Company Dental Insurance without the admin burden.
Millions of UK employees can't get an NHS dentist. Company dental insurance gives your people access to private dental care, moving them off waiting lists and into treatment. As an FCA-licensed broker, Kota helps you compare providers, set up cover, and manage enrolment and offboarding automatically, cutting out the admin.
About
Company Dental Insurance
What is Company Dental Insurance?
It's available to most UK businesses, though providers typically require somewhere between three and five to qualify for group rates. As the employer, you can choose to fund the cover entirely, share the cost with employees, or offer it on a voluntary basis where employees opt in at a preferential group rate.
Company dental insurance covers:
-> Routine examinations and check-ups
-> Fillings, extractions, and restorations
-> Hygienist visits
-> Emergency dental treatment
-> More complex treatment such as crowns and bridges on higher-tier plans
-> Orthodontic treatment on selected plans
Dental Insurance vs. Dental Cash Plans vs. Capitation Plans
Dental insurance reimburses employees for treatment costs up to a set annual limit. Dental cash plans, like those offered by Medicash, pay a fixed cash benefit per treatment type regardless of the actual cost. Capitation plans, like Denplan, pay a monthly fee per employee in exchange for ongoing preventive and restorative care through a registered dentist.
Each model suits different workforce needs and budgets, and the right choice will depend on what your people need and how much you want to spend.
Why offer Company Dental Insurance?
Helps you recruit and retain talent
Through an employee dental plan, you can:
- Strengthen your benefits package with something candidates are actively looking for
- Retain the people you already have by reinforcing that working for you comes with real, visible perks
- Signal to prospective hires that you invest in your people's health
Shows your people you genuinely care
Offering this benefit:
- Covers something every employee needs regardless of age, role, or seniority
- Gives your people a benefit they'll actually use frequently and appreciate
- Demonstrates a genuine duty of care that goes beyond the standard benefits package
Gives your people access that public health services can't
This policy:
- Gives every employee fast access to a dentist without joining an NHS waiting list
- Covers routine check-ups, fillings, and hygienist visits - the treatments your people actually need most
- Removes the cost barrier that leads employees to delay treatment until problems become more serious
Keeps your people at work and healthy
With this policy in place, your people get:
- Faster access to treatment, so they spend less time in pain
- Routine check-ups that flag wider health issues early, from gum disease to signs of diabetes and heart conditions
- Fewer unplanned absences that disrupt your team and create extra pressure on everyone else
How to set up your
Company Dental Insurance
Choose your type of cover and how you'll fund it
Your main cover options are dental insurance, a cash plan, or a capitation plan. Some plans restrict employees to a network of approved dentists, while others allow freedom of choice. From there, decide whether you'll fund the cover entirely, share the cost, or offer it on a voluntary basis.
Decide who's eligible
You'll need to decide whether cover is available to new employees immediately on joining or after a probation period, and whether all employees are included or only certain groups. Bear in mind that some plans also have their own waiting periods before employees can claim for non-emergency treatment.
Get quotes from providers
To get quotes, you'll need to share basic workforce data such as headcount, age profile, and location. Compare pricing and coverage scope across providers and also check how each provider handles claims. Claim handling - whether online, an app, or by post - affects how much your people will use the benefit.
Enrol your team
Once you've chosen a provider, your employees are added to the group policy. Employees get a membership card or online account giving them access. Enrolment can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on your provider and how well your employee data is organised.
Keep cover up to date as team changes
As employees join and leave, your policy needs to stay updated with the provider. This is where you may start to feel the weight of the admin, especially if you’re a fast-growing team. Leavers who aren't removed stay on the policy, costing you money.
Set up your Company Dental Insurance
in minutes
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Who offers Company Dental Insurance?
How much does Company Dental Insurance cost?
The cost of company dental insurance shifts depending on a handful of decisions you make about how the benefit is structured and who it covers. It’s not always straightforward enough for you to simply default to the cheapest option. Knowing what drives the price gives you a clearer basis for making choices that balance what your people need with what works for your budget.
These factors influence the cost of your premium:
The type of cover you choose
The size of your team
The age profile of your workforce
The excess level you set
The scope of treatment you include
How you choose to fund it
Example scenario
A tech company with 40 employees chooses a dental cash plan at £8 per employee per month - an illustrative rate for a basic plan. The total annual cost to the business comes to £3,840, or less than £100 per head per year.
For that, every employee gets access to routine check-ups, hygienist visits, and emergency dental treatment.
Tax implications of
Company Dental Insurance
United Kingdom
Employer Treatment
Employee Treatment
P11D/Payroll Notes
Ireland
Employer Treatment
Employee Treatment
Revenue/BIK Notes
What you need to set up
Compant Dental Insurance
Getting company dental insurance in place requires a few key decisions and some basic data before you can approach providers. Having everything organised upfront reduces the likelihood of a back-and-forth with providers, unnecessarily adding to your admin before the policy is even live.
Here’s what you need:
Basic employee data
Cover level decision
Funding model
Eligibility rules
Provider selection
How Kota handles
Company Dental Insurance
Many employers coordinate between a broker who procures their dental plan and a platform that administers it. That’s two relationships, two bills, data flowing manually between them. As an FCA-licensed broker and benefits platform in one, Kota handles the entire journey without the fragmentation.
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Set up
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Manage
Modern benefits management starts here
Frequently asked questions
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Yes. Employer-funded dental insurance is treated as a benefit in kind in both the UK and Ireland. Employees pay income tax on the value of the premium their employer contributes. Employers must report it on P11D forms in the UK or through payroll in Ireland. If offered via salary sacrifice, the tax treatment differs and may be more tax-efficient for both parties.
A dental cash plan pays employees a fixed cash benefit per treatment type up to an annual limit. Dental insurance reimburses a percentage of actual treatment costs, often with higher limits and broader coverage. Cash plans tend to be more affordable; full dental insurance offers stronger protection for more complex treatment.
For most employees, yes - particularly as NHS access becomes harder to rely on. Even a basic plan covers the treatments employees need most: check-ups, hygienist visits, and fillings. It's one of the most frequently used benefits in any package, which means employees actually feel the value of it.
It depends on the type of plan and level of cover you choose. Dental cash plans commonly start from around £5-10 per employee per month. Full dental insurance with comprehensive cover can range from £15-30 or more per employee per month. Your headcount, workforce demographics, and cover scope will all affect the final figure. Treat any number as illustrative until you have quotes in hand.
Yes. Many providers offer voluntary schemes where employees opt in and pay their own premiums at a preferential group rate negotiated by you as the employer. This reduces your direct outlay while still giving your people access to better-value cover than they'd find individually.
They're separate products. Most PMI policies don't include dental treatment as standard, though some offer it as an optional add-on. Offering both gives your employees comprehensive health coverage. The two can be managed alongside each other within the same platform, with a single HRIS sync covering all providers.
Benefits you and your employees will love using
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