Dental front desk cost: what reception really costs a practice in 2026

Pay is the first input. There's no official pay figure for dental receptionists alone, so these are the most useful reference points when you set a budget:

Some salary figures you'll see online are now below the legal minimum, because they're built from older job adverts or older pay data. For a full-time receptionist aged 21 or over, anything under £24,784.50 a year at 37.5 hours a week is below the National Living Wage from April 2026.

Younger staff have lower legal minimums: £10.85 an hour at 18 to 20, and £8 an hour for under-18s and apprentices. These are the legal floor, not a guide to what an experienced receptionist will expect.

The cost of employing someone in the UK is always more than their wage. Here's one full-time receptionist aged 21 or over, on 37.5 hours a week at the National Living Wage:

The National Insurance rate and threshold are from HMRC's rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027. The pension figure uses the minimum employer contribution of 3% on qualifying earnings; many employers pay more.

At the ONS full-time median of £13.22 an hour, the same sum comes to £29,482.02 a year: £25,779 in pay, £3,116.85 in National Insurance and £586.17 in pension.

The table covers one person in the seat. It doesn't cover the seat when they're away.

• Holiday cover. Staff are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week, and bank holidays can count towards it. Covering 5.6 weeks with someone on the same rate costs £2,669.10 (5.6 × 37.5 × £12.71), plus National Insurance and pension.
• Sickness. Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week, or 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings if that's lower, for up to 28 weeks. You also pay for whoever covers the desk.
• Training. In England, the Care Quality Commission's Regulation 18 requires staff to get the training they need for their role, and that takes time away from the desk.
• Recruitment. Adverts, interviews and the weeks a new starter takes to learn your systems. These vary too much to put a fair number on, so use your own.

Two things can bring the National Insurance line down. The Employment Allowance cuts an eligible employer's National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a year, but it's one allowance across the whole payroll, so in a practice with dental nurses and other employed staff it may already be used up. And employers pay no National Insurance on an under-21 employee's earnings up to £50,270.

A full-time receptionist on 37.5 hours a week covers about 22% of the 168 hours in a week. Even inside opening hours, the phone goes unanswered when they're on another call, checking a patient in or taking a payment, and at lunch unless someone covers.

Part-time cover costs less but covers less. For example, 20 hours a week at the National Living Wage costs £13,218.40 in pay, £1,232.76 in employer National Insurance and £209.35 in pension, so £14,660.51 a year. For comparison, the ONS median for all receptionists, including part-time, is £18,152 a year.

Some are existing patients who'll ring back. Some are new patients who'll try the next practice. And some, out of hours, are people in pain. The NHS tells people who need urgent dental care to contact a dentist or get help from NHS 111, so make sure whatever answers your phone after hours gives your practice's own out-of-hours instructions clearly.

To put a number on missed new patient calls, use the same sum as our missed call calculator: missed new patient calls a week × the share who would book × what a new patient is worth to you × 52.

We haven't found a reliable published figure for what a new patient is worth to a UK practice, so use your own. As an example only: 3 missed new patient calls a week × 30% × £300 × 52 = £14,040 a year. Our guide to dental practice marketing covers bringing new patients in within the GDC's advertising rules.

They do different jobs, so the right answer is often a mix.

To be straight with you: an AI receptionist doesn't replace your front desk. It doesn't greet patients, take payments or give dental advice. What it does is answer the calls the desk can't, so they don't ring out or go to another practice. Our guides to whether an AI receptionist is worth it and out-of-hours call answering go into the sums and the options.