Guides

In-depth, evergreen guides to running, owning, buying and selling a UK dental practice. Each one is a living hub, updated and linked to our latest reporting as it is published.

These guides are written for the person carrying the risk — the principal, the partner, the owner-to-be — and they are built on primary sources. Where a figure is published by a regulator, a government department or the NHS, we cite it. Where the only numbers in circulation come from businesses selling to dental practices, we say so and describe the structure instead.

Dental practice compliance

What a UK dental practice has to do to stay on the right side of the CQC, the GDC and the regulations that sit around them — registration, inspection, waste, radiography, complaints and the annual cycle of obligations. Start here if you are preparing for an inspection or taking on the registered manager role.

Buying and selling a dental practice

Valuation, due diligence, deal structure and what actually happens to goodwill — plus the squat alternative. Written for owners approaching a sale and for associates weighing their first acquisition, with an honest account of which numbers in this market are trustworthy and which are marketing.

Dental practice management

Running the business rather than the surgery: skill mix and scope of practice, recruitment and retention, pay benchmarking against published scales rather than agency guides, systems, and the numbers that tell you whether a busy practice is actually a profitable one.

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Our guides are produced by The Reliance and reviewed by David Hinckley, a GDC-registered Clinical Dental Technician (GDC No. 150038). They are general information for those running UK dental practices, not legal, employment, tax or financial advice. See our editorial standards.