Root Canal Treatment Cost UK: Why It's £600-1,400 to Save a Dead Tooth

The dentist just said two words that made your stomach drop: root canal.

Maybe you've heard the horror stories. Maybe you're googling this while holding your face, waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. Either way, you want to know what this medieval-sounding procedure is about to do to your bank account.

Root canal treatment in the UK costs £600-1,400. The exact number depends entirely on which tooth decided to die and where you live. Front teeth run £600-800. Back molars hit £1,200-1,400. Everything else sits somewhere between.

Those prices assume a general dentist doing the work. Want a specialist endodontist? Add 40%.

Why Some Teeth Cost Double to Fix

Your mouth is essentially a hierarchy of engineering complexity, and root canals are priced accordingly.

Front teeth (incisors and canines) have one root canal. One canal means one path to clean, one space to fill. Takes about an hour. £600-800. These are the bargain root canals, relatively speaking.

Premolars have one or two canals. The dentist won't know until they're inside. It's like renovation work – you find out what you're dealing with once you open up the walls. £700-900, depending on what they discover.

Molars are where things get expensive. Upper molars usually have three canals. Lower molars have two or three. But here's the fun part: some have four. Some have five. There are case studies of molars with seven canals. Each canal needs cleaning, shaping, and filling. Each one adds time and cost.

A molar root canal takes 90 minutes to three hours. Sometimes multiple visits. The anatomy looks like a river delta viewed from above – channels branching and merging in ways that would make M.C. Escher proud. That's why they cost £1,000-1,400.

The Specialist Tax

Endodontists are dentists who spent extra years learning to do nothing but root canals. They have microscopes worth more than cars. They can find canals that general dentists miss.

Their prices reflect this. An endodontist charges £900-1,200 for a front tooth, £1,400-1,800 for a molar. London endodontists push £2,000-2,500 for complex molars.

Is it worth it? The success rate for a general dentist doing molars is about 85%. For endodontists, it's 95%. On a front tooth, both hit about 95%. You're paying for better odds on difficult teeth.

What Actually Happens to Your Money

The £600-1,400 breaks down into distinct chunks:

Diagnosis and X-rays: £50-150
They need to see what they're dealing with. Sometimes one X-ray is enough. Complex cases need CBCT scans at £150-250.

Access and cleaning: £200-400
Drilling into the tooth, finding all the canals, removing the dead nerve tissue. This is where most of the time goes.

Shaping and disinfection: £150-300
Files that cost £20 each (single-use) shape the canals. Irrigation solutions flush out bacteria. Ultrasonic activation helps the chemicals penetrate microscopic branches.

Filling and sealing: £200-400
Gutta-percha (rubber from Malaysian trees) fills the cleaned canals. Sealer cement prevents bacteria getting back in. This material science is why modern root canals last decades.

Temporary filling: £50-100
You leave with a temporary seal. The permanent restoration comes later.

The Crown Question Nobody Discusses Upfront

Your root canal isn't finished when the root canal is finished.

A root-canaled tooth is hollow, brittle, and prone to fracture. Back teeth almost always need crowns afterward. That's another £600-1,200 on top. Some dentists mention this. Many don't until after.

Front teeth sometimes get away with just a filling, especially if there's enough tooth structure left. But most root-canaled teeth eventually need crowns. It's not an upsell – it's structural necessity.

So your £1,000 molar root canal is really a £2,000 molar root canal plus crown. Budget accordingly.

Geographic Variations That Actually Matter

London charges 30-50% more than the rest of the UK, but the pattern isn't uniform.

Location	Incisor	Premolar	Molar
Central London	£900-1,200	£1,100-1,400	£1,400-1,800
Greater London	£750-950	£900-1,100	£1,200-1,500
Manchester	£650-800	£750-950	£1,000-1,300
Birmingham	£600-750	£700-900	£950-1,200
Edinburgh	£600-750	£700-900	£950-1,200
Cardiff	£550-700	£650-850	£900-1,100
Belfast	£500-650	£600-800	£850-1,050
Small towns	£500-650	£600-750	£800-1,000

The pattern is consistent: urban equals expensive, but specialist availability also drives prices. Cities with dental schools have more endodontists, creating competition that slightly moderates prices.

