The Vallance Dental Centre ★9.7

An NHS list and postgraduate depth in the same building

Most of Manchester’s best-rated names are private studios built around cosmetic work. The Vallance sits apart: a mixed NHS and private centre in the university and hospital quarter, which keeps its NHS list open to adults and children and undertakes to register at least ten new NHS patients a week. Its line runs back more than thirty years to the earlier Brunswick practice; since 2007 it has held five surgeries inside a purpose-built primary care centre shared with GPs and a pharmacy.

Treatments

Under the NHS: examinations, radiographs, fluoride, fillings, root canal treatment, gum treatment and extractions. Privately the centre adds implants, Invisalign and 32Co aligners, fixed braces, whitening, cosmetic fillings, crowns, and complete, partial and immediate dentures. Surgical extractions of impacted or broken teeth, with sectioning and dissolvable sutures, are handled by Dr Hareem Hadi and Dr Arfeen Aslam.

Equipment and technique

Every surgery has its own intra-oral X-ray unit, radiography is digital, panoramic OPG images are taken here, and a 3D CBCT scan is arranged when roots sit close to a nerve. Root canals are treated under high-powered microscopy, and gum disease non-surgically with Guided Biofilm Therapy, Straumann Emdogain and grafting where recession has gone further. Intravenous sedation is available for anxious patients, and reception has a hearing loop.

The dentists

Partners Karim Shokraee and Darren Wilkinson both qualified in Manchester. Jonathan Skidmore holds an MSc in Endodontics and works with microscope and CBCT; Satnam Moonga holds an MSc in Periodontology and does the grafting and biofilm therapy; Arfeen Aslam, trained at King’s College London, covers aesthetics, implants and Invisalign, and took Best Young Dentist North at the Private Dentistry Awards in 2018. Steph Azmy concentrates on removable prosthodontics, and Eesha Chauhan is the hygienist and therapist.

Who it suits

Families who want to stay on an NHS list. University students and staff and city-centre workers, with appointments fitted around lectures and shifts. And patients told a difficult root canal or gum surgery needs a referral: here it happens where they are already registered.

Frequently asked questions

Are they taking NHS patients? Yes. Names go on a waiting list, with priority for urgent cancer referrals, veterans and care leavers.

What sits outside NHS treatment here? Orthodontics and sedation, along with whitening, veneers, implants and adult tooth straightening.

Will a difficult root canal be referred away? No, it is done here under a microscope by a dentist with a Masters in endodontics.

I am terrified of dentists. What can they do? Several dentists here name anxious and additional-needs patients as a special interest, and intravenous sedation can be arranged.

Opening hours