For patients who attend regularly, yes. On our Complete Care plan you pay £239.40 a year, covering two check-ups, two hygienist visits and your X-rays. Buying that same routine care appointment by appointment comes to roughly £416 — so you are about £177 a year better off, before you count the 10% treatment discount, priority in an emergency, and the worldwide dental accident and emergency cover that comes with every plan.
Whether it is worth it still depends on how you use your teeth. So here are the figures, and you are welcome to check them.
The arithmetic
For someone attending twice a year with hygiene visits and X-rays, paying appointment by appointment comes to around £416 across the year. Set that against what each plan costs:
Complete Care — £19.95/month, or £239.40 a year. Two check-ups, two hygienist visits and X-rays, all included. Against roughly £416 paid piecemeal, that is about £177 saved.
Essential Maintenance — £10.95/month. One check-up and one hygienist visit a year, with X-rays included. The entry point if you attend once a year.
Routine Care — £15.95/month. Two check-ups and one hygienist visit, X-rays included.
Complete Care Plus — £25.95/month. Everything in Complete Care, with additional cover on top.
Periodontal Health — £29.95/month. Two check-ups and four specialist hygienist visits for patients managing gum disease, where more frequent hygiene care is a clinical need rather than a preference.
Family Plan — £49.50/month. Two check-ups and two hygienist visits per person, per year, across the family.
Every plan includes X-rays, 10% off selected treatments, and worldwide dental accident and emergency cover. The Family, Complete Care, Complete Care Plus and Periodontal Health plans also include priority for emergency appointments.
The savings are bigger than the appointment maths suggests
The £177 is only the part you can put on a spreadsheet. Three other things carry real value, and they are the reason most members say the plan pays for itself:
The 10% discount on selected treatments. This is where a plan earns its keep the moment you need actual work done. On a £750 crown, that is £75 back — more than four months of the plan. Ask us which treatments the discount covers under your plan.
Worldwide dental accident and emergency cover, included on every plan. Most people never think about this until they crack a tooth on holiday, at which point it stops being an abstraction.
Budgeting instead of bracing. £19.95 a month is a direct debit you forget about. A bill in the hundreds, arriving all at once, is the thing people put off — and putting it off is how a small filling becomes a root canal and a crown. Removing the reason to delay is the plan's real job.
Who a plan genuinely suits
People who attend regularly, or who want to start. The plan makes the habit automatic.
People moving from NHS to private care who want a predictable monthly cost rather than an unpredictable annual one.
People with ongoing gum-health needs, where more frequent hygiene visits are a clinical requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
Families spreading routine costs across several people — our Family Plan is £49.50 a month and covers 2 check-ups and 2 hygienist visits per person, per year.
Who it does not suit
If you genuinely only go to the dentist when something breaks, a plan will not pay for itself, and we would rather tell you that than sign you up. The counter-argument is real but it is a health one, not a financial one: people who only attend in emergencies tend to need more expensive treatment when they finally come in. That is a reason to start attending, not necessarily a reason to buy a plan.
If you already have dental cover through an employer that pays for routine visits, compare the two properly before adding a plan on top. You may be paying twice for the same appointments.
How Pear Tree membership compares to Denplan and similar plans
Patients commonly report paying around £20 a month for Denplan cover that includes two check-ups, two hygienist visits and 10% off treatment bills — which is broadly the shape of our Complete Care plan at £19.95. The structures across the market are more similar than the marketing suggests. What differs is what you can actually get from the practice attached to it: how quickly you are seen when in pain, and whether the practice is somewhere you want to go.
One thing worth checking with any plan, ours included: ask whether outstanding treatment has to be completed before you can join. Plans are designed for maintaining healthy mouths, not for funding a backlog of work, and people who have been away from dentistry for years are often caught out by this. Ask the question before you get your hopes up — and if you do have work outstanding, ask what the route in looks like. There usually is one.
Membership is not the same as insurance
A membership plan is a way of paying for planned, routine care in monthly instalments. Insurance pays out when something unexpected happens. They are different things and they get confused constantly. Our plans do both jobs: the monthly fee covers your routine care, and every plan also carries worldwide dental accident and emergency cover for the things nobody plans for.
You can see every plan, side by side, on our membership page. If you would rather talk it through — including whether a plan is worth it for you at all — book an appointment or call 0115 931 2935.
FAQ
Q: Is a dental membership plan cheaper than paying as you go? A: For patients who use the appointments included, yes. Routine care on our Complete Care plan is £239.40 a year against roughly £416 bought appointment by appointment — about £177 saved — and that is before the 10% treatment discount and the worldwide cover.
Q: How much is dental membership at Pear Tree Dental? A: Plans run from £10.95 a month (Essential Maintenance: one check-up, one hygienist visit) to £29.95 (Periodontal Health: two check-ups, four specialist hygienist visits). The Family Plan is £49.50 a month. Every plan includes X-rays, 10% off selected treatments, and worldwide dental accident and emergency cover.
Q: Is a dental plan the same as insurance? A: Not quite. A plan spreads the cost of the routine care you know you need, rather than paying out on a claim. That said, every one of our plans also includes worldwide dental accident and emergency cover, so you get both: predictable routine care, and protection for the things you cannot predict.
Q: I have not been to a dentist in years and I know I need work — can I still join? A: Ask us. Plans generally cover maintaining a healthy mouth rather than clearing a backlog of treatment, so there may be work to do first. That is not a rejection, and nobody here will lecture you about the gap. Come in, find out where you stand, and we will tell you honestly what the route looks like.
Q: Does membership cover emergencies? A: Every plan includes worldwide dental accident and emergency cover, so you are protected away from home as well as at home. The Family, Complete Care, Complete Care Plus and Periodontal Health plans also give you priority for emergency appointments here. The emergency appointment fee (£50) and any treatment are charged as normal, with your member discount applied to selected treatments.
Clinically reviewed by Javaad Mirza (MD, BDS), Principal Dentist at Pear Tree Dental, GDC No. 290378. Last reviewed July 2026. All prices and plan contents correct at the time of review — see the membership page for current terms.