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Questions

Asked at the desk, answered in writing.

Everything new patients actually ask — about money, nerves, emergencies and whether the ledger in the waiting room is real. It is.

The full list

Tap a question to open it, or search. If yours is missing, ring 01780 482 316 and Margaret will answer it without booking you anything.

Yes. You do not need a referral, you do not need to have been registered elsewhere, and you do not need your old records to hand — with your permission we request them for you. A new-patient examination is £75, takes about forty minutes, and includes the X-rays. Most new patients are seen within a fortnight; nervous patients can ask reception for a longer, quieter slot.

No — Barn Hill has been fully private since 1994, which is what lets us book half-hour appointments and keep the same clinicians year after year. What we promise in exchange is complete openness on cost: every fee published, every plan in writing, no surprises at the desk.

The full list is on the fees page and in the printed guide at reception. As a yardstick: an examination is £48 (£75 for your first), hygiene visits are £70 or £95 by length, white fillings run £120 to £240 by size, and a crown starts at £650. After your examination the plan you take home lists each item with its exact price.

Yes — the practice plan is £16.50 a month and covers two examinations and two hygiene visits a year, with ten per cent off any treatment. It usually saves regular attenders money, but nobody is nudged onto it: pay-as-you-go patients get the same appointments, the same time, and the same prices otherwise.

Quite a lot, learned over many years. Longer first appointments with nothing booked to happen in them; a hand signal that stops everything, agreed before we start; the same clinician every visit; and honest narration only if you want it — some patients prefer silence and a radio. Dr Sharma leads our nervous-patient list and will happily see you just to talk.

Ring 01780 482 316 at 8:30 and say the word emergency — we hold same-day slots for patients in pain, and being an existing patient is not a condition. The £95 emergency fee includes the X-ray and enough treatment to make you comfortable. Out of hours, the answerphone gives the NHS 111 route and our advice line message.

Yes — home whitening is £350, edge bonding starts at £295 a tooth and porcelain veneers at £595 a tooth. Cosmetic work starts with photographs and a written plan, and we will tell you plainly when we think a smaller treatment gets you the smile you want; the most profitable option and the right option are not always the same one.

Yes, Dr Sharma places and restores implants in the practice — from £2,450 including the final crown, with the itemised stages priced in the written plan. Complex cases are told so honestly at the assessment, and where a specialist referral would serve you better, we say so and arrange it.

We see the children of registered patients from their first teeth, and their check-up is free alongside a parent’s examination until they turn twelve. The first visit is a ride in the chair and a counting game — the drill is not part of anyone’s introduction to this practice.

The building is Georgian but the ground floor is not: there is level access from the rear courtyard, a ground-floor surgery, and a hearing loop at the desk. Tell reception what would make the visit easier and it will be arranged before you arrive — including parking directly in the courtyard.

Your first visit, minute by minute

You arrive to a waiting room with a fireplace rather than a television, and Margaret takes your details on paper or tablet, whichever you reach for first. The examination itself is thirty to forty minutes with Dr Wray: teeth, gums, soft tissues, digital X-rays if needed (they are included in the £75), photographs if anything cosmetic is on your mind, and an unhurried conversation about what you actually want from your mouth — comfort, appearance, a particular wedding in June. You leave with a written plan that prices anything worth doing, and quite often with the happiest sentence in dentistry: nothing needs doing, see you in six months.

Records, referrals and second opinions

With your signed permission we request your records from any previous practice, and they usually arrive within a fortnight; nothing about your history shocks us, including a twenty-year gap. If your treatment would be better served by a specialist — complex orthodontics, some oral surgery — we refer to named consultants in Peterborough and Leicester we have worked with for years, with a letter that leaves within two working days and a copy addressed to you in plain English. Second opinions are welcomed rather than resented, in both directions: bring us another practice’s plan and we will give you an honest reading of it, fee guide open on the desk.

Coming from a dental plan elsewhere

Patients arrive from corporate plans and other practices’ schemes every month, and the mechanics are simpler than the leaflets imply. Nothing you have paid elsewhere transfers, but nothing needs to: there is no joining fee here, the new-patient examination is the same £75 for everyone, and you can join our own £16.50 plan afterwards or simply pay per visit. If you hold dental insurance that reimburses you, we provide itemised receipts in whatever format your insurer prefers — patients claim back from us with every major insurer, and Margaret has seen every form there is. What we do not do is bill insurers directly, which keeps our prices lower than practices that carry that administration.

When you just want advice

A surprising amount of dentistry is reassurance, and we price that honestly: nothing. Ring with a question — a child’s wobbly tooth, a twinge that comes and goes, whether a chipped edge can wait until after the holiday — and reception or a clinician will give you a straight answer over the phone without booking you anything. If it does need looking at, you will be told how urgently and what the look will cost before you decide. The practice has run on this arrangement since 1928, on the theory that people remember who told them the truth when it earned nobody a fee.
“I rang to ask whether my daughter’s wisdom tooth was an emergency. Reception talked me through it for ten minutes, told me it could safely wait until Monday, and didn’t charge a penny for the advice. That’s when we moved practices.”
Sam H., Empingham — a Barn Hill family since 2021
Still wondering?

Ask a person, not a search bar.

The phone is answered by someone who can actually see the appointment book, knows every fee in the guide, and will tell you honestly when the answer is “that can wait”.
01780 482 316
Book an appointmentreception@barnhilldental.co.uk
Phones open Mon–Thu 8:30–17:30 · Fri 8:30–14:00