Emergency vs Planned Root Canals

That tooth screaming at 3am costs more to fix than the one that's merely "uncomfortable."

Emergency root canal start: £200-400
They open the tooth, drain infection, place medication, temporarily seal it. This stops the pain but isn't the actual root canal.

Planned root canal: Full price but often split across 2-3 visits
First visit does cleaning. Second does filling. Sometimes a third for difficult cases. Same total cost, but spread out.

Weekend emergency root canal: Add 50%
If you can even find someone willing to do it. Most weekend dentists just prescribe antibiotics and painkillers until Monday.

Retreatment: When Root Canals Fail

About 10-15% of root canals fail within 10 years. The tooth gets reinfected. Options are retreatment or extraction.

Retreatment costs 30-50% more than the original root canal. They have to remove the old filling material, find what went wrong, and do everything again. It's harder than the first time. Success rates drop to 70-80%.

Many people facing £1,500 for retreatment of a molar choose extraction and implant instead. The long-term math often supports this.

Private Insurance Reality

Dental insurance in the UK typically covers 50-75% of root canal costs, but with annual limits of £1,000-2,000. A single molar root canal plus crown can max out your yearly benefit.

They also exclude teeth with "pre-existing conditions." That tooth that's been sensitive for two years? Not covered. Only sudden, unexpected root canals qualify, and insurance companies are creative about defining "sudden."

Payment Plans and Finance

Most practices offer payment splitting across the treatment visits. First appointment: £400. Second: £400. Final: £400. Natural payment plan, no interest.

Third-party finance gives 0% for 12 months on amounts over £500. After that, 9.9% APR. Some practices offer longer 0% periods but require higher minimums.

Corporate chains (MyDentist, Bupa) often have membership plans. £20-30 monthly covers check-ups and gives 10-20% off treatment. The math works if you need multiple procedures.

International Alternatives

Hungary does root canals for £150-300. Turkey for £100-200. Poland for £150-250.

But root canals often need adjustment. Files break and get left in teeth. Canals get missed. Infections persist. When foreign root canals fail, UK dentists charge full price to retreat them, if they're willing to touch them at all.

The savings exist, but the risk calculation is complex. A failed foreign root canal leading to extraction and implant costs more than getting it done right locally.

Antibiotic Reality Check

That Z-pack your dentist prescribed isn't fixing anything. It's buying time.

Antibiotics can't cure tooth infections because they can't reach the dead tissue inside the tooth. The blood supply is gone. The antibiotics reduce inflammation in surrounding tissue, temporarily reducing pain.

You have a window – usually 5-10 days – where the antibiotics make you functional. Use it to arrange treatment. When they wear off, the infection returns, often worse.

When to Pull Instead of Root Canal

Sometimes extraction makes more sense:

• Tooth is cracked below the gum line
• Less than 30% of tooth structure remains
• Third or fourth root canal on same tooth
• Cost of root canal plus crown exceeds implant cost
• You're under 30 (implants last longer than root canals at young ages)

Dentists make more money from root canals plus crowns than extractions. Consider their incentives when they push to save hopeless teeth.

Success Rates and Longevity

First-time root canal success rates:

• Front teeth: 95%
• Premolars: 90%
• Molars: 85%

10-year survival rates:

• Front teeth: 90%
• Premolars: 85%
• Molars: 75%

These assume proper restoration with crowns where needed. Uncovered root-canaled molars have 50% fracture rates within 5 years.

The Bottom Line Calculation

Root canal plus crown: £1,600-2,600 for a molar
Extraction plus implant: £2,200-3,000
Extraction plus nothing: £150-250 now, adjacent teeth problems later

The root canal is often the middle ground – more than extraction, less than replacement. It buys you 10-15 years on average. For many people, that's enough. For others, it's delaying the inevitable.

What most people actually do: get the root canal if it's a visible tooth or they're over 50. Extract and consider implants if it's a back tooth and they're under 40. The mouth is a 60-year project. Sometimes saving a dying tooth makes sense. Sometimes it's throwing good money after bad.

The only certainty? That tooth screaming at you right now won't fix itself. The decision isn't really whether to spend the money. It's whether to spend it on repair or replacement.