Every dental price list in the country is full of the word “from”. It is not a trick, but it does hide something, and it is worth knowing what.
Why the word is there at all
Dentistry is priced by what the work takes, and the same procedure name covers very different amounts of work. A filling in a small cavity on a front tooth and a filling rebuilding most of a back molar are both “a filling”. One takes twenty minutes. One takes an hour and uses three times the material.
A single fixed price would mean overcharging the first person to cover the second. “From” is the honest version, as long as somebody tells you where you land on the range before the work starts.
The question that settles it
“What will mine cost?”
You should be able to ask that after an examination and get a specific number, in writing, before you agree to anything. Not a range. Not a verbal estimate. If a practice cannot give you that, the issue is not the pricing model.
Four things that are commonly not in the headline price
X-rays, if they are needed to plan the work. A separate hygiene appointment, if the gums need treating before anything else sensibly happens. The follow-up, on treatments that need a second visit. And sedation, which is charged by the time it takes and the monitoring it requires.
None of these should be a surprise on the day. All of them should appear on a written plan.
Membership versus paying as you go
A plan is a monthly payment that includes your routine care and gives you reduced prices on treatment. It is worth it if you use it, and it is a standing order you ignore if you do not.
The test is honest and unglamorous: do you actually attend check-ups? If you do, a plan usually costs less over a year and removes the per-visit decision that makes people skip appointments. If you genuinely only go when something hurts, pay as you go and keep the flexibility.
What to expect from us
A written plan before treatment, with your numbers rather than the range. A clear statement of what is not included. And if the plan changes partway through, because something is found that nobody could see at the start, we tell you before the cost changes, not afterwards.
Our full price list is on the fees page, including the membership prices alongside the pay-as-you-go ones, so you can compare them without asking.