Emergency Dental Appointments - What they are and how to avoid!

Some of you may find this surprising, but some of our most common appointment bookings at tooth in Waterloo are dental emergency appointments!

For the team it’s always a bit upsetting when patients book same day dental emergency appointments at tooth, as we are real advocates of prevention rather than cure - and the vast majority of emergency dental appointments are ultimately from things that were probably preventable.

We often see patients for emergency root canal, emergency fillings, and a lot of emergency appointments for tooth ache. Regular attendance for dental check-ups and dental hygiene would have prevented a lot of these emergency dental issues! But not everything is preventable and we realise that too. For example, we often deal with broken teeth, recementing crowns, repairing chipped teeth, loose fillings that have come out etc.

Regardless of the dental emergency, preventable or not – at tooth we are always here to help and we will do our best to fix the issue, permanently if time allows, or temporarily if needed and if the cause or solution to the dental emergency requires more time than that allocated. We will also prescribe (which is included in our emergency appointment fee) if clinically necessary.

TOP FIVE REASONS WHY PATIENTS NEED DENTAL EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS:

1) When a patient has tooth ache or is in pain – this is a very common reason and it can be caused by an infection, an exposed nerve or other reasons also.

2) When a patient needs emergency root canal – this is often linked to the above.

3) When a patient has a loose crown (often referred to by patients as a tooth cap) that has come loose or fallen off and the crown needs recementing (in layman’s terms gluing back on).

4) When a patient has had what is known as a dental trauma and broken a tooth – this tooth damage could be from an accident (such as falling and knocking the tooth), a sports injury, or simply – and very common, biting on something very hard such as an olive stone, a bone or something similar.

5) When an old filling has chipped or come away and the patient is concerned about it or has pain from sensitivity as the old filling is no longer protecting the tooth and nerve.

These are just some of the reasons that people call, email or WhatsApp us to book a dental emergency appointment at tooth.

NEED A SAME DAY DENTAL EMERGENCY APPOINTMENT IN LONDON?

My advice to anyone who thinks they may need a dental emergency appointment is to contact us and book… straight away. You really can’t lose as even if it’s something that isn’t a major issue, you will have least had it reviewed by a dental professional and you will have peace of mind and correct dental advice (trust me … this is better than self-diagnosing via the internet!). Or, if it is a dental emergency then me or my team of amazing dentists at tooth will diagnose, review, and treat or de-risk the tooth. Although it may be later than would have been ideal, getting it looked at quickly is still the absolute best option for the easiest and cheapest treatment. In dentistry, few things fix themselves.

I always tell my patients two things:

  1. In dentistry, like in most things, prevention is better than cure - cheaper, quicker and definitely less painful!

  2. And, if you need dental treatment, please get it done as soon as possible – unfortunately, a dental issue will never really self-heal, it will only ever get more complex and more expensive, or the outcome and solution will be more permanent - for example you’ll end up losing a tooth that could have easily been saved had you had it attended to in time. A small filling will very likely grow to a medium or large filling, or worse, if left untreated.

HOW MUCH IS A DENTAL EMERGENCY APPOINTMENT IN LONDON?

The price of an Emergency Appointment at tooth is surprisingly very low compared with many other dental practices in London. The reason for this is that we never want price to be a barrier to getting patients out of pain, or giving them peace of mind.

Our Emergency Appointments are £75 and this includes prescription fee too (if clinically required). What’s more, is that if we are able to do permanent dental treatment in the allocated appointment time, then you will only be charged for this – and you won’t pay the Emergency Appointment fee on top. So, for example, if you needed a small filling at your Emergency Appointment then we would only charge you for the small filling (£140) and not for the small filling plus the emergency fee. Again, this is very rare in London for dental practices to waive the emergency fee!

If you need a temporary filling to de-risk your issue and/or protect your tooth, then this is charged at just £60 in addition to the fee, and if it turns out you need Emergency Root Canal (extirpation) then we will charge £125 total. You’ll need to come back for root canal or specialist endodontic treatment at our normal prices. As always at tooth, we never hide any prices and there are never any hidden costs.

HOW DO I BOOK AN EMERGENCY DENTAL APPOINTMENT IN LONDON?

You can learn more about our Emergency Dentist Appointments here - and like always, it is so easy to book – you can just click here or even WhatsApp us! I really hope you don’t need our emergency dental services, but if you do, me and the team are here for you.

Love Anna x