We are a two-surgery practice on Marlow Street, looking after families in Ashcombe Green and the surrounding villages since 1998. Straightforward advice, unhurried appointments and prices written down before we start.
Ground-floor surgery with step-free access · Free parking behind the building · Emergency slots held back every weekday morning
Ring before 10:00 on a weekday and we will do our best to see you the same day for pain, swelling or a broken tooth.
Every treatment plan is written out with costs before any work begins. No surprises when you reach the front desk.
Longer appointments, a stop signal you control and no pressure to decide anything on the day. Just tell us how you feel.
Marlow Street Dental has two surgeries, a hygiene room and a waiting room that used to be the front parlour of a Victorian house. Sarah Fenwick opened the practice in 1998 with one chair and a part-time nurse. It has grown since, but not by very much, and that is deliberate: we would rather run slightly longer appointments and know our patients by name than see twice as many people in a day.
Most of our patients live within a few miles, and a good number were registered here as children and now bring their own families. We look after roughly two thousand people. Because the list is a manageable size, you will usually see the same dentist year after year, and the receptionist who answers the phone will probably recognise your voice.
We take a conservative approach to treatment. If a small mark on a tooth is stable and not causing trouble, we will photograph it, note it and watch it rather than drill it. When something does need doing, we explain what is happening, what the alternatives are, roughly how long it will last and what it costs, and then we let you go away and think about it if you would like to.
If any of that does not match your experience with us, please say so. There is a short note about how to raise a concern at the bottom of this page.
We handle the routine work that most families need. Anything genuinely specialist — complex surgery, orthodontic appliances for adults, implant placement — we refer on to colleagues we know and trust, and we stay involved so you are not left to chase things yourself.
A full look at your teeth, gums, bite and soft tissues, plus a check of any existing fillings and crowns. We take x-rays only when there is a reason to, usually every eighteen months to two years depending on your risk of decay. You leave with a short summary of what we found and when we would like to see you next — which for many people is once a year rather than every six months.
From £48 · 20 minutesOur hygienist removes hardened deposits above and below the gum line, polishes the surfaces and shows you where your brushing is missing. Most people book a scale and polish once or twice a year. If you have bleeding gums or deeper pockets we will suggest a course of two or three longer sessions, then review how things have settled after three months.
£62 per session · 30 minutesTooth-coloured composite fillings for new cavities and for replacing older metal fillings that have started to leak or crack. We match the shade to the tooth next door and finish the surface so floss passes cleanly. Small fillings usually take twenty minutes; a large one that rebuilds a corner of a molar takes closer to an hour.
£95–£215 depending on sizeChildren are welcome from their first tooth. Early visits are short and mostly about getting used to the room: a ride in the chair, counting teeth, a sticker on the way out. As they get older we apply fluoride varnish twice a year and seal the grooves of the adult back teeth when they come through. Examinations are free for under-18s registered with us.
Free examinations under 18Home whitening using custom trays made from impressions of your own teeth, with gel worn overnight or for a couple of hours in the evening. Most people see a noticeable change over two to three weeks. It works on natural enamel only, so any crowns or white fillings at the front stay the shade they already are — worth thinking about before you start.
£295 including trays and gelNot sure which of these applies to you? Book a consultation and we will look, explain what we can see and give you a written estimate. There is no obligation to go ahead with anything.
These are our standard private fees, correct from January 2026 and reviewed once a year. The figure you are quoted in the surgery is the figure you pay — laboratory work, materials and follow-up checks for that item are already included.
