What the CMA investigation tells us about the future of private healthcare markets

The launch of a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) market study into private dentistry represents an important inflection point for the sector, says Patrick Teague.

The decision to launch the CMA inquiry reflects both rising public concern around affordability and a broader shift towards more active competition scrutiny in healthcare markets.

The CMA’s interest in private dentistry has not emerged in isolation. It is part of a wider and increasingly assertive effort to reshape how consumer-facing healthcare markets operate in the UK.

If there were any doubt about the direction of travel, the CMA’s final report into the veterinary sector (published on 24 March 2026) provides some clear clues. For dentistry, the parallels are difficult to ignore.

A familiar set of concerns

The CMA’s veterinary investigation identified a market in which consumers struggled to engage effectively. The CMA found that pet owners often lack clear information on pricing, find it difficult to compare providers, and frequently make decisions under emotional pressure and time constraints.

These features may feel familiar to anyone working in private dentistry.

Despite the best efforts of dental professionals, patients rarely approach dental treatment as fully informed consumers. Decisions are often made quickly, sometimes urgently, and typically on the basis of trust rather than comparison. The CMA has long viewed these characteristics as warning signs: where consumers cannot exercise choice effectively, competition tends to weaken.

In the veterinary sector, this translated into tangible outcomes. Prices rose significantly faster than inflation, while ownership became increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of large corporate groups.

The CMA’s conclusion in its market study into that sector was not that the market was broken, but that it was not working as well as it should.

The CMA’s remedy: transparency first

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the vets case is not the concerns themselves, but how the CMA chose to respond.

Despite evidence of consolidation and rising prices, the CMA stopped short of imposing structural remedies such as forced divestments. Instead, it opted for a detailed and legally binding package of measures aimed primarily at improving transparency and consumer engagement.

These include:

• Mandatory publication of price lists and clearer up-front cost information
• Requirements to provide written estimates for more expensive treatments
• Obligations to inform consumers about alternative purchasing options (for example, cheaper online medicines)
• Caps on certain ancillary fees
• Increased transparency around ownership, including whether a practice is part of a larger corporate group.

The CMA is also seeking to facilitate comparison more directly, including through the development of tools that allow consumers to assess prices and providers more easily.

This is a notable shift. Rather than attempting to reshape the market through heavy-handed intervention, the CMA is focusing on making it easier for consumers to navigate, with the expectation that competition will follow.

Dentistry: likely next steps

Against that backdrop, the CMA’s interest in private dentistry looks less like a new initiative and more like the continuation of an established approach.

We can expect similar themes to emerge:

• A focus on whether patients are receiving clear, timely, and meaningful pricing information
• Scrutiny of how treatment options are presented and understood
• Attention to local market dynamics, particularly in areas where patients have limited choice of provider.

If the veterinary precedent holds, any eventual remedies are likely to prioritise transparency and comparability over structural change (at least initially).

This is important for dental professionals: it suggests that the CMA’s objective is not to second-guess clinical decisions or fundamentally reshape business models, but to ensure that patients are better able to engage with the market as consumers.

A deeper regulatory shift

However, there is a broader point that should not be overlooked.

The veterinary investigation also exposed gaps in the regulatory framework itself. In particular, the CMA highlighted that existing regulation focused largely on individual professionals, while leaving corporate ownership and commercial practices comparatively untouched.

That observation has wider relevance.

Healthcare markets (including dentistry) have evolved rapidly in recent years, with increasing consolidation, investment, and corporatisation. The CMA’s work signals a growing willingness to engage with these structural changes, even in sectors that have traditionally been governed primarily through professional regulation.

In that sense, the CMA’s intervention in veterinary services is not just about transparency. It reflects a recognition that competition and consumer protection considerations now sit alongside – and sometimes cut across – traditional regulatory models.

What dental providers should take from this

For those operating in private dentistry, the immediate message should not be one of alarm, but of preparation.

The CMA has shown that it is prepared to intervene where it sees persistent barriers to effective consumer choice. It has also demonstrated a clear preference for remedies that focus on information, transparency, and consumer empowerment.

Practices that are already providing clear pricing, communicating treatment options effectively, and thinking carefully about how patients experience decision-making are likely to be well placed.

Those that are not may find that expectations – from both regulators and patients – are shifting quickly.

The direction of travel

The CMA’s work in the veterinary sector is unlikely to be the end of the story. If anything, it marks the beginning of a more consistent and interventionist approach to consumer-facing healthcare markets.

Private dentistry now sits squarely within that frame.

The lesson from the vets case is not simply that change is coming, but what form it is likely to take. Transparency will be the starting point. Whether it is the end point will depend on how the market responds.

Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.