Dental corporates abroad and the UK dental market.

The UK government opened NHS dentistry to competition in 2006. By 2015-2016 just over three quarters of NHS contracts were held by non-corporate providers with corporate contracts, on average, having a lower £:UDA (unit of dental activity) value and higher UDA targets than non-corporate contracts. The corporate market share continues to expand through inorganic and organic growth and new financial backers are entering the arena. It is not known how these changes will affect the profession though inspiration can be drawn from overseas markets. In this article I aim to provide an overview of the dental corporate market in the USA and Australia as well as some insight as to how the sector stands in England.