Northern Ireland dental earnings and expenses report released

26 July 2024

NHS England have released details of the earnings and expenses of General Dental Services (GDS) dentists in Northern Ireland (NI) for 2022/23.

This is the sixteenth set of earnings and expenses data that have been produced for Northern Ireland.

Previously, separate country reports were produced. The ‘Earnings and Expenses report’ has been published as a UK report for the past 10 years.

The values are not comparable between countries due to differing contractual arrangements and a variation in methods used to determine dental type in each country.

The key findings

The report has presented key findings in terms of average gross earnings, total expenses, and taxable income estimates by dental type and contract type for dentists in NI.

Where permissible, comparisons for the main findings have been made with the 2021/22 results but comparisons should be made with caution.

Factors which have affected comparisons include changes in the dental workforce, changes in type and volume of activity per dentist, changes to allowances and VAT changes.

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

Average taxable income (gross earnings minus expenses, before income tax) for all self-employed GDS dentists (principals and associates) was estimated to be £79,000 in 2022/23.  This was a 2.3 per cent increase compared with 2021/22 (£77,200).

Average taxable income for principal dentists was £124,600 in 2022/23 compared with £138,800 in 2021/22 (a decrease of 10.2 per cent); and for associate dentists was £67,300 in 2022/23 compared with £60,700 in 2021/22 (an increase of 10.9 per cent).

In 2022/23, average gross earnings for all self-employed dentists were estimated to be £160,300 and average expenses (business expenses allowable for tax purposes) estimated as £81,300. This equates to an Expenses to Earnings Ratio (EER) of 50.7 per cent (i.e. the proportion of gross earnings taken up by expenses).

For all self-employed dentists (principals and associates), the lowest combined average taxable income (from health service and private dentistry), of £63,600, was reported for those dentists whose health service earnings accounted for at least 75 per cent of their total gross earnings. Those whose health service earnings accounted for 25 per cent or less and between 25 per cent and 75 per cent of their total gross earnings had taxable incomes of £101,400 and £100,800 respectively.

Gender comparison

As in previous years, regardless of dental type classification, male dentists had higher average gross earnings and taxable income than their female counterparts.

For 2022/23, male dentists also had higher 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 £102,900, compared with £63,100 for all female self-employed GDS dentists.

Age comparison

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.

For all self-employed dentists, those who worked 35 or more hours per week had higher average gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than those who worked less than 35 hours per week.

Dentists who spent 75 per cent or more of their time on health service dentistry had higher average gross earnings, total expenses and taxable income than those who spent less than 75 per cent of their time on health service dentistry.

For all self-employed GDS dentists in 2022/23, consistent with the results from 2021/22, the four largest expense categories were Other (47.7 per cent), Employee (32.5 per cent), Premises (7.3 per cent) and Office and General Business (6.7 per cent).