Specialist Dentistry

Our service is here for children and young people who need a lot of dental treatment and who might be uncooperative, nervous or need to be sedated for a procedure.

An overview

We don’t normally treat children who can be treated by a general dentist. If we feel your child should be treated by a general dentist, we’ll help you find one. Also, we don’t take children’s teeth out under general anaesthetic for orthodontic treatment. Instead, we will refer you to a dentist or orthodontist.

Visit our Blogs area for some blogs on keeping your child's teeth healthy.

How we can help

Your child will usually be offered the first available appointment at your nearest clinic. If you request a particular dentist, there might be a longer wait for an appointment.

We carry out a full assessment of your child’s needs at one of our clinics to work out how we can provide the right care for them.

Sometimes, children who need to have a lot of teeth out, or have a severe dental infection, need to have their treatment under general anaesthetic in hospital. If this is the case with your child, we’ll work with you to make sure this is as stress-free as possible.

How to access support

Referral criteria

To access our service, children and young people need to meet one or more of the following criteria:

Requiring dental treatment but are uncooperative
Likely to require extractions under general anaesthetic
Having a learning, physical or severe medical disability
Having severe mental health problems
Having a severe dental phobia
Unable to leave their home and require treatment there

Dental professionals and GPs

If you are a dental professional or GP please complete our GP and Dentist referral form in the Helpful resources section

Parents/carers

If you are the parent/carer of the child, the young person yourself, or any other professional that is not a GP or dental professional, please complete our Self and Parent and Professional referral form in the Helpful resources section