Straight answers to the questions patients ask me most often. If yours isn’t here, please get in touch and I’ll happily help.
Modern root canal treatment should be comfortable. The tooth is fully numbed beforehand, and most patients find the treatment feels much like having a filling - if anything, relieving the toothache that brought them in. Some mild tenderness for a day or two afterwards is normal and settles with ordinary over-the-counter medication.
Common signs include lingering sensitivity to hot or cold, pain on biting, a persistent ache, a darkening tooth, or a small pimple on the gum. Sometimes there are no symptoms at all and the problem is picked up on an X-ray. Only an assessment can confirm whether treatment is needed, but these are the usual pointers.
Wherever a tooth can be saved predictably, keeping your natural tooth is almost always the better long-term choice - nothing replaces a natural tooth quite as well. Extraction followed by an implant or bridge is sometimes the right option, but that route is usually more costly over time. I’ll give you an honest view of the prognosis so you can decide with the full picture.
Many root canals are completed in a single visit. More complex cases, re-treatments, or teeth with active infection may need two. I’ll tell you what to expect at your assessment.
I’m always open about fees. As I work from several practices, each setting its own fees, I don’t publish prices here, but you’ll always know the cost before deciding whether to go ahead.
A dental operating microscope gives the magnification and light needed to find and treat canals that are invisible to the naked eye, and a CBCT (3D) scan reveals the tooth’s anatomy before treatment begins. Together they make treatment more precise and predictable - I use both as standard, not as an added extra.
If a previously treated tooth hasn’t healed, or has become troublesome again, re-treatment involves carefully removing the old root filling, disinfecting the canals again and re-sealing them. Re-treatment is technically demanding work, which is often why these cases are referred on.
For canals that are calcified or hard to locate, I plan the access in three dimensions from a CBCT scan and use a custom 3D-printed guide to reach the canal precisely, through the smallest possible opening. Guided endodontics is a newer, highly precise technique - there’s more on the Guided Endodontics page.
You’re in good company, and dental anxiety is something I’m very used to. Treatment is unhurried and explained as we go, and IV sedation is available for patients who’d prefer to be deeply relaxed throughout. There’s more on the Nervous Patients page.
Most patients come through their own dentist, but you’re welcome to contact me directly. Dentists can refer quickly by WhatsApp, and I’ll see you at whichever of my London or Hertfordshire locations is most convenient for you.
The information here is general. Specific advice always follows a proper assessment of your tooth.