Why therapy led maintenance is the smartest way to grow your dental practice in 2026

Therapists are the untapped engine of growth in UK dentistry — here’s how to unlock them

A guest post by Fiona Teasdale - Practice/Business Manager - Myton Park Dental Centre

Therapy led maintenance and Direct Access.....

A big topic in Manager's chats and forums.

Let’s unpack it.

One of the recurring questions or topics of conversation in Managers and Owners forums is that around Therapy led maintenance and Direct Access.

Therapy led maintenance means the Dental Therapists take more of a prominent role in the patient care pathway. This could be for exams, routine treatments, preventative care, treatment planning, cosmetic bonding with further training or simple restorative work.

For some practices this is huge scary move or change in the way they are used to working and for others, this is already deep rooted in the way they work and from experience these practices tend to be the ones that thrive.

With over 7000 dental therapists registered with the GDC there is so much scope to fill the gaps where Dentists can’t be recruited. However, according to the GDC voluntary survey from 2024, it shows that 57% of registrants that responded are working to their full scope of practice with the remaining stating they worked as Hygienists.

The British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy reported only 48% of Dental Therapists are working to their full scope. Which seems such a huge under-utilisation of skill across the sector.

So why be Therapy led?

A Dental Therapist is able to deliver routine preventative, restorative and cosmetic treatments at a lower hourly rate.

This doesn’t mean that the patient isn't getting the best care; in fact they could be getting more care from seeing the Therapist.

The Dental Therapist is qualified to do all of the above like the Dentist.

If the Therapist looks after the routine and more simple treatments this opens up the Dentists diary for them to be able to see more complex treatments that do fall out of the scope of practice of a Dental Therapist.

What it means for your business is that your dentists can maximise their time to bring in higher value treatments, because they have the opportunity to spend the quality time to deliver the best care they can for their patients.

What it means for your patients is that they are seeing the right person for their needs at that time.

It means shorter wait times to get simple treatment done, and also shorter wait times for complex treatment to be completed.

However, this does need to be worked alongside well organised and zoned diaries for all.

By managing your patient care appropriately, you will increase both your clinical capacity and profitability without compromising patient experience.

With any change to routine, it always takes time to understand the benefits, let's liken it to a visit to the doctors.

20 Years ago, you would see your GP for everything and in more recent years you now see a Nurse practitioner.

There will always be some pushback to change but if you train your team to be confident with their approach to any kick back from patients, they can reassure the patients that they are seeing a qualified individual appropriate for the care they need at that time.

Change has to happen for practices to evolve to make sure they can see all the patients in a reasonable time with the best care needed from the right person for their needs.

Therapists have the ability to engage with patients and educate them in preventative care, then motivate them around their oral health.

This improves long term outcome in care and a better recall rate. What you can also find is patient satisfaction improves because of the care they are given and the ease of appointments.

Let's not run before we can walk though, the dentists still need to have an oversight, and in different practices that works it different ways.

So, for example if radiographs are taken some dentists do a pop in to check these as the patient is in the chair, or they are collated for the dentist's admin time, which you have to zone for them.

Same with the prescriptions for whitening or for any further treatment out of the scope of practice for the Therapists. This is a system that each practice can adapt to fit in with how they want to work.

The only way this works is when all of the team from clinical lead to reception are all on the same page and confident with what the Therapist is able to do to make sure the patients are given the same confident message at all stages of their visit. 

Therapists can attend further training for direct access and for updates on care if they have not been able to use their full scope and have lost confidence.

It quite simply is a no brainer to make sure that your Therapists are working as Therapists.

Let me know your thoughts. Fiona@mytonparkdental.co.uk