Root canal treatment
Specialist
Endodontics
Dr Tomasz Bielski holds specialist registration in endodontics and treats root canals under a surgical microscope at up to 25× magnification. He takes referrals from practices across North and West Yorkshire, including teeth another dentist has said cannot be saved.
What it costs
Priced by tooth, because a lower incisor has one canal and an upper molar usually has four. A crown afterwards is almost always necessary and is quoted separately.
Front tooth
Incisors and canines, single canal. Usually one appointment of about 75 minutes.
£520
Premolar
One or two canals. One appointment of about 90 minutes.
£640
Molar
Three or four canals, occasionally more. Ninety minutes to two hours, sometimes split across two visits where there is active infection.
£790
Retreatment
Reopening a root canal that has failed — removing the old filling material, finding the canal that was missed, and starting again. Longer and more technical than the original treatment.
£860–£1,050
Apicectomy
Minor surgery to remove the infected tip of a root where retreatment through the crown is not possible. Under local anaesthetic, about an hour.
£980
The microscope is the whole point
Root canals fail for one reason more than any other: a canal was missed. Upper first molars have a fourth canal roughly six times in ten, and it is narrow, off to one side, and effectively invisible to the naked eye under a dental light.
Under a surgical microscope at 25× it is simply there, and so are the calcified canals, the hairline fractures and the perforations that otherwise get diagnosed as “this tooth needs to come out”.
That is most of the difference between a general dentist doing a root canal and a specialist doing one. It is also why a meaningful share of Dr Bielski’s list is retreatment — teeth that had a root canal somewhere else, stayed sore, and were about to be extracted.
Referring dentists: send a referral to referrals@ashcroftclinic.co.uk with a periapical radiograph. We report back within five working days of the appointment and return the patient to you for the crown.
Common questions
The reputation comes from the toothache that sends people in, not the treatment that fixes it. Under proper anaesthetic the appointment itself is uneventful — long, but uneventful. Most patients report the pain they arrived with is gone by the following morning.
Sometimes yes, and we will say so. A tooth with a vertical root fracture or almost nothing left above the gum is not worth £790 of treatment plus £850 for a crown when an implant will outlast it. The assessment exists to answer exactly that question.
On a back tooth, almost always, and soon — a root-treated molar left uncrowned is markedly more likely to split. Front teeth can often keep a well-bonded filling instead. We can do the crown here in one visit or send you back to your own dentist for it.
In pain today?
Ring before 10am and we will almost always see you the same day. Emergency appointments are £110 and you do not need to be a registered patient.