Emergency dental treatment costs, just like dental emergencies themselves, are unpredictable. However, thanks to the power of data, we can look at what the average cost for an emergency dental visit (including treatment) is across the UK.

This gives us a picture of a typical emergency dental visit, and how much it costs. Fortunately for patients, the most common emergency dental procedures carried out by dentists across the UK happen to be among the cheapest treatments dentists have to offer - with the exception of one or two that also often come together: root canals, and crowns.

In the grand scheme of things, emergency dental treatment in the UK costs between £45-£1,500, with most patients paying £80-£400 in total for an emergency dental visit involving the most common emergency treatments like fillings, extractions, and pain relief.

How Much Emergency Dental Appointments Themselves Cost

Emergency dental appointments at regular dental practices range from £80-£196, rising to £150-£500 for out of hours appointments, which is just for the consultation and X-rays together.

Almost all emergency consultations require X-rays for the dentist's initial diagnosis, and this is where an additional hidden cost frequently emerges. X-ray fees of £20-£50 are commonly seen across dentists in the UK.

For cases where the dentist has determined no direct treatment is needed, but has identified the presence of an infection, a prescription is commonly written at a charge of approximately £15 for a course of antibiotics, and the patient still has to pay for the antibiotics themselves. These are commonly priced around £9.75, so the total price for an emergency dental visit like this would near £100.

However, some specialized emergency services offer a much more transparent approach to emergency visits, and this includes more competitive appointment pricing at low levels of £20-80, which are rarely seen at regular dental practices. Of these, UrgentCare Dental in Northern England are the most affordable emergency dental service seen in the UK, offering same-day appointments at only £20, including free X-rays and a free follow up visit.

Why Most Emergency Dental Patients Accept Treatment (And What It Means for Costs)

With so many options for emergency dental care available, patients often find it difficult to decide which one to choose.

Fortunately, patients who opt for a practice that has a lower upfront consultation cost are able to decide whether or not they want to proceed with the treatment, from hearing the dentist's professional diagnosis.

This essentially reduces the amount a patient will be out of pocket if they do decide to get a second opinion. However, what's interesting about this, is that the rate at which emergency patients choose to accept treatment after diagnosis is still between 85-95%, depending upon the practice.

So, while it's possible for patients to get a second opinion at a low, reasonable price for their emergency dental care, they very much often don't. 9 out of 10 patients go with their first choice of an emergency dentist - which is a testament to the good standards of dental care in the UK.

Comparison to Routine Acceptance Rates

While emergency treatment acceptance rates are at 85-95%, the treatment acceptance rate for routine dentistry is much lower at 20-50% for most dental practices, with higher rates most seen when there is long term trust built up between a dentist and their patients.

Most of these higher treatment acceptance patients in dental practices tend to be on the practice's dental membership plans, usually because they have ongoing dental problems. Patients on dental plans enjoy the treatment discounts and choice of free appointments that usually come with them, which is why they're popular even among patients initially seeking emergency treatment.

The Rationale Behind Why Patients Accept Treatment So Often

It's worth mentioning with this discussion about treatment acceptance rates, that it's not at all the case that a practice which has an 85% treatment acceptance rate is necessarily worse than one with 95%. There is, in fact, no correlation at all to be found between treatment acceptance rates and the actual quality of dental work done by emergency dentists.

The rationale behind one practice's treatment acceptance rate versus another is complex. Most of the discrepancy comes from differences in dentist-patient communication rather than the accuracy of the diagnosis.
Consider, perhaps, how a lower treatment acceptance rate can result from a dental practice being more conservative about what treatment needs carrying out. Or, perhaps they're more forthcoming with patient education about what to expect from any given treatment. These differences in approaches between dentists are primarily what is responsible for the difference in treatment acceptance rates from one to the next.

However, in the end, the evidence a dentist provides the patient through showing the patient the problem on their x-rays, or via an intra-oral camera, speaks louder than words. For those patients who don't choose treatment immediately, it's almost always not a matter of if they need treatment, but about what treatment pathway to take.

Most Common Price for Emergency Dental Treatment in the UK

The most common emergency dental treatments in the UK are extractions and fillings, which is very fortunate for patients, as these happen to be among the more affordable procedures dentists have to offer.

Tooth Extractions

Emergency tooth extractions cost £90-£200 for simple cases in the UK, though for a complex extraction, the cost rises to £300-£450, while surgical extractions often seen in the £300-£650 price range. The average cost for a simple extraction in the UK has increased from £105 to £139 since 2022 - a 32% jump that reflects the broader dental cost inflation seen nationally over recent years.

Regional variations in pricing are quite extreme for tooth extractions. Patients in Dundee pay as little as £75 for simple extractions, while those in Milton Keynes face costs up to £242 for identical procedures. Northern England consistently offers the most competitive pricing, with cities like Leeds and Manchester averaging £100-£150.

Emergency Fillings

Emergency fillings range from £50-£250 depending on the filling material used, but the important price to note is that natural tooth-colored composite, which is the gold standard in the UK, average £129.

