Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2018/19

Historically the Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates publication has only contained a small chapter for Wales, outlining the headline figures. However, this year the full analysis for dentists is Wales has been made available and combined averages for England and Wales are no longer available. This coincides with a change in the way we determine dental type which has resulted in increases in the number of dentists identified as Providing-Performers and decreases in the counts of Associate dentists. These changes mean that population counts, and earnings and expenses estimates are not comparable with those from previous years.

A relatively small sample size of Providing-Performer dentists in Wales, and falling numbers of dentists working on PDS contracts, has resulted in removal of dental type and contract type from the strata used for weighting purposes, which is done to mitigate for uncertainty associated with reporting on sample data rather than for the entire population. The weighting used in Wales now matches that used in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

However, to allow comparisons to be made with 2017/18 figures, we have calculated separate England and Wales figures for that financial year using the new methodology for determining dental type. This means there are now new time series figures starting at 2017/18 for both England and Wales. Please refer to the accompanying methodology and methodological change notice for more details.

Results for some Providing-Performer breakdowns have been supressed due to small sample size. Due to a relatively small sample population in Wales figures must be treated with caution as the values are subject to more uncertainty, and even a small change can have a noticeable effect on the averages.

Providing-Performer dentists

Providing-Performer dentists had higher gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than Associate dentists across all contract types, in keeping with previous years.

For Providing-Performer dentists in 2018/19 average taxable income from NHS and private dentistry was £88,400, compared to £85,300 in 2017/18, a 3.7 per cent increase, which is not statistically significant

Table 8.1: Providing-Performer dentists – average earnings and expenses, by contract type, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

^{_{Note: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2.c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 3. z=not applicable 4. see introduction for more details  5. Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the change in methodology}} 

Associate Dentists

For Associate dentists in 2018/19 average taxable income from NHS and private dentistry was £58, 800, compared to £58,300 in 2017/18, a 0.9 per cent increase, which is not statistically significant.

Table 8.2: Associate dentists – average earnings and expenses, by contract type, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

_{^{Note: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2. see introduction for more details  3.Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the change in methodology}} 

All self-employed primary care dentists

For all self-employed primary care dentists in 2018/19 average taxable income from NHS and private dentistry was £64,200, a 1.4 per cent increase from £63,400 in 2017/18, which is not statistically significant.

Earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry varied by contract type, whereby those working under GDS arrangements had the lowest average taxable income compared to those working under PDS or Mixed GDS/PDS arrangements.

Changes in the distribution of the population across dental and/or contract type will inevitably have some effect upon the estimates for gross earnings, total expenses, taxable income and earning to expenses ratio (EER).

Table 8.3: All self-employed primary care dentists – average earnings and expenses, by contract type, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

_{^{Note: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2. see introduction for more details  3.Figures are not comparable to previously published results due to the change in methodology}}

Cash and real term figures

Please refer to the accompanying Power BI visualisation for a time series of taxable Income and total expenses for Providing-Performer and Associate dentists in Wales, for 2017/18 and 2018/19, in both cash and real terms. 

Report Population

The trends shown in Figure 8.2 are similar to those shown for dentists in England. This is the first time entirely separate figures for England and Wales have been published. A new methodology has also been implemented for determining dental type, which has resulted in the reclassification of some dentists from Associate to Providing-Performer. Following a revision in methodology the earnings, expenses and report population have been recalculated for 2017/18. Using the new methodology, Providing-Performer dentists now account for approximately 17.4 per cent of the workforce in Wales compared to 19.0 per cent in 2017/18. (The previous methodology, which applied to England and Wales combined, classified 14.5 per cent of dentists in 2017/18 as Providing-Performers). While the overall size of the dental workforce in Wales is increasing. there remains a continued shift towards Associate dentists.

It is important to note that figure represents the changing report population that is used in the annual earnings and expenses estimates reports and does not represent the actual dental population. See Introduction for further explanatory notes.

Earnings and Expenses Estimates by Gender

Although sample sizes allow results to be presented for Providing-Performer, Associate, and all self-employed GDS dentists, it is important to note that the small sample sizes of each subgroup mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages.