| Item | Typical appointment | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| New patient examination, including two small x-rays | 40 minutes | £78 |
| Routine examination for a registered patient | 20 minutes | £48 |
| Examination for a registered patient under 18 | 15 minutes | No charge |
| Emergency appointment, assessment and immediate relief | 20 minutes | £70 |
| Small x-ray (each) | — | £14 |
| Panoramic x-ray of both jaws | 10 minutes | £72 |
| Scale and polish with the hygienist | 30 minutes | £62 |
| Extended hygiene appointment for gum treatment | 45 minutes | £88 |
| Fluoride varnish application | 10 minutes | £22 |
| Fissure sealants, per tooth | 10 minutes | £32 |
| Item | Typical appointment | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Small white filling, one surface | 20 minutes | £95 |
| Medium white filling, two surfaces | 35 minutes | £145 |
| Large white filling rebuilding a cusp | 60 minutes | £215 |
| Porcelain-bonded crown | Two visits | £620 |
| All-ceramic crown for a front tooth | Two visits | £760 |
| Porcelain inlay or onlay | Two visits | £585 |
| Bridge, per unit | Two to three visits | £660 |
| Post and core beneath a crown | 45 minutes | £190 |
| Recementing a crown or bridge that has come loose | 20 minutes | £85 |
| Root canal treatment, front tooth | 60 minutes | £340 |
| Root canal treatment, premolar | 75 minutes | £470 |
| Root canal treatment, molar | Two visits | £690 |
| Simple extraction | 30 minutes | £180 |
| Surgical extraction requiring a small incision | 50 minutes | £320 |
| Item | Typical appointment | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Full upper or lower acrylic denture | Four to five visits | £895 |
| Full upper and lower acrylic dentures | Five visits | £1,590 |
| Partial acrylic denture, up to three teeth | Three to four visits | £540 |
| Cobalt-chrome partial denture | Five visits | £1,180 |
| Adding a tooth to an existing denture | Two visits | £145 |
| Denture repair, no impression needed | Same day | £85 |
| Reline of an existing denture | Two visits | £270 |
| Home whitening, both arches, trays and gel | Two visits | £295 |
| Replacement whitening gel, per syringe | — | £28 |
| Custom sports mouthguard, single colour | Two visits | £110 |
| Hard night guard for grinding | Two visits | £285 |
| Composite bonding to repair a chipped edge | 45 minutes | £235 |
Fees are shown in pounds sterling and include laboratory costs where relevant. A treatment plan lasting more than one appointment can be paid in stages as the work is carried out. We accept card payments and bank transfer; the practice does not hold cash on the premises overnight. If a quoted fee changes because we find something unexpected once we start, we will stop, explain and get your agreement before continuing.
£22.00 a month. Two examinations and four hygiene appointments a year, all x-rays, fifteen per cent off restorative treatment and one emergency appointment a year at no extra cost. Designed for patients who have had gum treatment or who build up deposits quickly.
If your gums settle and your dentist thinks you no longer need four hygiene visits a year, we will move you down to the Essential plan rather than quietly leaving you on the higher rate.
Can be shared across a household at a reduced rate for the third and subsequent members.
There are eight of us altogether, including the two people who answer the telephone. Everyone who works clinically is registered with the relevant professional body and keeps up the annual training that goes with it.
Dental hygienist
Grace runs the hygiene room three days a week and is the person most likely to change how you brush. She is direct without ever being unkind, and she is very good at working out why a particular corner of your mouth keeps bleeding when the rest is fine. Ask her about interdental brush sizes; she has strong views and she is usually right.
Qualified 2015 · Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
Lead dental nurse
Priya has nursed here for eleven years and knows where absolutely everything is kept. She is the one who will hand you a tissue, adjust the chair and quietly tell the dentist to slow down if she can see you are struggling. She also manages our instrument sterilisation records and the cold-chain log for materials that need refrigerating.
Qualified 2012 · Radiography certificate
Practice manager
Colin looks after the diary, the plan payments and anything that goes wrong with the building, which in a house of this age is a full-time occupation in itself. If you have a question about a bill, a plan, an appointment that needs moving or a complaint you would rather not raise with your dentist directly, Colin is the person to ask for.
With the practice since 2014
Marie Callaghan and Dilan Osman share the front desk between them and cover the phones from 8:30 in the morning. They handle the appointment book, the reminder texts, the referral letters and the endless business of finding a slot that fits around school pick-up. Between them they have been here nineteen years.
If the phone rings out, it usually means both of them are helping someone at the desk. Leave a message with your name and number and you will get a call back the same working day.
Every clinician here completes continuing professional development each year and holds current training in medical emergencies and resuscitation. Our nurses maintain the decontamination records for every instrument set, and equipment is serviced on a published schedule.
We audit our own record-keeping twice a year and our x-ray justification once a year. It is not thrilling work, but it is how a small practice keeps its standards honest.
A good number of our patients dislike coming. Some have had a difficult experience years ago; some cannot say exactly what it is, only that the smell of the room brings it back. Whatever the reason, it is extremely common, nobody here finds it odd, and you will not be lectured about the gap since your last visit.
