How to get more private dental patients in a mixed practice, without alienating your NHS list

Where private demand comes from

The NHS provides the dental treatment you need to keep your mouth and teeth healthy; cosmetic treatment is usually private¹. The competition regulator's patient guidance names tooth whitening and dental implants as examples that generally need to be paid for privately².

That gives a mixed practice three sources of private demand:

The first source is the one most practices underuse. It needs no ad spend, only clear information at the right moment: in the treatment plan, in the waiting room and on the website.

Positioning next to NHS care

Positioning is how the practice describes its private care relative to the alternatives. In a mixed practice, the alternative is often your own NHS service, so the wording has to be careful.

Three facts shape it. Your dentist must make clear which treatments can be provided on the NHS and which only privately, with the cost of each¹. Patients should receive a treatment plan for Band 2, Band 3, or a mix of NHS and private treatment¹. And the CMA's guidance tells patients they "shouldn't feel under pressure" to have treatment privately instead of on the NHS².

For England, current NHS charges are £27.90 for Band 1, £76.60 for Band 2 and £332.10 for Band 3, from 1 April 2026³. Quoting these accurately on your site, next to your private prices, is part of being straight with patients.

Price pages

A price page lists what treatments cost. For a mixed practice, it is the single most useful page for private growth, and it is not optional. The GDC's standards say practices must give clear price information in practice literature and on websites, so that patients do not have to ask⁴.

Price transparency is also under review. The Competition and Markets Authority, the UK competition regulator, launched a market study of private dental services on 5 March 2026, with a statutory deadline of 4 March 2027⁵. Its patient guidance says dentists should give clear price information on their websites². What the study means for your marketing is covered in the competition regulator's review.

What a price page needs:

Plans

A dental plan spreads the cost of routine private care into a monthly payment. With Denplan, for example, the practice decides the care a patient is likely to need over the year and sets the monthly fee⁶. Practice Plan provides plans branded to the practice itself⁷.

Plans help growth in two ways. They make private routine care affordable in monthly terms, and they keep patients on the list, where the practice can talk to them about other treatment over time. In marketing, the plan is a clear, priced offer you can promote to existing patients and on the website, instead of a vague "we offer private care".

I don't recommend a plan provider. Compare terms, fees and how the provider supports patient communication, and take advice if the plan changes your NHS commitments.

Marketing mix for more private dental patients

The marketing mix is the set of channels you use and the job each one does. For a mixed practice growing private care, the order matters: fix the cheapest sources first.

Paid search in a mixed practice has one specific risk: paying for people searching for NHS care you can't take on. Search terms need controlling from day one. How to market the high-value treatments themselves is in marketing high-value treatments.

I don't have a sourced figure for how many NHS patients take up private treatment, and I won't quote the ones that circulate. Your own practice management system (PMS) can tell you: count private treatment starts among existing NHS patients before and after you change the price page and treatment plans.

If you want your price page or your private positioning looked at, email me at [email protected]. The first look is free: I read your price page and private treatment pages from the outside and reply with what I find. You can read how I work first.