Everything we do, explained the way we’d want it explained to us
For each treatment below you’ll find what actually happens at the appointment, how long it all takes, and how to look after yourself afterwards. Prices are on every card – the same figures as our published price list. If anything is unclear, ask; unhurried explanations are rather the point of this practice.
The unhurried check-up
Most check-ups elsewhere last ten minutes. Ours are booked for twenty, and a new-patient examination gets a full forty – because you can’t explain anything properly in a rush, and rushing is precisely what makes dental visits feel like an ordeal.
You’ll see the same dentist every time, so they know your history, your preferences, and how you take your tea. If everything is healthy, we’ll say so and send you home. “Everything’s fine, see you in six months” is a diagnosis we’re always happy to give.
At the appointment
- We talk first – any worries, any changes, anything that’s been niggling. In the chair only when you’re ready.
- A careful look at every tooth, your gums, your bite and the soft tissues of your mouth, including an oral cancer screen.
- Two digital X-rays when they’re due (roughly every two years) – around 80% less radiation than film.
- Photos on the ceiling screen of anything we find, so you see exactly what we see.
- A written plan with exact prices – even if the plan is “do nothing, review in six months”.
Timescales
- Routine check-up: 20 minutes.
- New-patient examination: 40 minutes, including the conversation.
- Hygiene visit: 30 minutes with Elena, our hygienist – book it back-to-back with your check-up to save a trip.
- Most people need a check-up every 6 months and hygiene twice a year; we’ll recommend your interval honestly rather than defaulting everyone to the same schedule.
Aftercare
- Nothing to recover from – eat, drink and carry on as normal.
- After a hygiene visit your teeth may feel slightly sensitive to cold for a day or two; a sensitive toothpaste settles it.
- You leave with your written plan and prices, valid for 90 days. Take it home; nobody will chase you.
- Sensitive teeth? Tell Elena – she’ll apply numbing gel before scaling, not after you flinch.
Whitening without the wild promises
Professional whitening works – but not equally well for everyone, and anyone who promises you “ten shades whiter” without looking in your mouth is selling, not advising. We start by showing you a realistic expected result for your teeth, then let you decide with no pressure either way.
We use dentist-strength gel in custom-made trays, which is both safer and far more effective than anything you can buy online. Whitening is only legal in the UK when carried out by a dental professional – your gums and enamel will thank you for it.
At the appointment
- A quick health check first – whitening over undiagnosed decay or gum disease is a bad idea, so we rule that out.
- We match your current shade in daylight, photograph it, and show you a realistic target shade.
- A 3-minute digital scan of your teeth – no putty moulds – from which your custom trays are made.
- A week later, you collect your trays and gel, and we show you exactly how much to use (less than you think).
- For the in-chair option: one 60–90 minute session here with a stronger gel, then the home kit to finish and maintain.
Timescales
- Home whitening: wear the trays overnight (or 2–4 hours in the evening) for around 3 weeks.
- In-chair boost: most of the change in one visit, then 1–2 weeks of home trays to stabilise the result.
- Results typically last 1–3 years depending on tea, coffee and red wine habits – honest answer: mostly the tea.
- Top-up syringes are £25 whenever you want to refresh; your trays last for years.
Aftercare
- Mild sensitivity during the whitening weeks is normal and stops when you stop; a sensitive toothpaste helps.
- For 48 hours after each session, go easy on strong-coloured food and drink – the “white shirt rule”: if it would stain a white shirt, it can stain a freshly whitened tooth.
- Keep your trays; an annual £25 top-up usually maintains the shade indefinitely.
- Crowns, veneers and fillings don’t whiten – if you have any in your smile line we’ll talk that through before you start, not after.
Straighter teeth, without the metalwork
Clear aligners are thin, transparent trays that move your teeth a fraction of a millimetre at a time. Most people won’t notice you’re wearing them; you take them out to eat, brush and be photographed. Dr Nair runs our aligner clinic, including Saturday appointments for people who can’t slip away midweek.
Our price is genuinely all-in: the free initial scan, every set of aligners, all review appointments, your retainers at the end, and whitening to finish. The figure we quote after your scan is the figure you pay – there is no “oh, and retainers are extra” at month nine.
At the appointment
- Free 30-minute scan: the digital wand maps your teeth, no moulds, no commitment.
