Roughly a third of adults · you are the normal case

Nobody here is going to tell you it doesn’t hurt.

Every dental website in the country promises gentle, pain-free dentistry. You have read that sentence before, and you still did not book, because it is a claim and you have no way to check it.

So this page does the opposite. It describes what each treatment sounds like, feels like and tastes like, accurately — including the parts nobody enjoys. Accuracy is the thing that actually reassures. A promise is not.

Book a talk, not a treatment All twelve, honestly
Soft daylight through the surgery window.

The one thing to take away

Raise your left hand and we stop.

Then. Not at a convenient moment, not at the end of what we are doing. It is a real signal, every person in this practice works to it, and using it is not a nuisance, not dramatic, and not something anybody will sigh about. Most appointments where it gets used carry on ninety seconds later.

All of these are already routine

Things you are allowed to ask for

None of this is a special arrangement and none of it costs extra. You do not need a reason and you will not be asked for one. Say it when you ring, or write it in the box on the form.

Six noises

What you can hear, and what is making it

For a lot of people the sound is the whole problem — not the sensation. Knowing which noise is which takes most of the fear out of it, because none of them mean what they sound like they mean.

The high whistle
The ultrasonic scaler, during a clean. Loudest thing in the appointment and the reason people dread the hygienist more than the dentist.
The high whine
The drill. Pressure and cold water, not pain. If anything is sharp, that means the numbing needs topping up.
A low grinding
The slow drill, used to shape or polish. Deeper, and it feels like a vibration through the jaw.
A creak or a crack
A tooth being lifted out. It is the ligament letting go, conducted through bone straight to your ear — enormous to you, almost silent to the room.
Suction
A plastic straw taking water away so you never have to swallow. The nurse holds it and you do nothing.
Numbers being called out
Charting shorthand between dentist and nurse, not a verdict. “Four, three, four” is a measurement, not bad news.

Twelve treatments · the unedited version

What each one actually feels like

This is the same writing that appears on each treatment page. Words in a box like this can be opened for a plain explanation of the instrument.

Check-up, new patient

£58 · 30 minutes

Nothing sharp happens at a first check-up. We use a mirror and a
blunt-ended probeA thin metal stick with a rounded tip, about the size of a cocktail stick. It is used to feel whether a surface is hard or soft. It is not sharp and it does not go into anything — the pointed instrument you may be picturing has not been standard for checking teeth for years.
that we rest against each tooth and slide along it — you will feel tapping and a faint scrape, and you will hear us calling numbers to the nurse. That is a charting shorthand, not a verdict. The genuinely uncomfortable part is holding your mouth open for a few minutes at a stretch. Close it whenever you want. Nobody is going to sigh at you.

Check-up, returning patient

£42 · 20 minutes

Identical to the first one and about ten minutes quicker. If it has been years rather than months, that changes nothing about the appointment — we are not going to comment on the gap. It is genuinely the most ordinary thing we see.

Hygienist appointment

£68 · 30 minutes

This is the loud one. The
ultrasonic scalerA metal tip that vibrates tens of thousands of times a second to shake hardened plaque off the tooth, with a water spray to keep it cool. The vibration is what makes the noise. It has no cutting edge and it is not a drill.
is a high whistle very close to your ear and it sprays cold water constantly; a nurse holds a
suction tubeA plastic straw about the width of a pencil that sits in the corner of your mouth and takes away water so you never have to swallow mid-treatment or ask us to stop for it. The nurse holds it; you do nothing.
so you are not swallowing. Where the gum is already inflamed it can sting briefly, like catching a scratch. If cold makes your teeth jump, say so before we start —
numbing gelA flavoured paste, usually banana or mint, dabbed on the gum with a cotton bud and left for a minute. It numbs the surface only. We use it before injections and, on request, before a routine clean.
and warmer water both help, and neither costs anything. Your gums may bleed. That is the inflammation, not damage, and it settles within a week or two of brushing that area properly.

Deep clean, per quadrant

£95 – £140 · 45 minutes

We numb this. You will feel the injection — a sharp scratch and then a spreading ache for about ten seconds — and after that the
quadrantOne quarter of your mouth — upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right. Gum treatment is done a quadrant at a time so you are never numb on both sides at once and can still drink a cup of tea afterwards.
goes heavy and thick. You will feel firm pressure and scraping through the bone, which sounds worse than it is. Afterwards the area aches for a day or two and the teeth feel longer, because the swollen gum has gone down. Hot and cold sensitivity for a couple of weeks is normal and it does fade.

X-ray

£18 small · £85 panoramic · 5 minutes

The small film is the part people dislike most and it lasts four seconds. You bite on a plastic holder with hard corners that presses into the floor of your mouth. If you gag easily, tell us first — we have smaller
sensorsThe small digital plate that replaces old X-ray film. It is about the size of a domino, goes inside your mouth for a few seconds, and puts the picture on the screen immediately. We stock a paediatric size that is noticeably smaller.
, and there is a technique that photographs from outside the cheek instead. The
panoramicA single wide X-ray of both jaws taken by a machine that rotates around your head while you stand still. Nothing goes in your mouth, which makes it the easy option if small films make you gag.
one is easier: you stand still and a machine circles your head for twelve seconds without touching you.

