Gum Disease Treatment Prices

Here's the economic reality of gum disease treatment: early intervention costs £85. Delayed intervention costs £1,040. Very delayed intervention costs £4,000+. Sometimes intervention becomes impossible and you're looking at £1,999 per implant to replace the teeth you lost.

The progression is predictable. Gingivitis responds to a £100 hygienist cleaning. Early periodontitis requires £400-£1,040 deep cleaning. Advanced periodontitis demands £800-£4,000 in surgery. Tooth loss from untreated disease costs £6,000-£13,500 to repair with implants.

What's fascinating is that most people paying £3,000+ for gum disease treatment knew something was wrong two years earlier when addressing it would have cost £150. The delay doesn't save money. It just transforms routine maintenance into crisis management.

The Four Treatment Stages

Regular Scale and Polish: £40-£110 Per Visit

This is your baseline hygienist appointment. Plaque and tartar removed from above the gumline, teeth polished smooth, maybe some fluoride treatment. Takes 30-45 minutes. No numbing needed because they're working on surfaces you can already feel.

If you're catching gum inflammation (gingivitis) at this stage, this treatment actually reverses it. Your gums stop bleeding when you brush. The pockets between teeth and gums shrink back to healthy depth. Problem solved for £100 every six months at UrgentCare Dental.

The catch is that once bacteria colonize below the gumline, regular cleaning can't reach them anymore. That's when you need the next tier.

Deep Cleaning (Scaling and Root Planing): £400-£1,040 Whole Mouth

Also called periodontal deep cleaning. They numb your mouth in sections (usually treating two quadrants per visit), then use specialized instruments to remove tartar and bacteria from below the gumline and smooth the tooth roots so your gums can reattach properly.

UK pricing runs £65-£260 per quadrant. Most mouths divide into four quadrants, so full-mouth treatment costs £260-£1,040 depending on your location and how severe the buildup is. London practices charge toward the higher end. Northern England practices toward the lower end.

UrgentCare Dental offers deep cleaning at £150-£180, which puts you around £600-£720 for complete treatment. That's middle-range pricing for Manchester.

This typically requires two to four appointments spread across several weeks. You can't eat properly for a few hours after each session because the numbing affects half your mouth at once. Some tooth sensitivity afterward is normal as the freshly-cleaned roots adjust to exposure.

The goal is stopping periodontitis (actual gum disease) from destroying the bone that holds your teeth in place. Success rate is high when caught at this stage, especially if you maintain it with hygienist visits every three to four months afterward.

Periodontal Surgery: £800-£4,000+ Per Treatment

When bacteria have created deep pockets between gums and teeth (6mm+ depth), and when bone loss has started, surgical intervention becomes necessary. This includes procedures like flap surgery (lifting back the gums to clean roots thoroughly), bone grafting (rebuilding lost jawbone), and gum grafting (covering exposed tooth roots).

Each procedure type carries different costs:

• Flap surgery: £800-£2,500
• Gum grafting: £500-£1,200 per area
• Bone grafting: £500-£2,500 per area
• Combined procedures: £2,000-£4,000+

The complexity escalates quickly. If you need bone grafts in multiple areas plus gum grafts plus the surgery itself, you're looking at £3,000-£5,000 easily. Some advanced cases exceed £10,000 when multiple teeth are involved.

Recovery takes weeks. Soft food diet. Careful cleaning. Regular monitoring appointments. The periodontal surgeon needs to see you frequently during healing to ensure the grafts take and infection doesn't set in.

Tooth Replacement After Loss: £2,000-£4,500 Per Tooth

If gum disease destroys enough bone support, teeth become unsalvageable. Extraction costs £149-£549 at UrgentCare Dental depending on complexity. Then you face replacement options: implants at £1,999, bridges at £595 per unit, or dentures at £699 per arch.

This is where the economic reality becomes stark. Five years of ignoring early gum disease warning signs can result in losing three teeth and spending £6,000-£13,500 on implants to replace them. That's more than 100 hygienist appointments worth of prevention.

