prices for identical treatments, and local authority only 14%. The rest is driven overwhelmingly by which practice a patient chooses, rather than where they live. Within five miles of a typical practice, the highest advertised price for an everyday treatment is typically 2.7 to 4.1 times the lowest, and the priciest tenth of practices charge 1.7 to 2.2 times what the cheapest tenth charge for the same treatment. 

The research also highlights a persistent transparency gap in how prices are presented online. Nearly a quarter (23.7%) of the fee pages captured, and 12.2% of the websites analysed, place some price information in a section of the page that is hidden by default when it loads. Meanwhile, 18.9% of sampled pages only reveal such sections through an element that isn't reachable by keyboard, and just under a quarter (23%) of live pages tested restrict zooming.

In terms of pricing, the largest dental groups, those with 200 or more practices, advertise prices a median £24 (23.6%) higher than independent practices within five miles of their branches, and are the pricier option in 78.6% of direct comparisons. Smaller groups, by contrast, price within £6 (7.1%) of their local independents.

Chris Steele, founder of myTribe Insurance, said:

“When we published our initial dental research, it was a snapshot of just under 500 practices, but it was enough to make policymakers pay attention. This new dataset covers more than seventeen times as many practices, and it shows the same problem persisting at scale. Patients often have no way of knowing whether they’re paying a fair price until they’re already sitting in the chair. This new research gives patients a clearer picture of what they should expect to pay before they book an appointment.”

Chris Steele

Cert CII (F1, IF7 & I10), Founder and Insurance Expert

Further reading: Our full guide to the average cost of private dental treatment in the UK