The old fashioned amalgam (metal) fillings remain the cheapest option at £50-£150 across the UK, though most patients prefer white fillings for aesthetic and, thanks to advances in material science creating better and longer lasting composites, filling longevity reasons.

Root Canals and Crowns

Emergency root canals and crowns are at the expensive end of urgent dental care costs. Root canals cost £250-£1,200 depending on tooth complexity, with front teeth being the cheapest and back teeth (molars) being the most expensive. Emergency crowns often follow a root canal, and range £500-£1,500.

Some practices offer same-day CEREC technology available at premium pricing of £1,025+, though uptake for CEREC crowns is not particularly widespread across dental practices in the UK because of the upfront cost to the practice in investing in the equipment itself.

A 10 year study from 2008 found CEREC crowns to survive 94.7% of the time after 5 years, and 85.7% after 10 years, which is excellent, as another study from 2007 found ceramic crowns to last 5 years 93.3% of the time, and metal-ceramic crowns to last 95.6% of the time.

For a same-day emergency fit, CEREC crowns help cut down on some of the additional costs associated with dental crowns, such as a temporary crown fitted to protect the prepared tooth while the actual permanent crown is being made. Temporary crowns are most commonly priced at £45-£95 in the UK.

Specialized Dental Emergency Services vs General Practices

Traditional dental practices in the UK almost always charge fees separately, where patients pay consultation fees (£85-£250), for an X-ray (£20-£50), extra fees for being seen out of hours of £50-£150, and then treatment costs on top. Final bills very often exceed patients' initial estimates by 200-300%, most commonly due to needing multiple procedures to treat an underlying dental issue.

While the prices listed by traditional dental practices can appear low at first glance, the vast majority use "from" pricing in their advertising. For example, one practice might list extractions "from £95," when the actual cost, including all fees, often reaches £200-£300.

However, fortunately for patients, the rise of specialized emergency dental services in the UK in the wake of the widespread unavailability of NHS treatment have disrupted this model with transparent, all-inclusive pricing. Emergency dental services are almost always seen to offer fixed-rate pricing for appointments regardless of timing or complexity of the diagnosis.

UrgentCare Dental is a clear example of this approach, with £20 emergency appointments including free X-rays and free follow-up visits, combined with transparent pricing: simple extractions are £149, complex extractions are £349, and surgical extractions are £549, for instance. The lack of hidden fees and emergency premiums make emergency-focused dental services an option growing rapidly in popularity in the UK.

The key to understanding why lower up-front costs are economically viable for emergency dental practices, is to realize that they are intimately familiar with the 85-95% treatment acceptance rates by emergency dental patients.

As a result, emergency dental services can afford to essentially make a loss (business overheads considered) in a low consultation fee, and don't need the foot-in-the-door "from" prices because they know most patients will proceed with treatment. Traditional practices take the opposite approach, and hedge against consultation-only visits that would result in a loss for the business, with higher upfront fees to cover the dentist's time.

The practice difference between these two options is substantial. A patient needing an emergency extraction might pay £85 consultation + £20 X-rays + £50 out-of-hours fee + £150 extraction = £305 at a traditional dental practice, versus only £169 total at a transparent provider (£20 consultation + £149 extraction). That's an 80% cost difference for the same treatment.

In addition to the price savings, professional emergency dental services are also widely seen to offer better same-day availability than ordinary dental practices, made possible by the fact that they're not trying to squeeze these urgent cases into busy routine checkup schedules for a large patient base.

Final Takeaways from Our Data

Emergency dental treatment in the UK presents patients with two very different cost experiences, depending upon which type of practice they choose. Traditional dental practices, with their separate fee structures and "from" pricing, can see patients paying £200-£400+ for common treatments when all fees are included, while specialized emergency services offer transparent pricing that often costs 30-80% less for identical procedures, when all costs are considered.

The 85-95% treatment acceptance rate among emergency patients is makes transparent pricing particularly achievable by specialized emergency dental services, as most people will proceed with treatment regardless of cost when experiencing dental pain. With rising adoption across the UK of transparent pricing structures among emergency dental services, it creates an opportunity for patients nationwide to be able to estimate their dental costs.

Patient even find themselves now be more accurately able to choose a provider who offers the most competitive prices. It's a much better situation for patients than having to worry about hidden costs, or just how much higher a treatment's price actually is than the practice's listed "from" price.

As for region to region pricing variations, emergency dental treatment in the UK varies by up to 200% for identical procedures. Location significantly impacts emergency dental expenses regardless of whether it's a traditional practice or an emergency dental service that carries out the treatment.

For the cheapest region in the UK, the crown goes to Northern England, which consistently offers the most competitive pricing across all treatment types, with emergency dental services such as UrgentCare Dental offering £20 emergency appointments, and including free X-rays and free follow-up visits.

For patients facing dental emergencies, understanding how emergency dentistry costs work can save them a considerable amount of money for the same treatment, and most of the cost difference comes from the diagnosis itself. The £20-£500 range in consultation fees when x-ray fees and other premiums (such as evening or weekend appointments) are all added together, can often be more than a simple £129 composite filling.

All things considered, it's in those initial appointment fees where patients in the UK often find the most savings on their emergency dental costs when opting for a practice with competitive pricing.