Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2023/2024

Date published: 31 July 2025

Previously, separate country reports were produced; the Earnings and Expenses report has been published as a UK report for each of the past eleven years.  Below we present key points for Northern Ireland only.

It is important to note that values are not comparable between countries due to differing contractual arrangements and the use of different methods to determine dental type in each country.

Note, the source for all figures is NHS England.

Key Points on GDS Earnings and Expenses Estimates in Northern Ireland 2023/24:

The report presents key findings in terms of average gross earnings, total expenses, and taxable income estimates by dental type for dentists in Northern Ireland.  The report also contains a detailed breakdown of expenses by dental type, age, gender and activity demographics.

It is not meaningful to discuss the average earnings of an average dentist, as there is great variation in the different financial arrangements.  However, the key findings among self-employed GDS Northern Ireland dentists in 2023/24 are given below.  Where statistically permissible, comparisons for the main findings have been made with the 2022/23 results; however, comparisons should be made with caution.

Factors which can affect comparisons include changes in the dental workforce, changes in type and volume of activity per dentist, changes to allowances and VAT changes. It is also necessary to consider the absolute changes between years, as well as changes in percentage terms.  In addition, the first cases of COVID-19 in the UK were confirmed late January 2020 and the first UK-wide lockdown was announced in March 2020. Most routine dentistry was paused between April and July 2020. This was followed by a period of recovery and restoration of services throughout the remainder of 2020/21.  Restrictions and activity thresholds throughout 2021/22 will have continued to impact on earnings and expenses in that year.

• Average taxable income (gross earnings minus expenses, before income tax) for all self-employed GDS dentists (Principals and Associates) was estimated to be Pound 77,000 [2] in 2023/24.  This was a 2.4% decrease compared with 2022/23 (Pound 79,000).  This annual change was not statistically significant [3].
• Average taxable income for Principal dentists was Pound 121,200 in 2023/24 compared with Pound 124,600 in 2022/23 (a decrease of 2.7% - not statistically significant); and for Associate dentists was Pound 65,500 in 2023/24 compared with Pound 67,300 in 2022/23 (a decrease of 2.6% - this difference was not statistically significant).
• In 2023/24, average gross earnings for all self-employed dentists were estimated to be Pound 158,700 and average expenses [4] (business expenses allowable for tax purposes) estimated as Pound 81,600.   This equates to an Expenses to Earnings Ratio (EER) of 51.4% (i.e. the proportion of gross earnings taken up by expenses).  When compared with 2022/23, there was a small decrease (of 1.0%) in all dentists' gross earnings (Pound 160,300), with a 1.9% increase in Principal dentists' gross earnings being offset by a reciprocal 4.6% decrease in Associate dentists' gross earnings.
• For all self-employed dentists (Principals and Associates), the lowest combined average taxable income (from Health Service and Private Dentistry), of Pound 58,300, was reported for those dentists whose Health Service earnings accounted for at least 75% of their total gross earnings.  Those whose Health Service earnings accounted for 25% or less and between 25% and 75% of their total gross earnings had taxable incomes of Pound 108,200 and Pound 93,400 respectively.
• Regardless of dental type classification, male dentists had higher average gross earnings, taxable income and average total expenses than their female counterparts.  It is important to note that the report includes both full-time and part-time dental earnings and expenses.  Previous reports have shown that, on average, male dentists tend to work longer weekly hours than female counterparts and this could be a contributory factor to the differences observed.
• For all male self-employed GDS dentists, average taxable income was Pound 98,000, compared with Pound 63,800 for all female self-employed GDS dentists.
• For all self-employed dentists (Principals and Associates together) and Associate dentists, those aged 45 and over had the highest average gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income.  For Principal dentists, those aged 35-45 had the highest average gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income.
• Those dentists with 75% or more of their Gross Earnings coming from Health Service Dentistry had lower average gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than those with less than 25% or between 25% and 75% of their Gross Earnings coming from Health Service Dentistry.
• For all self-employed GDS dentists in 2023/24, consistent with the results from 2022/23, the four largest expense categories were Other [5] (Pound 47,800), Employee (Pound 18,200), Office and General Business (Pound 7,100) and Premises (Pound 5,600).

[1] This publication was previously produced by NHS Digital; Health Education England, NHS Digital and NHS England have now merged into a single organisation, to be known as NHS England https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-digital-merges-with-nhs-england/

[2] Within the report, percentage changes presented are calculated on unrounded data, while all earning and expenses data are rounded by NHS England to the nearest Pound 100

[3] As these results are based on a sample of dentists, 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

[4] Note that a designated dentist in each practice is paid a practice allowance under GDS to help address the increasing running costs of health service dental practices in relation to the provision of high-quality premises, health and safety, staffing support and information collection and provision.  For technical reasons, it has not been possible to off-set this allowance against expenses and the expense element will therefore be inflated.

[5] The other category includes a variety of expenses including laboratory costs, materials costs, advertising, promotion and entertainment, bad debts, alternative finance payments, interest for businesses where annual turnover is less than Pound 85,000, and expenses for businesses where turnover is low; a more detailed breakdown is not available.