How much should you pay per UDA for an associate dentist?

Ask ten practice owners what they pay per UDA and you will hear ten different answers.

On paper, it looks simple: "we pay £X per UDA."
In reality, the true cost per UDA is often much higher once you add:

• dental recruitment agency fees
• UDA clawback
• locum dentist costs
• the extra nurse and surgery overhead behind each chair

This article explains:

• what most practices think they are paying per UDA
• what they are actually paying once everything is included
• where Dentello's pricing, starting from £12.50 per UDA, usually within a £12.50 to 14.50 band including our own fees, fits into that picture

What practices think they are paying per UDA

When you ask practice owners about their associate dentist UDA rate, the answers usually sit in three bands:

• "We pay around £11 to 13 per UDA", often predominantly private or very strong mixed practices.
• "We're in the £13 to 15 per UDA range", most NHS and mixed practices trying to recruit and retain associates.
• Once you dig into details, many are effectively over £15+ per UDA once all the extra costs are included.

Those headline NHS UDA rates are what go into contracts. But the rate in the contract is only the start.

Agency fees spread across UDAs

If you use a dental recruitment agency and pay £5,000 + VAT to place one associate, that cost has to sit somewhere.

Spread £5,000 across a 5,000 UDA contract:

• £5,000 ÷ 5,000 UDAs = £1.00 per UDA
• plus VAT and any repeat fees if you have to recruit again

So if your contract says £13 per UDA:

• by the time you add the agency fee, you are already closer to £14 per UDA,
• before you look at clawback, locums or idle overhead.

Clawback on undelivered UDAs

If an associate underperforms, UDA clawback quietly raises your real cost per UDA.

You have paid the dentist their agreed UDA rate for what they delivered, but you are exposed on 1,200 undelivered UDAs.

Once you factor that back in, the "£13 per UDA" you thought you were paying can creep towards £14 to 15 per UDA in real terms.

Locum dentist cover, very expensive UDAs

When someone leaves or drops sessions, many practices bring in locums.

Typical locum rates:

• £500 to £600 per day
• often 20 to 30 UDAs per day

That gives an effective UDA cost of roughly:

• £500 ÷ 30 ≈ £17 per UDA (best case)
• £600 ÷ 20 = £30 per UDA (worst case)

The extra nurse and surgery overhead

Most practices also:

• recruit or allocate an extra nurse for each new dentist
• stock and equip an additional surgery
• adjust the rota and sterilisation flow

If the dentist:

• underdelivers, or
• leaves and the surgery is only partially used

you still carry:

• the nurse's salary and on-costs
• the fixed overhead of the surgery

Those costs don't shrink just because the UDA numbers are low.

How practices quietly end up above £15 per UDA

This is why so many owners say:

• "We pay £11 to 13 per UDA" or "£13 to 15 per UDA",

but when you add:

• £1 per UDA equivalent in agency fees,
• a few points of clawback,
• locum days at £17 to £30 per UDA,
• and the cost of an extra nurse and surgery that isn't fully productive,

their true cost per UDA often sits somewhere above £15 per UDA.

Where Dentello's UDA pricing fits in

Dentello is built to make your UDA cost:

• more honest,
• more predictable, and
• less exposed to one-off shocks.

Instead of:

• a separate £5,000 + VAT agency bill,
• a high UDA rate,
• and 100% of the vacancy risk falling on you,

Dentello offers:

• fees starting from £12.50 per UDA including our own fees
• most clinics sitting in a £12.50 to 14.50 per UDA band, depending on area and requirements
• a replacement guarantee for the full length of the contract, if a Dentello dentist doesn't work out at any point during the term, Dentello is committed to replacing them under your agreement

Our fee is built into the UDA value. You are not paying twice.

Dentello and long-term protection

On top of the financial structure, Dentello:

• links its income to performance over time,
• supports Skilled Worker sponsor licences at cost,
• absorbs visa legal fees for dentists placed through the platform,
• supports NHS performer onboarding,

so that your nurse, surgery and contract capacity are actually used, not left waiting for someone to arrive or "get going".

Direct UDA rate vs total UDA cost

When deciding what to pay, the question isn't just:

• "What UDA rate looks good on paper?"

It's:

• "What is our real cost per UDA once we include recruitment fees, clawback, locums and overhead?"

Dentello's pricing, from £12.50 per UDA, typically between £12.50 and £14.50 including our own fees, is designed to sit where many practices end up anyway, but:

• without the big cheques to agencies,
• with a full-term replacement guarantee,
• and with proper support for visas and compliance.