Tavistock Dental and Facial

Efficient and courteous service. A great NHS dentist and their booking system is good.

I was in agony with my tooth. So, I called Tavistock Dental to book an ‘emergency appointment’. The receptionist who answered the call was a miserable, unhelpful female with a ‘computer says no’ attitude. She told me the next available ‘emergency appointment’ was 5 days later. I booked the appointment.
In the meantime, I managed to find another dentist who registered me, gave me a consultation AND treated my condition before Tavistock Dental’s appointment date even came!
If you know you’re going to have an emergency tooth problem in a weeks time, book an appointment now. This place SUCKS!

Do NOT go to Tavistock Dental. This is essentially a business that aims to extract as much money as possible for as little time and effort as possible from patients who are absolutely desperate.
I went in with unbearable pain in my front tooth for an emergency session (my regular dentist does not do emergencies, and Tavistock is near my place of work). They took £80 (and then another £20 to issue a prescription) and essentially said, tough luck. here is a prescription for antibiotics. Come next week if you want to have a root canal.
I generally don’t question the expertise of dentists and doctors, but the pain was unbearable, so I coughed up £100 for 3 minutes of NOTHING and left. The next day I asked around (something I should have done earlier) and went to the AMAZING Pickering dental practice in Islington which has drop-​ins, joined them (leaving my emergency-​appointment-​less old dentist behind), paid £17.50 for an NHS appointment and had a lovely dentist clean my tooth put antibacterial and anti-​inflammatory in it and book me in for a root canal in a few days. It took a total of 5 minutes for them but it has left me without pain.
Since then I have spoken to some of my students, all of whom are from overseas and live in the area and have been forced to go to Tavistock. Every single one has received advice from them that has made me raise my eyebrows: in every instance the suggested course of treatment has been the most expensive possible, with suggested prices well over double what dentists in other parts of London charge.
This practice has simply abdicated its duty of care in order to make as much money as possible off the pain of people whose toothache requires immediate and urgent care.
I am also going to be writing to the BDA and to the NHS to lodge a complaint.