What Our Membership Plan Actually Costs — and What It Would Cost Without It.

John Barclay
Jun 28
4 min read

By Dr John Barclay | DRJB Smile Clinic, Ruabon, North Wales

Membership plans get a vague reputation. People assume they're a way of locking patients into a subscription that doesn't really save them anything. Here's the actual structure of ours, the actual numbers, and an honest answer to whether it's worth it — including the cases where it isn't.

How the Plan Works

We have five tiers — A through E — and which one you're on depends on the complexity of your dental history, not your budget. Tier A is for patients with straightforward dentition: a tooth or two with minor fillings, nothing more. Tier E is for patients with extensive existing work — most teeth have had some form of treatment, and the level of ongoing monitoring and care required is correspondingly higher.

Tier A starts at around £28 a month. Tier E sits closer to £50 a month. The bands in between scale according to how much your mouth needs looking after.

This isn't arbitrary. A mouth with extensive restorative history needs more frequent monitoring, more imaging, and a higher likelihood of needing further treatment over time. The plan price reflects that reality rather than charging everyone the same regardless of need.

You Need to Be Dentally Fit to Join

This catches some people by surprise, so it's worth saying plainly: the plan isn't a way of paying down a backlog of existing problems. Before joining, outstanding issues need to be sorted first — decay treated, anything urgent addressed. The plan covers what happens from that point forward, not what's already going wrong when you sign up.

That said, we're realistic about this. If your list of outstanding work is long, we won't simply turn you away. We'll talk through a sensible plan to get you dentally fit first, then bring you onto membership once you're there. We're human, and the aim is to make this work for real people with real histories — not to set an impossible bar.

What's Actually Included

Every plan includes two full examinations a year and between two and four hygiene visits a year, depending on your band — patients with more complex needs or higher periodontal risk get more frequent hygiene support built in.

Beyond that, the plan covers any new restorative treatment that's clinically necessary — fillings, crowns, anything required to treat disease and protect the health of a tooth. If a problem emerges that needs fixing to keep a tooth healthy, that treatment is included.

What's not included is anything cosmetic — anything that's a want rather than a clinical need. Whitening, veneers, composite bonding for aesthetic reasons sit outside the plan because they're elective. Implants are also not included — they're a significant procedure in their own right, priced and discussed separately.

One more detail: if a crown or restoration requires lab work, you pay only the actual lab cost. The clinical treatment, fitting, and ongoing care around it are already covered. We don't mark up lab fees or treat them as a separate profit line.

What It Would Cost Without the Plan

Here's where the actual numbers matter. Paid individually: an examination is £64. A hygiene visit is £77 for a standard 20-minute session, or £105 for a more thorough 30-minute session — the length depends on what your gums need, not what you choose. A simple filling is £150, a more complex one £300. A crown is £650 for a molar in monolithic zirconia, or £900 for a front tooth in emax with a multi-layered shade match. Root canal treatment is £500 for a front tooth, £700 for a molar.

Now put that against the plan.

A Tier A patient — minimal ongoing need, two exams and two hygiene visits a year, nothing else required — pays roughly £282 a year for that care paid individually. The plan, at around £28 a month, comes to £336 a year. In a year where genuinely nothing else happens, the plan costs slightly more than paying as you go. That's the honest answer, and we'd rather you knew it than discover it later.

But the moment anything restorative is needed — even one simple filling at £150 — the comparison flips. £282 plus that filling is £432. The plan, unchanged at £336, has already saved you money.

For a patient on a higher tier — more hygiene visits built in because the need is greater, and a higher likelihood of restorative work coming up during the year — the plan wins by a wider margin almost every time. A single crown alone, at £650 to £900, costs more than a year of membership on most tiers. Two exams, several hygiene visits, and one piece of restorative work in a year without a plan can easily exceed £1,000. The same year, on a plan, costs exactly what you're already paying monthly. Nothing more.

Why We Structure It This Way

The honest answer: dental need isn't equal across patients, and a flat fee for everyone would either overcharge people with simple mouths or undercharge people with complex ones. The tiered structure means you're paying for what your mouth actually needs — not subsidising someone else's, and not being subsidised either.

If You're Considering Joining

The right tier for you depends on an assessment — we won't guess, and we won't put you on a higher tier than your history justifies. If you've got existing work that needs sorting first, we'll find a sensible way through that too.

📞 01978 823490

📧 infodesk@drjbsmileclinic.co.uk

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References & Further Reading

1. British Dental Association. Dental plans and patient charges: a guide for patients. BDA, 2022. → General context on how private dental membership plans are structured across UK practice.

2. Office for National Statistics. Private healthcare spending trends, UK. ONS, 2023. → Broader context for predictable-cost healthcare models and patient budgeting behaviour.

3. Public Health England / OHID. Delivering Better Oral Health: An Evidence-Based Toolkit for Prevention. 4th ed. OHID, 2021. → Underpins the rationale for tiered recall frequency based on individual periodontal and caries risk.