By Chris Mayor, Commercial Director at Lily Head Dental Practice Sales.
NHS dental activity is rising. More treatments are being delivered, more Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) are being completed and more dentists are recording NHS activity. But does a stronger national picture mean your NHS practice is becoming more valuable?
The latest NHS Dental Statistics for England show 37.6 million courses of treatment were delivered during 2025/26, an increase of 6.2% on the previous year. UDAs also increased by 5.1% to 76.8 million, while 25,419 dentists recorded NHS activity, up 3.1%.
But rising activity does not necessarily mean an equivalent increase in NHS capacity, nor that patients are finding it easier to access routine care.
For practice owners, the figures provide useful context, but national statistics can only tell you so much about the position of your own business.
Two practices operating within the same NHS market, with similar contract values and comparable turnover, can have very different values when they come to market.
What does the national picture mean for your practice?
Market statistics help explain the environment in which a practice operates, but they do not determine what an individual business is worth.
Profitability, staffing, contract performance and the extent to which the practice relies on its principal can all influence how a potential buyer views an opportunity.
Contract performance is particularly important. A practice that can reliably deliver its NHS activity, without persistent underperformance or clawback, gives a buyer greater confidence in the maintainability of that income.
The 2026 reforms are also changing the economics of delivering some NHS care, including changes to urgent and unscheduled care, complex-care pathways and the way some treatments are rewarded.
If those changes allow a practice to deliver its NHS contract more sustainably and at a better margin, that can feed directly into profitability. Lower clawback exposure, more predictable contract delivery and improved earnings can all strengthen the financial profile sitting behind a valuation.
For mixed practices there may be a second commercial benefit. If NHS activity can be delivered more efficiently, this can create additional chair-time capacity. Where that capacity is then converted into established private or plan income, the result can be higher maintainable profitability.
Higher maintainable earnings, dependable NHS income and demonstrable private growth can all strengthen the proposition to a buyer.
The more useful question for an owner is therefore: how is your own practice positioned within today’s market?
What are buyers looking for in an NHS dental practice?
Across the market, we continue to see appetite for strong NHS and mixed practices. But the presence of buyers does not mean every practice will be viewed in the same way.
An NHS contract can provide an attractive foundation, offering recurring income alongside established patient demand. Buyers, however, also want confidence that the income and profitability they are acquiring can be maintained following a change of ownership.
That means looking beyond headline contract value at factors such as:
- NHS contract value, UDA rate and historic performance
- maintainable profitability
- associate availability and stability
- reliance on the principal to deliver clinical activity
- private and plan income
- staffing and operating costs
- premises and tenure
- compliance
- opportunities for future growth
For mixed practices, genuine private growth potential is also important. But buyers and valuers will distinguish between potential and realised performance. Available chair time on its own does not necessarily increase value; a track record of converting that capacity into additional profitable revenue is far more persuasive.
Ultimately, buyers are looking at the business behind the NHS contract: how sustainable it is, how dependent it is on its current owner and how confidently it can continue to perform after a sale.
A valuation can give you something particularly valuable: time
Practice owners sometimes associate a valuation with the point at which they are ready to sell. But understanding your value earlier can be much more useful.
A professional dental practice valuation can help you understand what is driving value today, what may be holding it back and where there may be opportunities to strengthen profitability or buyer appeal before a future sale.
If you identify something affecting value when you are already preparing to sell, your ability to change it may be limited. Identify it two, three or even five years earlier and you have more time to act.
For an NHS or mixed practice, that might mean understanding whether contract delivery is consistent across the year, whether under- or overperformance is creating risk, what margin is being achieved from NHS activity and whether available capacity is being used effectively.
The most useful outcome of a valuation is not always the number. Sometimes it is identifying an opportunity you still have time to act on.
NHS dentistry is changing. Do you know where your practice stands?
The latest NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) figures cover the financial year ending 31 March 2026. They therefore largely reflect activity before the latest NHS dental contract and payment reforms began to take effect.
It is still too early to judge the longer-term impact of those reforms on the dental practice sales market.
What matters commercially is how any changes translate into sustainable performance at practice level. If reforms improve contract delivery or profitability, or create capacity for established private growth, those improvements may ultimately influence value.
For owners considering a future sale, that makes understanding the individual position of their business more valuable than following national trends alone.
National statistics can tell you what is happening across NHS dentistry. A valuation can tell you where your practice sits within that market.
Selling a dental practice is rarely a decision made overnight. Whether a sale is likely within the next 12 months or remains several years away, understanding your value early can give you more time, more information and more options.
At Lily Head Dental Practice Sales, we provide confidential, no-obligation dental practice valuations alongside practical insight into the factors that could influence your future sale.
Know your value. Understand your options. Plan your next move with confidence.
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