UK 
United States
By Dr. Deepak Singh Aulak, CEO & Co-Founder of Toothfairy
Dental care is failing the UK workforce.
It’s failing quietly, every day, in offices, factories and high streets across the country through missed appointments, lost working hours and employees quietly nursing toothache while trying to get through another Teams meeting.
The numbers speak for themselves:
73% of people delay visiting the dentist due to time and cost pressures.
More than two in five delay treatment because they’re worried about needing time off work.
And when they do finally go, it’s usually already too late.
According to the World Health Organisation, root canals, crowns, and even fillings were once reversible. But the system is failing patients to get early access.
For HR and Benefits leaders, that pain isn’t just physical. It’s costing businesses money, productivity and wellbeing.
The 3 A’s
At Toothfairy, we call them the Three A’s; the core ways in which the UK dental industry fails working adults.
Affordability – 41% of UK adults say cost is the main reason they don’t seek dental care.
Accessibility – 23 million working days are lost every year due to dental emergencies.
Availability – 97% of people who tried to access NHS dental care in 2024 were unsuccessful.
Toothfairy solves all of these hurdles, from access with minutes and overcoming the dental postcode lottery to making treatment affordable in its early inception.
Accessibility: “The Dentist Will Not See You Now”
The UK dental system is operating inconveniently, open 9 to 5, when your team are working.
That single overlap is one of the biggest, yet least discussed, workforce barriers in the country. Employees are forced to choose between earning a wage or seeing a dentist. So they postpone. And when pain strikes, it’s usually an emergency.
Those emergencies add up. The UK loses 23 million working days each year to dental problems, that’s the population of London and Manchester combined taking a full day off.
It’s not because people don’t care about their oral health; it’s because they can’t access it.
When 73% of patients delay dental visits due to cost or time constraints, what we’re really seeing is systemic inaccessibility disguised as personal choice.
Availability: The Numbers Behind the Empty Chair
Let’s talk about availability… Or rather, the lack of it.
A staggering 97% of patients who tried to get an NHS dental appointment last year were unsuccessful. Let that sink in. That’s like booking 30 train tickets and only one train actually turning up.
Dentists are leaving the NHS in droves, overwhelmed by outdated contracts and underfunded systems. What’s left is a patchwork of overstretched practices, six-month waiting lists, and increasingly common DIY dental “solutions” forced by a lack of availability.
Private dentistry is struggling to pick up the slack. Demand is high, but the cost barrier keeps most people out. It’s a perfect storm: a nation of people who want care but can’t get care.
Affordability: The Price of Delay
Money talks. In UK dentistry, it shouts.
With 41% of adults citing cost as the primary barrier to seeing a dentist, affordability is no longer just a consumer issue. It’s a workforce wellbeing issue.
When preventive care becomes a luxury with accessibility and availability barriers, people wait until pain becomes unbearable. It’s a budgeting disaster.
A very common issue such as gum disease or gingivitis is easily prevented when identified and treated early. When left to become chronic, claims and treatment costs increase by 440%.
Reactive care (root canals, extractions, abscess treatment) is exponentially more expensive than preventive care (check-ups, cleanings, minor fillings). Employers end up footing the bill through higher sickness absence, increased private claims, and reduced productivity.
Put simply: every delayed check-up today becomes a lost meeting, delayed project, or missed work day tomorrow.
Over 9 in 10 Toothfairy members report that they are more comfortable at managing their oral health, which is a testament to educating patients on how to prevent dental disease.
The Vicious Cycle of Reactive Support
Because dental access is so poor, most health benefits are inherently reactive.
Employees only use their dental allowance when something hurts, not when prevention would have kept them healthy and in work. The result? Escalating costs, longer absences, and a benefits offering that looks generous on paper but actually costs the business more every year.
Lack of knowledge, awareness, and early intervention feeds this loop. If people can’t get advice until they’re in too much pain, they’ll never get ahead of the problem.
Why Employers Should Care
Let’s translate all this into HR language: risk, cost, and culture.
Risk: Unscheduled dental care (UDC) causes unplanned absences. One in three workers have had to take time off because of oral pain.
Cost: It’s estimated that dental issues cost the UK economy £105 million annually in lost productivity. But that’s just the financial side. Human cost expands across morale, wellbeing, and trust.
Absenteeism: 7% of people have taken more than a week off work for dental pain. Those who take sick leave lose an average of 6.5 hours per episode. Multiply that across a 1,000-person workforce and you have hundreds of lost hours.
Dental pain doesn’t just cause sick leave. It causes presenteeism: employees who show up but perform below par because they’re in pain, on painkillers, or too anxious to eat, sleep, or speak comfortably.
And remember, most dental practices are open during core working hours. Unless employers are flexible about time off, employees face an impossible trade-off. No wonder two in five delay treatment out of fear of needing time away from work.
The Dental Insurance Mirage
You might be thinking, “But we already offer dental insurance.”
And that’s great! Dental insurance is one of the benefits reporting the highest usage. BUPA recently reported that 79% of employees would take up dental cover if it was offered by their employer.
Unfortunately, members are not only facing higher annual premiums, but also experiencing longer waiting times to see a dentist - and when they finally do, they often end up paying more out of pocket due to the increasing treatment costs at clinics.
Traditional dental insurance reimburses the employee, but it doesn’t solve the real issue: access.
Most insurers rely on the same strained dental ecosystem as everyone else. Employees are reimbursed for care they can rarely access in the first place. The perceived value of the benefit drops, while the frustration rises.
Even when they are able to claim back, the employer always foots the bill in the end. High demand combined with rising service delivery costs is also contributing to a year-on-year insurance cost increases.
Unum UK reported that its dental claims payouts increased by 35% between 2023 and 2024, reflecting the higher costs of private treatment.
In a world where benefits teams are being asked to do more with less, can you afford these consistent price increases?
The New Dental Frontier: Instant Access Through Technology
The phrase “the dentist can’t see you now” shouldn’t exist in 2025.
Technology has revolutionised banking, shopping, and medicine. Yet, for most of the UK workforce, seeing a dentist still means phoning a receptionist, waiting weeks for an appointment, and taking half a day off work.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Toothfairy was founded on a simple premise: make dental care as accessible as possible. Our platform allows employees to see a qualified dentist instantly, from their phone, with prescriptions, triage, and referrals handled digitally.
7 in 10 issues are resolved directly within the Toothfairy app.
It’s not a replacement for traditional care; it’s a bridge to it. By catching issues early, we reduce emergencies, time off work, and cost. By offering access 24/7, we remove one of the biggest barriers to preventive care.
Think of it as “dentistry without the waiting room.”
Toothfairy assists with the complete patient journey, from initial in-app assistance, and if needed, referral and follow-up help you find a relevant clinic.
From Delay to Prevention: The Business Case for Change
Dental care isn’t just about smiles, it’s about systems. The UK’s current one is outdated, inaccessible, and unaffordable for too many. But that also makes it ripe for disruption.
The good news? Employers hold the key. By rethinking dental benefits around access, not allowance, HR leaders can unlock measurable gains in productivity, wellbeing and employee trust.
Because when the workforce can’t see a dentist, everyone pays the price.
It’s time to flip the script and move from “The dentist will not see you now” to “The dentist is ready when you are.”
