Jeanie Davidson / 12 May 2025 / Categories: Health, Dentists

Aura Dental not quite what I expected from the Google reviews

This is one of those experiences where the website and the reviews on Google didn’t set my expectation correctly.

The positives. Aura Dental is a large, beautiful private dental practise with spacious treatment rooms and all the latest technical equipment. They have four or five different doctors to choose from, men and women, all seemed quite young, the practice owner I got the impression is Dr. Tissera, 4 hygienists, other specialists, an orthodontist for braces and Invisalign trays and an oral maxillary facial surgeon if you need extractions, two receptionists, a treatment coordinator sales person and a practise manager. It a large operation and the high value offices reflect the £85 initial consultation fee. There’s certainly a lot of salaries to pay. In context, I’ve got two other appointments booked with practises in Primrose Hill and the other practises, the exam fees are £70 and £75 respectively.

That’s as far as I got.

I am between dentists. I’d had an NHS dentist in Swiss Cottage who retired, I didn’t go for a while and then I’ve struggled to get registered with a new one so I have finally decided I must explore other private options. I don’t want to find myself like so many older people in an emergency situation without a dentist.

I cannot comment on the care at Aura Dental because after my first experience I decided not to go ahead with my treatment plan.

The practise didn’t do anything wrong specifically it just wasn’t a fit for me, a little impersonal, it felt mainly about money, taking a payment, getting me started, signing on the dotted line and I needed time to think about whether I wanted to go ahead or not. It was just a bit too high pressure sales for me.

Afterwards when I had time to reflect, I revisited all the glowing Google reviews I had read initially.

When I looked more closely the most recent reviews didn’t seem to be from people who were regular reviewers on Google, the majority of positive reviewers had only reviewed this business which did make me question whether they were real or not.

There were a couple of very negative reviews I originally ignored in favour of the positive, for me I didn’t get the warm caring genuine vibes I was ready to receive from the glowing patient reviews.

The space is beautiful, clean, modern, even luxurious. The fees seemed high to me, £85 for a new patient exam, £75 for a recall exam, and £120 for a scale and polish. I have periodontal deep pockets so my deep scale quarterly was quoted at £180.

White fillings depending on the number of surfaces range from £180-£350. Root canals on back teeth start at £750 and if you are interested in veneers you are looking at about £1000 per tooth so think 8 lowers and 8 uppers are going to cost £16,000.

Yeah even if I was super wealthy the practise wasn’t able to show me the value they offer. The practise does specifically mention a “no pressure” approach on their website. This is very definitely a business and maybe I am just not used to that at the dentist. I felt a bit like I was on a very expensive conveyor belt.