White filling

£140 – £260 · 30 – 50 minutes

The injection is the worst part of this appointment and it is about ten seconds long: a scratch, then a heavy ache while it spreads, then nothing. We wait a full five minutes before touching the tooth — not two, five. Then
the drillProperly a handpiece. The fast one spins at up to 200,000 rpm and makes the high whine — it cuts hard enamel and sprays water to stop the tooth heating up. The slow one is lower-pitched and rumbling, and is used to take out soft decay. Neither can cut you without an injection having failed first, which is what the hand signal is for.
: a high whine and a feeling of pressure and cold water, and a smell you may notice. Pressure, not pain. If you feel anything sharp, raise your left hand and we stop. That is not a formality; it almost always means the numbing needs topping up, which takes two more minutes and is completely normal.

Root canal, front tooth

£380 – £480 · 60 – 90 minutes

Root canals do not hurt more than fillings. The reputation comes from the state people are in when they finally come in — the pain was already there, and the treatment is what ends it. You are numb the whole way through. What you will actually notice is the time: an hour or more with your mouth open, and a
rubber damA square of thin latex or silicone stretched over a small metal clip so that only the tooth being treated pokes through. It keeps everything else — water, debris, the taste of the disinfectant — out of your mouth. You can still swallow and still breathe normally through your nose and around it.
clamped over the tooth, which feels like a peg on your gum for the first minute and then stops registering. We stop for a break whenever you ask. Your jaw will ache afterwards from being open, not from the treatment.

Root canal, back tooth

£620 – £850 · 90 – 120 minutes

Longer than the front-tooth version and usually split across two appointments so neither one is punishing. Same sensations: numb throughout, pressure rather than pain, and the ache in your jaw at the end is from holding it open. If you are someone who cannot lie flat or cannot keep still for that long, tell us at the assessment and we will plan it in shorter blocks. That is a scheduling problem, not a character flaw.

Crown

£650 – £950 · Two visits

The first visit is a longer filling: numb, pressure, water, the whine of the drill. Then a mould or a scan, and a temporary crown glued on. The temporary is the annoying part — it feels bulky for about three days, your tongue will not leave it alone, and it can come off on something chewy. That is not an emergency; ring us and we will re-cement it. The second visit is five minutes and usually needs no injection at all.

Tooth removal, simple

£180 – £260 · 30 minutes

This is the one that gets described wrongly, so plainly: you will feel firm, strong pressure and a lot of pushing and rocking, and you will hear a creak or a crack. That noise is the
ligamentTeeth are not fused to the jaw. Each one is slung in its socket by a thin sheet of fibres, roughly like a hammock. Removing a tooth means stretching those fibres until they release, which is why the sensation is pressure and rocking rather than pulling.
letting go, conducted through bone straight to your ear — it is loud to you and almost silent to the room. It should never be sharp. If it is sharp, raise your left hand. Afterwards you bite on
gauzeA folded pad of sterile cotton you bite down on to press the socket closed while it clots. Twenty minutes of firm, continuous pressure does more than an hour of checking whether it has stopped.
for twenty minutes, and the
socketThe hole in the jawbone the root sat in. It fills with a clot within hours, then with soft tissue over a week or two, and the bone closes over the following months.
aches for two or three days.

Tooth removal, surgical

£320 – £450 · 45 – 60 minutes

Same pressure and creaking as a simple removal, plus a section where we use a drill to divide the tooth so it comes out in pieces rather than forcing the whole thing. That is the noisiest part. You get stitches — you will feel the tug of the needle but not the point — and they dissolve in about ten days. Expect swelling that peaks on day two and looks worse than it feels, and take the painkillers before the numbness wears off rather than after.

Emergency appointment

£85 plus any treatment · Same day, 20 minutes

The aim of this appointment is to stop the pain today, not to fix everything today. That usually means opening a tooth to release pressure, dressing it, or taking it out — and it usually works within minutes of the anaesthetic taking hold. We will tell you what it will cost to finish the job properly, and then you can go away and think about it. If you are in pain right now, ring us rather than filling in the form.

Free · fifteen minutes · nothing is done to you

Book a talk, not a treatment

You sit in a normal chair in a normal room and ask whatever you want. No instruments, no examination, nobody looks in your mouth, and there is no charge. You can look at the surgery, meet whoever would treat you, and leave.

Some people do this two or three times before they book a check-up. That is a completely reasonable way to do it and it is the single most useful appointment we offer.

Ask for a talk 0161 496 0114

Nervous about the dentist?

Turn this on and we will explain everything — what each treatment actually feels like, what the noises are, and how to make us stop. It stays on as you move around the site.