Local treatment planning
Understand the treatment and the local access route before requesting care. The treating practice assesses suitability and confirms any appointment, fees and follow-up.
Urgent dental safety
Seek urgent dental assessment for severe or persistent pain, increasing swelling, a knocked-out adult tooth or bleeding after an extraction. Call 999 or go to A&E for serious facial injury, heavy bleeding that will not stop, or severe mouth or neck swelling affecting breathing or swallowing. Do not wait for an Odenta response.
Contact your usual dentist first for a new urgent problem. If you cannot reach a dentist or do not have one, NHS 111 can advise on urgent dental access. Describe symptoms and changes clearly. Dental hospitals may require triage or referral, so do not assume a hospital has a public walk-in dental clinic.
Local patient planning
For a Rochdale urgent enquiry, explain whether you have contacted your own dentist, when symptoms changed and where you can attend. Use the council-linked Greater Manchester dental instructions rather than arriving at a clinic without assessment. If an offered appointment is elsewhere, confirm the venue and journey before accepting. At the visit, ask whether treatment resolves the problem or is temporary, and how records will reach your usual dentist. A request through Odenta is an additional private enquiry, not a confirmed public or local appointment.
The council's emergency-dental page identifies the Greater Manchester urgent route, while the regional NHS guidance explains what to do when your usual dentist is closed or you do not have one. Follow the current assessment instructions and confirm the offered appointment. Community dental services in the wider area have separate referral arrangements; their existence should not be read as unrestricted access for a painful tooth.
Before committing to care outside your normal locality, consider how you would return for a review or completion of treatment. Explain if a carer, interpreter or accessible transport is needed and ask the receiving practice what it can arrange. If a dentist already knows the tooth, have the recent findings available. For private elective work, separate the first assessment cost from the full course and clarify who would manage a problem between visits.
Use the NHS dentist search for routine NHS care and check directly whether a practice can accept you. An urgent NHS visit does not automatically give you ongoing routine care. Odenta's NHS waiting-list interest is separate from the NHS search and from an individual practice's patient list; it cannot guarantee acceptance or a waiting time.
Understand dental access in EnglandLocal access sources checked . These independent public services are separate from DAN participation. Follow their current instructions.
A dental professional assesses the problem, your symptoms and relevant medical history.
Prompt assessment can identify whether pain, swelling, trauma or a broken restoration needs urgent treatment.
An online request is not a diagnosis and does not guarantee a same-day appointment.
Ask whether the quoted fee covers assessment only or includes X-rays and immediate treatment.
This is general information. Your clinician assesses the problem, explains alternatives and agrees your individual plan.
Read the complete emergency dentist guide
For dental practices
Apply through DAN, complete onboarding and control your public profile, services and patient requests. Your practice decides whether it can offer an appointment.
Apply to join DAN