- On the same visit you see a digital preview of your finished smile – patients tell us it’s spookily accurate.
- If you go ahead, we agree the exact all-in price and your aligners are made (about 3 weeks).
- A fitting visit: we check the first set, add tiny tooth-coloured grips where needed, and show you the routine.
- Reviews every 6–8 weeks – quick 15-minute check-ins to collect your next sets and confirm progress.
Timescales
- Mild crowding or spacing: around 6 months.
- Most cases: 9–12 months. Complex movement: up to 18 – we’ll tell you honestly at the scan.
- Aligners are worn 20–22 hours a day and changed at home every 1–2 weeks.
- Wedding or big event coming up? Tell us the date – we plan the sequence so the front teeth move first.
Aftercare
- Teeth drift back if you let them – retainers are not optional, which is why ours are included, not upsold.
- You’ll get fixed or removable retainers (we’ll recommend which) and wear removable ones nightly, then a few nights a week for life.
- Your included whitening happens after the straightening, when the trays fit your new smile.
- Lost or broken aligner? Ring us – we’ll usually have you drop back to the previous set while a replacement is made.
A missing tooth, permanently replaced
An implant is a small titanium post that takes the place of a tooth root, with a porcelain crown on top that looks and works like the tooth you lost. It’s the closest dentistry gets to growing a new one. Dr Osei has placed implants for over a decade and places every single one at this practice herself.
Our £2,400 fee covers the implant, the connecting piece and the crown – the complete tooth, start to finish. Many quotes you’ll see elsewhere are for the post alone, with the crown appearing later as a four-figure surprise. Ours won’t.
At the appointment
- Consultation (£95): a 3D CT scan shows your bone in three dimensions; Dr Osei tells you honestly whether an implant is right – and if it isn’t, what is. The fee comes off your bill if you go ahead.
- Placement: about an hour, under local anaesthetic. Most patients say it’s easier than an extraction. Sedation is available if you’d like it.
- The quiet phase: over 3 months the bone bonds to the implant. You’ll have a temporary solution if the gap shows.
- The scan for your crown – digital wand again, no putty.
- Fitting day: the crown is checked, adjusted and secured. You bite, we fine-tune, you go home with a tooth.
Timescales
- Start to finished tooth: usually 3–4 months, most of which is quiet healing time with no appointments.
- The placement itself: around 60 minutes in the chair.
- A day or two of mild soreness after placement – most people are back at work the next day.
- If a failing tooth needs removing first, we sometimes place the implant the same day; the CT scan tells us whether that’s wise in your case.
Aftercare
- We ring you the day after placement to check on you – you don’t have to remember to call us.
- Soft food for a few days, gentle cleaning around the site with the brush we give you, and no smoking (it genuinely halves success rates).
- Once the crown is on: brush and floss it like a natural tooth, and keep up hygiene visits – implants hate plaque even more than teeth do.
- Well looked after, an implant routinely lasts 15+ years. We review yours at every check-up, forever.
Repairs and reshaping that look like nothing happened
A crown protects and rebuilds a heavily filled or broken tooth; a veneer is a thin porcelain layer that reshapes the front of a tooth; composite bonding does smaller repairs – chips, worn edges, little gaps – in a single visit with no drilling at all. All three are colour-matched so precisely that visitors won’t spot which tooth had the work.
Our porcelain work is made at a UK laboratory by technicians we’ve worked with for years – not shipped abroad to save a margin. Where a smaller, gentler option would do the job, we’ll recommend it, even when it’s the cheaper one. Especially when it’s the cheaper one.
At the appointment
- Bonding: one visit. The tooth surface is prepared (no injection needed for most), composite is sculpted and polished, and you leave an hour later with the chip gone.
- Crowns and veneers, visit one: the tooth is shaped under local anaesthetic, digitally scanned, and a well-fitting temporary goes on the same day.
- We choose the shade together in natural light – bring photos of how your teeth used to look if you’d like them matched to that.
- Visit two, about two weeks later: the porcelain is tried in, checked from every angle – you get the mirror and the final say – then bonded permanently.
Timescales
- Composite bonding: about an hour per tooth, finished the same day.
- Crowns and veneers: two visits, roughly two weeks apart while the lab does its careful work.
- Numbness from the anaesthetic wears off in 2–3 hours; plan lunch accordingly.
