The shape of the UK Dental Market
There is much written in the UK about access to dental services and that there are many in the UK struggling to access NHS services. We thought it would be useful to visualise the number of dental practices across the UK to understand some of the broad trends here. Our new feature in Rare:Monitor territory mapping allows us to take a look at the UK by treatment and service type.
Amongst the areas that have the greatest density of dental practices include urban areas such as Manchester, Sheffield and West London. The recommendation for any solo practice is to have 1300-1500 per location, which seem like modest numbers compared to our findings here. The numbers identified in this analysis shows that access to dental practices varies greatly across the UK.
The map below is a screen shot taken from Rare:Monitor using our service classification for dentistry. You can see the count of dental practices in these regions on the right of the screen.
Map of the UK dental market from Rare: Monitor
With 318 dental practices Manchester has a large population leading to an average of 3,646 people per dental practice. This is much higher than West London, but not as great as Sheffield, which has 4,449 people per dental practice, nearly 3 times the size of the recommended number (going by what is recommended for a solo practice).
Source: Rare: Monitor. Accessed 12th September 2024
There is a notion that in the UK that new parents move house to areas where their postcode gives them access to better schooling for their children. You can imagine people will start to consider access to healthcare in this equation based on the evidence we are seeing.
Let's take Sheffield as an example.
Source: Rare: Monitor. Territory Map Analysis of Sheffield. Dental Practices.Accessed 12th September 2024
The people per dentist number varies considerably from the area with the highest number of locations, to the area with the lowest. Of course, people are not necessarily provided access to services within their district postcode, but the differences here reveal the significant variation within cities themselves.
Source: Rare: Monitor. Accessed 12th September 2024
The analysis of the UK dentistry market highlights significant disparities in access to dental services across different regions, particularly when comparing urban areas like Manchester, Sheffield, and West London. While urban centers have a higher concentration of dental practices, the number of people per practice is often well above recommended levels. For example, in Sheffield, the average of 4,449 people per dental practice is nearly three times higher than the suggested figure of 1,300-1,500 people per solo practice. This illustrates the strain on dental services in high-demand areas.
The postcode-level analysis further reveals stark contrasts within cities. In Sheffield, for instance, areas like S1 have only one dental practice serving nearly 28,000 people, while S6 has 46 practices, leading to a far more manageable ratio of 1,266 people per practice. This type of variance underscores the uneven distribution of services, even within a single city.
The data suggests that access to NHS dental services is not just a rural vs. urban issue but also a postcode-level challenge, with some neighbourhoods facing severe shortages. The findings also indicate that individuals may increasingly consider the availability of healthcare services, including dentistry, when choosing where to live. As the UK grapples with access issues, addressing these imbalances will be crucial to ensuring equitable healthcare across the country.
