10 Questions to Ask Your Dentist Before You Agree to Treatment

You have a treatment plan in your hand. It might be an NHS form with a band printed on it, or a glossy private quote running to four figures. You probably nodded along in the chair, said “that’s fine”, and only started worrying in the car park.

That’s normal. It’s also fixable. A treatment plan only becomes a decision once you know the alternatives, the odds of it working, and what happens if it doesn’t. You can get all of that by asking ten questions, and they take about five minutes. Most dentists are glad you asked, because a patient who understands the plan is less likely to complain later.

If you aren’t sure how to read the plan itself (tooth numbers, bands, codes), start with our guide to treatment plans explained and come back here.

The worked example we’ll use

Here is a realistic private quote from a practice in England. The tooth is the lower left first molar, written as LL6 (or 36 in the international numbering some practices use).

The patient had toothache, was told “the nerve’s dying, we need to save it”, and was handed this sheet. Keep it in mind as we go through the questions.

1. What happens if I do nothing, or wait?

Ask this first, because the answer sets the urgency for everything else. Some problems get steadily worse (an infected nerve doesn’t heal itself). Others, like a small, stable area of decay or a cosmetic gap, can be watched for months or years.

For our LL6, the honest answer is probably “it will get more painful and could turn into an abscess.” That’s useful. It tells you this isn’t optional, but it doesn’t yet tell you the plan on the sheet is the only way forward.

2. What are all the alternatives, including the cheapest one?

Every treatment has alternatives. Sometimes they’re worse, but you’re entitled to hear them. For a molar with a dying nerve, the realistic options look like this:

• Root canal plus crown (the plan above)
• Root canal plus a large filling instead of a crown, accepting a higher chance of the tooth cracking
• Extraction, around £100 to £200 privately, leaving a gap
• Extraction followed later by an implant, typically £2,000 to £3,000 in the UK
• Extraction and a bridge or partial denture

“Doing nothing” counts as an alternative too. If the dentist only mentions one option, ask directly: “If this were your tooth and money were tight, what would you do?”

3. Can I have this on the NHS? If not, why not?

Here is the number that changes most people’s minds. In England, NHS dental charges are set in bands. From April 2025:

Charges usually rise each April, so check the current figures on nhs.uk. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate systems with different prices.

Under Band 3, our root canal and crown would cost £326.70 in total, against £1,625 privately. That’s a difference of nearly £1,300. The NHS crown on a back tooth might be metal rather than porcelain, and the practice may have a waiting list, but those are trade-offs you get to weigh. Many practices offer both, and they’re allowed to mix NHS and private items on one plan as long as the NHS ones are clearly separated and you agree to the private parts.

If your dentist says something “isn’t available on the NHS”, ask whether that means it’s not clinically necessary (a legitimate reason, for example whitening) or simply that the practice isn’t taking NHS patients for it.

4. What’s the success rate, for this tooth?

Published figures are a starting point. Primary root canal treatment succeeds in roughly 85 to 90% of cases in the research. Implants are around 95% still in place at ten years. Re-doing a failed root canal works less often, closer to 70 to 80%.

The phrase “for this tooth” matters, because averages hide a lot. A curved root, an old filling that’s leaked, a crack line or gum disease around the tooth all drag the odds down. Ask: “Is there anything about my tooth that makes this harder than usual?” A dentist who says “the roots on this one are quite curved, I’d put it nearer 70%” has just given you far more useful information than any website will.

5. How long should it last?

Success and lifespan are different questions. A treatment can “work” and still need replacing in eight years.

Rough guides: white fillings often last 5 to 10 years, crowns 10 to 15, implants potentially decades if you look after them. Work out the cost per year. Our £850 crown over 12 years is about £71 a year. Seen that way, a cheaper option that needs redoing twice can end up costing more.

6. What happens if it fails, and who pays?

This is the question people forget, and it’s the one that hurts most later. Ask exactly what happens if the root canal flares up in six months or the crown comes off in a year.