The most useful thing you can do is tell us before you arrive. When you ring, say that you are anxious. Reception will book you a longer appointment, usually first thing in the morning when the practice is quiet, and will make a note so that the dentist and nurse know before you walk in.
A first visit for an anxious patient does not have to involve any treatment at all. If you would rather just sit in the chair, look at the room and talk about what you are worried about, that is a perfectly reasonable appointment and we will book it as one. Plenty of people come twice before anything is examined properly, and there is no charge for coming in simply to have a conversation.
We do not offer sedation on the premises. If, after we have talked it through, you feel that you would only manage treatment with sedation, we will refer you to a nearby practice that provides it and send your notes and x-rays across so you do not have to start again.
People often apologise for not having been for five, ten or fifteen years. There is genuinely no need. We are not interested in why you stopped; we are interested in what would help you start again.
A long gap does not necessarily mean bad news. Sometimes we find a lot less than the patient feared. When there is a lot to do, we write it down, put it in order of urgency, and work through it at whatever pace suits you and your budget. Nobody is going to hand you a list of twelve items and expect it all done by Christmas.
If it would help to have the whole thing explained on the telephone before you commit to an appointment, ask reception and one of the dentists will ring you back at the end of a session.
The front door is level with the pavement and the downstairs surgery, waiting room and accessible toilet are all on the ground floor. There is a portable induction loop at reception — ask and we will switch it on.
The second surgery is upstairs and reached by a staircase with a handrail on both sides. If stairs are difficult, tell reception when booking and we will make sure your appointment is downstairs.
Assistance dogs are welcome anywhere in the building. If you would find it easier to arrive at a quieter time, the last half hour before lunch is usually the calmest part of the day.
We hold appointments back every weekday morning for patients in pain. Ring as early as you can — the lines open at 8:30 and the emergency slots are usually taken by mid-morning. Registered patients get first call on them, but if we have space we will see anyone.
When you ring, reception will ask a few short questions: where the pain is, how long it has been going on, whether there is any swelling, and whether it wakes you at night. That is not gatekeeping; it is how we decide who needs to be seen within the hour and who can safely wait until tomorrow.
Outside our opening hours, telephone the practice number and the recorded message gives the current out-of-hours arrangements. If there is significant facial swelling, difficulty swallowing or breathing, or a knocked-out permanent tooth, do not wait for us — seek urgent medical help straight away.
This page cannot tell you what is wrong with your tooth. If you are in pain, the answer is always the same: ring the practice and let us look.
We are taking new private patients across all three dentists at the moment, with a wait of about two to three weeks for a routine first appointment. Here is exactly what happens, so that none of it comes as a surprise.
Reception takes your name, date of birth, address and a contact number, and asks whether you have any immediate problems. We will offer you the next suitable slot with whichever dentist has availability, or hold out for a particular one if you have a preference.
We post or email a medical history form. It asks about medicines you take, conditions you are treated for and any allergies. Please fill it in honestly, including anything you take that was not prescribed — it genuinely changes what we can safely use.
Come five minutes early. Reception will check your details, take a note of who your doctor is, and show you where the toilet and the water cooler are. If you are running late, ring — we can often still fit you in with a shortened appointment.
Forty minutes. The dentist goes through your medical history, asks what you want from your teeth, then examines every tooth, your gums, your bite and the soft tissues of your mouth, cheeks and tongue. Usually two small x-rays of the back teeth are taken.
You sit up and we explain what we found, using photographs on the screen if that helps. If there is nothing to do, we say so. If there is, we set out the options including doing nothing, and we are clear about what each one involves.
Before you leave, you get a printed plan with each item and its cost. Nothing is booked in until you have said yes. Take it home, sit on it, ring us next week — that is all completely normal and it will not annoy anybody.
You do not need to bring x-rays from a previous practice. With your permission we can request them directly, which is usually quicker and saves you a repeat.
Two minutes, twice a day, and something between the teeth once a day. That is most of it.
We hand out a short feedback card after treatment and put a box for them by the door. These are a few of the comments patients have agreed we can publish, with names shortened.
“My daughter is six and had a lot of anxiety after a bad experience elsewhere. Aisha spent the first two appointments just letting her look at things and press the button that makes the chair go up. She had a filling last month without any fuss at all. I did not think we would get there.”
