Brighton Road in Coulsdon has been home to a dental practice for more than a hundred years, and 72 Dental has provided continuous care there for over five decades. As of October 2026, the practice is led by principal Dr Raman Sandhu, who took over in 2016 and built her approach around one simple idea: prevention beats cure.
That’s not a slogan dreamed up for a website. Walk into 72 Dental and you’ll find a team of ten dentists covering everything from routine check-ups to oral surgery, all working from the same conviction that catching a problem early is always better than fixing one that’s grown. Here’s what that actually looks like in practice, and why it might matter more to you than another whitening offer.
What a hundred years on the same street actually buys you
Plenty of practices talk about heritage. Fewer can point to a building that’s housed dentistry since before either World War changed the map of Europe. 72 Dental can. The site has been a dental home for Coulsdon residents for over a century, and the current practice has carried that continuity forward for more than fifty years.
What does that mean for you, practically? Families in Coulsdon and the surrounding towns, Purley, Kenley, Old Coulsdon and further afield, often attend across multiple generations. Grandparents, parents and children on the same patient list isn’t a marketing line here, it’s how the appointment book actually reads. Patients travel from over twenty miles away for that continuity, and the practice has helped more than 7,000 smiles along the way.
Why Dr Raman Sandhu bet on prevention, not just treatment
Dr Sandhu qualified in 2005 and spent years working across Hampshire before training at the Royal College of Surgeons and the Eastman Dental Institute at UCL, eventually completing a postgraduate diploma in implant dentistry in 2015. She acquired 72 Dental in 2016, and rather than simply modernising the equipment, she reshaped the philosophy.
Her own words sum it up: “Prevention is better than cure, and by having regular dental assessments me and my team will ensure you have the most beautiful and natural smile.” It’s a quietly radical stance in an industry that often makes more from fixing problems than from stopping them. A practice built around prevention has less financial incentive to wait until something’s gone wrong.
That shows up in the small things. Regular dental check-ups are treated as the foundation of everything else, not an upsell opportunity. The hygienist team works alongside dentists rather than being an afterthought booked separately.
Ten dentists, one roof, a genuinely wide range of skills
Here’s the part that surprises people. For a high-street practice, 72 Dental has an unusually broad team under one roof.
| Clinician | Focus |
|---|---|
| Dr Raman Sandhu | General, cosmetic and implant dentistry, prevention |
| Dr Mohammed | Oral and maxillofacial surgery (GDC Registered Specialist in Oral Surgery) |
| Dr Ahmad | Root canal treatment, retreatments and apicectomy |
| Dr Rupali Patel | Gum disease prevention and periodontal treatment |
| Dr Viral | Dental implant placement and restoration |
| Dr Mohsin, Dr Tanisha, Dr Jaguar, Dr Sagar | Aesthetic dentistry, orthodontics and facial aesthetics |
| Hannah | Dental hygiene and preventive oral health |
Dr Mohammed is the one clinician the practice can properly call a specialist. He has been on the GDC’s specialist list for Oral Surgery since 2021, which means complex extractions and surgical cases that many local practices would refer elsewhere can be handled on site instead. The rest of the team are experienced associates with genuine postgraduate training, from Manchester Dental Hospital to King’s College London, but the word “specialist” is reserved for the one clinician who holds that protected title.
What a prevention-first check-up actually involves
A check-up here isn’t a quick look and a “see you in six months.” New patient exams run around £80, existing patient exams around £67, with lower fees for children, and a hygiene visit is typically £85 for thirty minutes. Across the UK, a private dental check-up generally runs somewhere between £50 and £120 depending on the practice and the area, so these sit within a normal, fair range.
What you get for that isn’t just a look at your teeth. It’s an assessment of gum health, a conversation about anything that’s changed since your last visit, and a plan for what happens next, whether that’s nothing at all or a referral to one of the specific clinicians above. Regular visits mean small issues get caught while they’re still small and cheap to fix, rather than turning into a root canal or an extraction two years later.
Comfort, without the judgement
A lot of people avoid the dentist because they’re embarrassed about how long it’s been, or how their teeth look. 72 Dental’s stated ethos is blunt about this: never judging you, or your teeth. Appointments come with music, Netflix or Amazon Prime in the chair, and longer early-morning slots for anyone who wants to get treatment done before work rather than stewing over it all day.
For anxious patients, oral sedation is available, taken about an hour before treatment, so you stay awake but noticeably calmer. It’s not a solution for every situation, but it’s there for people who’d otherwise put things off indefinitely, which, if you think about it, is exactly the outcome a prevention-first practice is trying to avoid.
FAQ
How long has 72 Dental been in Coulsdon?
The practice has provided continuous dental care from its Brighton Road site for more than fifty years, and the building itself has been used for dentistry for over a century. Dr Raman Sandhu became principal in 2016 and has led the practice since, building on that long local history rather than starting from scratch.
Is Dr Raman Sandhu a specialist?
Dr Sandhu is an experienced principal dentist with postgraduate training in implant dentistry from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, alongside general and cosmetic dentistry experience. She is not on the GDC specialist list. The only clinician at the practice holding a protected specialist title is Dr Mohammed, registered as a specialist in Oral Surgery.
Why does a “prevention-first” approach matter?
Catching small problems early, through regular check-ups and hygiene visits, usually means simpler, cheaper and less invasive treatment than waiting until something hurts. It also tends to protect your natural teeth for longer, since early gum disease or small areas of decay are far easier to manage than an advanced case.
Do I need to be a long-term patient to be seen here?
No. While many families have attended for generations, new patients are welcome at any point. A new patient exam is the usual starting point, giving the team a full picture of your teeth and gums before anything else is recommended.
What if I’m nervous about visiting the dentist?
You won’t be judged for how long it’s been or the state of your teeth. The team offers longer early-morning appointments, in-chair entertainment, and oral sedation for those who need it. The first step is simply telling the team you’re anxious when you book, so they can plan the appointment around that.
What to do next
If it’s been a while since your last check-up, or you’d simply like to see what a genuinely multidisciplinary Coulsdon practice can offer, book a new patient exam at 72 Dental on Brighton Road. Call 0208 660 3308, or find out more about the team on the Meet the Team page and read real patient stories on the testimonials page before you visit.