I cannot afford a dentist: what the options are

If you are in pain now, this comes first

Finding cheaper treatment takes days, sometimes weeks. Severe pain, swelling that is getting worse, a fever, or a tooth broken in an accident will not wait that long. Look for a dental surgery with emergency hours in your city. If breathing is difficult, the swelling is spreading quickly, or there is heavy bleeding, call 112.

The rest of this page is about problems that can wait a few weeks. Putting pain off is not saving money — a tooth that needs a filling today can need root canal treatment in a few months.

The examination is the first step, and it is not charged

The examination at the faculty is not charged for. It is also the easiest first move: you find out where you stand before taking on any obligation, and only then is it clear what treatment is needed.

Treatment by a dental student

Bulgaria has three faculties of dental medicine — in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna. Part of the training happens in teaching clinics: students in their final years treat patients, and a teacher checks and approves the work at each stage. For the student it is the case they need in order to qualify; for the patient it is treatment at a fee the faculty sets.

The usual size of that fee per procedure is set out on our prices page. The exact amount for your case is decided by the faculty, and you are told it there before treatment starts.

What you give in exchange for the lower fee is time. Appointments are on weekdays according to the teaching timetable, a single visit moves more slowly, and longer treatments are spread over several visits. If you cannot take time off on a weekday, that is the main thing to weigh.

Which cases suit

A student is looking for a case that matches the exercise they need a patient for — fillings in one period, extractions or root canals in another. So the same tooth may be taken on by one student and not suit another, without that being a refusal of treatment.

Whether your case suits is decided at the faculty after an examination, usually with an X-ray too — not from a description, and not by this page. The plan may change once they have looked.

How to reach a student

One route is to go to the faculty in your city and ask how patients are taken into the teaching clinics. The other is through UniDent: you describe what is troubling you and which days you can come, and students looking for that kind of case see it and may get in touch. If one does, you decide whether to go to them.

A patient is not charged for using UniDent, and it changes nothing about how cases are taken on — which case is accepted, and how it is treated, is decided at the faculty.

What to ask before treatment starts

• What the fee is for this case, and when it is paid.
• How many visits are expected, and over what period.
• Which days and times they will be, and how long one visit takes.
• Whether the treatment can be split into stages if the whole sum is difficult.
• What happens if the examination finds something different.