“Chipped a front tooth on a Saturday, rang first thing Monday and was seen before nine. Repaired with a white filling in half an hour and you genuinely cannot tell. Cost exactly what they said on the phone, which is more than I can say for most places.”
“Very happy with the treatment and with Grace in particular, who finally got me to use the little brushes properly. The only grumble is that the waiting room gets warm in summer and the appointments do sometimes run twenty minutes behind. Reception always warn you though.”
“What I appreciate is being told when something does not need doing. I had a mark on a back tooth that a previous dentist wanted to drill straight away. Here it has been photographed and watched for three years and it has not changed. Sensible, honest people.”
If your question is not here, ring the practice and ask. Reception will answer it if they can, or pass it to a dentist to answer at the end of a session.
The quickest way to book is to telephone, because reception can see the whole diary and offer alternatives on the spot. If it is easier, send the form below and we will ring you back within one working day.
The practice closes for lunch between 13:00 and 14:00, and the telephone is not covered during that hour. Thursday evening appointments up to 19:00 are held for people who cannot get away during the working day; they book up several weeks ahead. We close on public holidays and for three days between Christmas and the New Year, with the dates posted at reception each November.
Sketch only, not to scale. The practice is the double-fronted house between the bakery and the veterinary surgery.
Fill this in and we will ring you back within one working day to agree a time. Please do not use this form for anything urgent — if you are in pain, telephone the practice instead.
Written out in full rather than hidden behind a link, because most of it is short and it is the sort of thing people quite reasonably want to read before they hand over their details.
We keep a clinical record for every patient. It contains your contact details, your medical history, notes made at each appointment, x-ray images, photographs where we have taken them, and a record of what was paid for and when. We keep this because we cannot treat you safely without it, and because we are required to.
Your record is held in our practice management system and, for older paper notes, in locked cabinets in the office. Access is limited to the clinical team and the two members of reception staff. We do not sell information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not send marketing messages.
Adult records are kept for eleven years after your last appointment. Records for patients treated as children are kept until their twenty-fifth birthday, or eleven years after the last appointment, whichever is later. After that, paper notes are destroyed and digital records are deleted.
You may ask to see a copy of your record, and we will provide it within one month at no charge. You may ask us to correct anything factually wrong. You may ask us to stop sending reminders. You may withdraw consent for a specific treatment at any point, including part-way through a course.
There are limits: we cannot delete a clinical record while we are still required to retain it, and we cannot remove a note simply because you disagree with the clinical opinion in it, though we will add your comment alongside it. Write to the practice manager to make any of these requests.
This page does not set cookies, does not track visitors and does not load anything from anywhere else. Nothing you type into the form on this page is stored by the page itself. If you would rather not use a web form at all, telephone the practice and reception will take the same details down on paper.
Appointments are held for you personally. We ask for at least one full working day’s notice if you need to cancel, so that the time can be offered to somebody waiting. Where appointments are repeatedly missed without notice we may ask for a deposit against future bookings; we will always discuss this with you first.
Payment is due on the day of treatment unless a staged arrangement has been agreed in advance. We accept debit and credit cards and bank transfer. Written estimates are valid for three months. If treatment turns out to be more involved than the estimate allowed for, we will stop and discuss it with you before continuing.
These arrangements do not apply where a restoration has been damaged by accident, by grinding for which a guard was recommended and declined, or where recommended follow-up appointments have not been attended. They are in addition to your ordinary legal rights, not instead of them.
Tell us. Most concerns are resolved on the spot by mentioning them to the dentist or nurse at the time. If you would rather not do that, ask for Colin Reed, our practice manager, or write to him at the practice address.
We acknowledge written complaints within three working days and aim to give a full response within ten working days. If the matter needs longer to look into properly, we will tell you why and keep you updated. You will be told the outcome in writing and what, if anything, we have changed as a result.
We have tried to keep this page readable: reasonable text size, plain colours with adequate contrast, headings in order, and no moving elements. If you use a screen reader or magnifier and something here does not work properly, telephone us and we will read out whatever you need.
Everything on this page is general information about our practice. It is not advice about your own teeth, and no page can substitute for someone looking in your mouth. Fees are correct at the date shown and may change. Nothing here forms a contract until treatment has been agreed in writing at the practice.