On the NHS in England there’s a built-in protection: if certain restorations (fillings, root fillings, inlays, crowns, bridges) need replacing within 12 months, the same practice should usually do it free of charge, with some exceptions such as accidental damage. Privately, there’s no equivalent rule. It depends entirely on the practice’s own policy.

For our example, the follow-up question is: “If the root canal fails and the tooth has to come out, do I lose the £750? Does the crown fee get refunded if it was never fitted?”

7. Is there a guarantee, and can I see it in writing?

Plenty of private practices advertise guarantees on crowns or implants, often one to five years. Read the conditions. Many guarantees require you to attend every check-up and hygienist appointment at that practice, which can quietly add £150 or more a year. Some cover the lab cost but not the dentist’s time.

A verbal “oh, we’d sort it out” doesn’t count. Ask for the guarantee terms on paper or by email.

8. What exactly is included in the price?

Private quotes vary in what they leave out. Ask about:

• Temporary crowns and the extra appointment to fit them
• Lab fees (sometimes listed separately)
• Follow-up X-rays to check the root canal has healed
• Anaesthetic and any sedation
• Review appointments

Our example includes one X-ray at £25. A root canal normally needs several, before, during and after. Is that £25 each? It’s a small amount, but it tells you whether the quote is complete.

9. Who will do it, and should I see a specialist?

Root canals on molars are among the trickier jobs in general dentistry. Ask how many the dentist does, and whether they’d refer a difficult case to an endodontist (a root canal specialist on the GDC specialist register). Specialists often charge £800 to £1,200 for a molar, which is more, but if your tooth is complicated it might be money well spent. The reverse matters too: you don’t want to pay specialist prices for a straightforward job.

10. Can I take the plan away, with tooth numbers and codes?

You have a right to a written treatment plan and cost estimate. On the NHS in England this is usually form FP17DC. Privately it’s the practice’s own document. Make sure it lists each tooth, each procedure and each price separately, so you can compare it with a second opinion or check it yourself.

Unless you’re in genuine pain, you don’t have to agree on the day. “I’d like a couple of days to think about it” is a complete sentence.

Using ChatGPT to sanity-check the plan

Once you have the written plan, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot are good at explaining jargon and suggesting what to ask next. They can’t examine your tooth, and they can be confidently wrong about prices, so treat their answers as a way to prepare your questions, not as a diagnosis.

Strip out your name, date of birth and NHS number first. Then try something like this:

I'm in England and have a private dental quote:
- Root canal treatment, LL6: £750
- Porcelain-bonded crown, LL6: £850
- Periapical X-ray: £25
Total £1,625.

Explain in plain English what each item is. Tell me
whether these prices look typical for the UK, what
the NHS alternative would be, and list the questions
I should ask my dentist about alternatives, success
rate, guarantees and what happens if it fails.

A typical response will look something like:

LL6 is your lower left first molar. A root canal
removes the infected nerve and seals the canals; a
crown then covers the tooth because molars treated
this way are prone to cracking.

£750 for a molar root canal and £850 for a crown are
within the usual private range in England, which
varies by region. On the NHS, both would fall under
Band 3 (£326.70 from April 2025).

Questions to ask:
1. What is the success rate for this particular tooth?
2. Would you refer this to an endodontist?
3. Is the crown fee refundable if the root canal fails?
...

Check the numbers it gives you against nhs.uk, because AI tools sometimes quote last year’s charges. The real value is in the list of questions, which you can write on your phone and read out at your next appointment.

If the answers don’t add up

Sometimes the questions are uncomfortable for the dentist, not for you. If they won’t name alternatives, get irritated about the NHS question, or won’t put a guarantee in writing, that tells you something. A second opinion at another practice usually costs a private exam fee of around £50 to £80, which is small next to a £1,625 bill.

When things go wrong after treatment, NHS complaints go to the practice first and then to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. For private treatment, the Dental Complaints Service, run by the General Dental Council, deals with them. You’ll be in a much stronger position if you asked these ten questions and kept the answers in writing.