UK 
United States
New research from Toothfairy and YouGov, surveying 1,020 UK HR decision-makers, exposes an uncomfortable truth: the benefit being overlooked by most reward strategies is quietly undermining the three things employers say they care about most in 2026; productivity (30.6%, EVP (21.3%), and wellbeing (18.4%).
Dental care touches all three at once. Yet 45% of UK employers offer no dental provision at all, rising to 65% among small businesses and persisting in nearly a quarter of large organisations.
A crisis employers can feel but can't see
The reason is visibility. Only 38% of employers track unplanned absence by specific cause, meaning dental-related absence is effectively invisible to roughly six in ten organisations. They feel the operational cost of people being away. 92% believe dental-related absence negatively impacts business operations, but they can't attribute it, cost it, or build a business case to fix it.
That blind spot compounds a genuine access crisis. With around 90% of NHS practices no longer accepting new adult patients, 73% of employees now delay dental treatment altogether, and costs can climb up to 13 times higher once problems are left untreated. Employers largely know they're exposed: 57.9% aren't confident their people could access a dentist within 48 hours if they needed one today, and fewer than one in five describe themselves as "very confident."
