Getting Urgent Dental Care

Posted on December 1st, 2025

Getting Urgent Dental care

If you need dental treatment in an emergency

• call your dentist – some dental practices offer appointments at short notice
• contact NHS 111 for advice and support – online at nhs.uk or by phone.

If the NHS111 service thinks that you need immediate dental help, they can book you into an appointment as part of the urgent care dental service for Hertfordshire and west Essex patients.

The Hertfordshire and West Essex urgent care dental service is provided through:

• the Hertfordshire out-of-hours service which has appointments from 6-8pm on weekdays and 10am-6pm on weekends and bank holidays.
• three dental practices in Hemel Hempstead, Watford, and Waltham Abbey which have appointments during their normal opening hours. The Waltham Abbey practice also provides urgent Saturday appointments.

All urgent care dental service appointments must be booked through NHS111. You cannot book them directly.

Contact NHS 111 for help if:

• you have severe toothache – that keeps you awake at night and doesn’t feel better with pain killers
• you’ve knocked out a tooth, broken or damaged it
• you’ve recently had a tooth taken out and it won’t stop bleeding
• you have a painful lump or swelling in your mouth
• you think you need urgent help with another dental issue.

Paying for urgent NHS dental care

Urgent NHS dental care is free if you are under 18, are under 19 and in full time education, are pregnant, or are on certain benefits. If you don’t qualify for free treatment you will need to pay an urgent care fee for your appointment.

Find out more about emergency and out of hours dental care on the NHS.uk website.