What Actually Determines Cost

Location determines baseline pricing. London periodontists charge £300-£600 for initial consultations. Birmingham charges £150-£276. Manchester sits somewhere between. The actual procedures scale proportionally.

Severity determines treatment complexity. Pockets measuring 4-5mm deep might respond to non-surgical deep cleaning. Pockets at 6-8mm require surgery. Pockets beyond 8mm often mean the tooth can't be saved, and you're looking at extraction and replacement.

Speed of progression matters financially. Aggressive periodontitis requiring immediate intervention costs more than slow-progressing chronic cases where treatment can be staged across months. Some people develop severe disease within two years. Others maintain borderline periodontitis for a decade before it accelerates.

Practitioner experience affects pricing. A specialist periodontist with advanced certifications charges £200-£400 more per procedure than a general dentist performing the same treatment. The specialist's success rates are typically higher, which matters when you're talking about keeping versus losing teeth.

The Economics of Delay

Here's the uncomfortable math. Catching gingivitis early and treating it costs £85-£150 total. Waiting until it becomes periodontitis costs £400-£1,040 for deep cleaning. Waiting until surgery becomes necessary costs £2,000-£4,000+. Waiting until teeth are lost costs £6,000-£13,500 to replace three teeth with implants.

The delay multiplier is roughly 30-90x. What would have cost £100 to address early now costs £3,000-£9,000 to fix later. And that's assuming the treatment succeeds. Sometimes it doesn't, and you end up paying for both the failed treatment and the subsequent tooth replacement.

Annual maintenance costs after treatment:

• Post-deep-cleaning hygienist visits (every 3-4 months): £160-£340 per year
• Post-surgical monitoring (quarterly for two years, then twice yearly): £400-£800 per year initially
• Long-term periodontal maintenance: £160-£340 per year indefinitely

This is why the initial deep cleaning, despite costing £400-£1,040 upfront, actually becomes the cheaper option over time. You're buying your way back to a maintenance schedule instead of a treatment escalation schedule.

What Actually Happens

For scale and polish: You book a hygienist appointment. They examine your gums, check pocket depths, clean above the gumline, polish your teeth. Maybe they mention you should come back in six months instead of twelve if they're seeing early inflammation. Total time 30-45 minutes.

For deep cleaning: First appointment is assessment and X-rays (£50-£200). Then you schedule treatment appointments, usually two sessions to treat two quadrants each time. They numb your mouth, clean below the gumline for 60-90 minutes per session, send you home with care instructions. You return in three months for evaluation to see if pockets have shrunk.

For periodontal surgery: Consultation with specialist periodontist (£150-£400). CBCT scan to assess bone loss (£120-£335). Surgery scheduled under local anesthetic or sedation if needed. Procedure takes 1-3 hours depending on extent. Stitches removed after 7-14 days. Follow-up appointments every few weeks for first three months.

For tooth replacement: Root canal attempted first if there's any hope of saving the tooth (£400-£900 typically, though UrgentCare Dental's pricing varies by complexity). If tooth can't be saved, extraction at £149-£549. Healing period of 3-6 months. Then implant placement if bone quality supports it, or bridge/denture fabrication.

Making Sense of the Costs

The treatment that makes economic sense depends on how far the disease has progressed. If you're at the gingivitis stage, regular hygienist visits resolve it. If you're at early periodontitis, deep cleaning stops progression. If you're at advanced periodontitis, surgery becomes necessary to avoid tooth loss.

What doesn't make economic sense is waiting. The disease doesn't pause while you consider your options. It progresses. And each stage of progression increases treatment costs by roughly 10x while decreasing success probability.

The point isn't to scare anyone. The point is that gum disease treatment follows a predictable economic pattern. Early intervention is cheap and effective. Delayed intervention is expensive and complicated. Very delayed intervention is extremely expensive and sometimes impossible.

Most people paying £3,000+ for gum disease treatment are paying for time they didn't have two years earlier, when addressing the same problem would have cost £150.