- Whitening first? Do it before porcelain is made – porcelain doesn’t whiten, so we match it to your finished shade.
Aftercare
- With the temporary on: chew on the other side and steer clear of toffee – if it comes off, ring us and we’ll pop it back the same day.
- Once fitted: brush and floss as normal. Crowns and veneers don’t decay, but the tooth underneath still can at the edges.
- Bonding can pick up stains over years; a hygiene polish revives it, and it can be re-polished or topped up easily.
- Grind your teeth at night? Say so – a £195 nightguard protects porcelain (and your own enamel) many times its cost.
Growing up without the fear
Almost every nervous adult we meet can name the childhood appointment that did it. Our children’s clinic exists to make sure your child never has one of those. Dr Nair leads it, and her rule is simple: the first visits are for building trust, not for doing dentistry.
Bring your child from their very first tooth – riding along to a parent’s check-up first is a lovely, zero-pressure introduction, and it costs nothing. Children of Pearl Plan members get their own check-ups free.
At the appointment
- First visit: a ride in the magic chair (they press the buttons), a count of the teeth with the “tooth mirror”, a sticker. That’s it. Deliberately uneventful.
- Regular check-ups: a proper look at growth, spacing and brushing, explained to your child in their language, and to you in yours.
- Fluoride varnish painted on in seconds – it tastes faintly of banana and cuts decay risk significantly.
- Fissure sealants for newly arrived adult molars: an invisible protective coating, no drilling, no numbing.
- If treatment is ever needed, it’s planned gently over short visits – never sprung on them the same day.
Timescales
- Children’s check-ups: 15 gentle minutes, every 6 months.
- First tooth or first birthday – whichever comes first – is the right time for visit one.
- Fissure sealants: about 10 minutes when the first adult molars arrive, usually around age 6–7.
- After-school slots are held for families; Saturdays too if the week is impossible.
Aftercare
- After fluoride varnish: soft food only and nothing hot for the rest of the day; no brushing until bedtime.
- We’ll show you (not lecture you about) the two-minute brushing routine that actually works for wriggly children.
- Honest sugar advice: it’s about frequency, not quantity – we’d rather adjust snack timing than ban birthday cake.
- A knocked-out or chipped tooth in the playground counts as an emergency – call before 10am and we’ll see them the same day.
In pain now? Here’s exactly what to do
We hold emergency slots every weekday for broken teeth, lost crowns, swelling and the kind of toothache that keeps you up at night. Call 020 7946 0821 before 10am and we will see you the same day – whether you’re a patient of ours or not.
If you have swelling that affects your breathing or swallowing, or an injury with heavy bleeding, go to A&E now – that’s beyond any dental practice. For everything else dental, ring us first and we’ll tell you honestly where you’ll be seen fastest.
At the appointment
- You’re seen, not triaged into next week. The visit is £95 including an X-ray of the problem area.
- First priority: getting you out of pain – local anaesthetic, dressing a broken tooth, draining an abscess, whatever the situation needs.
- Then a plain-English explanation of what’s happened and your options, each with an exact price.
- Anything beyond immediate relief is booked for another day – no big decisions made mid-crisis, and no pressure to fix everything today.
Timescales
- Call before 10am, Monday to Friday: seen the same day, usually before lunch.
- Call later in the day: we’ll still talk you through it and book the first slot tomorrow.
- Saturdays: emergency slots between 9am and 2pm.
- Evenings and Sundays: ring the practice number – the recorded message gives our out-of-hours line for existing patients (£145 call-out).
While you wait – and after
- Knocked-out adult tooth: hold it by the crown (not the root), rinse briefly in milk, and ideally sit it back in the socket or keep it in milk. Minutes matter – call us on the way.
- Toothache: paracetamol and ibuprofen (if you can safely take them) work better together than either alone. Don’t put aspirin on the gum – it burns.
- Lost crown: keep it safe and bring it – it can often be re-cemented in minutes.
- After your visit you’ll have written aftercare and a number to call if anything changes overnight.
Start with a check-up – we’ll map it out together
A £55 check-up ends with a written plan and exact prices for anything worth doing, including the ever-popular option of doing nothing for now. No pressure, no sales patter.
Nervous about any of this? Our nervous-patient pathway wraps around every treatment on this page.