The results show that:

• regardless of dental type classification, on average in 2018/19, male dentists had higher gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than their female counterparts
• for all male self-employed primary care dentists, average taxable income was £71,200 compared to £56,900 for all female self-employed primary care dentists, which could be partly explained by the higher proportion of male dentists being Providing-Performers

It is important to note that this report includes both full-time and part-time dental earnings and expenses, and given that on average male dentists tend to work longer weekly hours compared to their female counterparts (Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale - 2018/19 and 2019/20), this could be a contributory factor to the differences observed in earnings and expenses by gender.

Table 9.1: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by dental type and gender, Wales, 2018/19

_{^{Note: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2. see introduction for more details}} 

Earnings and Expenses Estimates by Age

For the purposes of this report, dentists’ ages were calculated as at 30 September 2018 – the mid-point of the 2018/19 financial year. 

Due to a relatively small sample population in Wales figures must be treated with caution as the values are subject to more uncertainty, and even a small change can have a noticeable effect on the averages.

Table 10.1: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by dental type and age, Wales, 2018/19

^{_{Note: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2.c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 3. see introduction for more details}}  

Dental Working Patterns Survey findings: earnings and expenses estimates by working patterns

It is important to note that some survey respondents may have also included time spent in employed, as opposed to only self-employed, dental work (such as time spent working in dental schools) and as a result, the measure of weekly working hours is not restricted to self-employed work within a dental practice.

As might be expected, the results show:

• that average taxable income for all self-employed primary care dentists increased with the average weekly hours worked

• for all self-employed primary care dentists, it is notable that the expenses to earnings ratio (EER) was considerably higher for dentists working more than 45 hours per week (75.7%) compared to those who worked fewer than 35 hours per week or between 35 and 45 hours a week, 56.7% and 50.9% respectively.

Small sample sizes for some subgroups mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages. Results for some subgroups have been suppressed due to very small sample sizes.

Table 11.1: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by dental type and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19

^{_{Note: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2.c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 3. see introduction for more details}}  

Dental Working Patterns Survey Findings: earnings and expenses estimate by gender and weekly hours devoted to dentistry

It is important to note that small sample sizes for some subgroups mean that the values are subject to more uncertainty, as extreme values can have noticeable effects on the averages. Results for some subgroups have been suppressed due to very small sample sizes.

Table 11.2: Self-employed Providing-Performer dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19

^{_{Notes: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 3. see introduction for more details}}  

Table 11.3: Self-employed Associate dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19

Table 11.4: All self-employed primary care dentists - average earnings and expenses from Health Service and private dentistry, by gender and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19

^{_{Notes: 1. Small sample size (<125)  2. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 3. see} introduction _{for more details}} 

Dental Working Patterns Survey findings: earnings and expenses estimates by percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry

Table and figure 12.1 show gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income from Health Service and private dentistry for self-employed dentists broken down by percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry as identified from responses to the Dental Working Patterns Survey.

For all self-employed primary care dentists, average taxable income decreased as the percentage of their time spent on NHS dentistry increased. The lowest average taxable income of £63,200 was earned by those who spent at least 75 per cent of their time on NHS dentistry, and the highest taxable income of £77,700 was earned by those spending less than 25 per cent of their time on NHS dentistry. A potential explanation for these findings could be that Associate dentists may retain a higher percentage of the fees generated by performing private dentistry than they do for NHS dentistry as the Providing-Performer dentists might take a lower proportion of the private fees.

Table 12.1: All self-employed primary care dentists – average earnings and expenses from NHS and private dentistry, by percentage of time spent on NHS dentistry and dental type, Wales, 2018/19

^{_{Notes: 1. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 2.Small sample size (<125)  3. see introduction for more details}}  

As discussed in the Known issues section of the Introduction, earnings and expenses can be counted more than once across tax returns, and this should be borne in mind when considering these results.

Table 13.1: Self-employed Providing-Performer dentists - detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19 

^{_{Notes: 1. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 2.Small sample size (<125)  3. see introduction for more details}}  

Table 13.2: Self-employed Associate dentists - detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19 

^{_{Notes: 1. c: due to a small sample size results have been suppressed to ensure anonymity of results 2.Small sample size (<125)  3. see introduction for more details}}  

Table 13.3: All self-employed primary care dentists - detailed expenses breakdown by contract type, age, gender and weekly working hours, Wales, 2018/19 

^{_{Note: 1. see introduction for more details  2.Small sample size (<125)}}