After having had an emergency root canal done yesterday (Sunday ), I just wanted to let you know that it IS possible to find a dentist on Sunday - at least in Zurich:
They're in Shopville (underneath Zurich main station), are very friendly and speak English. Open Saturday 8.00 - 20.00 and Sunday 10.00 - 18.00.
Costs (including emergency & Sunday surcharge) for the root canal, X-rays, all injections etc. Fr. 418.00. Expensive, I know, but worth it to get rid of the pain.....
As so many things in Switzerland, it differs from canton to canton. In the Canton St. Gallen, there was a weekend emergency service already in the 'sixties, and 24/7 service was introduced in 1983, covering the entire canton. You dial 144, and the emergency guys will put you through to the dentist on duty. Same in many other cantons.
The funny thing is, sometimes it doesn't seem to work properly. Once in while, when on duty, I get calls from people with burned hands or broken legs, always from the Martigny area in Valais, which is almost at the other end of the country. I don't know what's wrong there.
True despite having an expensive look and feel to it that place isn't any near as costly as you'd think. Some of the people they emply are also top specialists.
I definitely recommend Swiss Smile at the HB! My crown fell out yesterday evening (too late for an appointment) and was replaced expertly this morning (Sunday) by Dr Martina Schwerzmann. The cost was CHF262.
Last friday, one of my lower wisdom teeth started flaring up and by sunday morning i knew it was a full fledged infection as the pain kept me up all night. I looked up for emergency dental services on this forum and found the https://www.swiss-smile.com/en/ website. I called up the Bellevue location as that one opened at 8am on sunday morning. I got an appointment for 10am the same day and before 11am the dentist had managed to extract the painful tooth and the one on top. To be very honest, when I went to the doctor I did not expect my teeth to be extracted. I just wanted an antibiotic prescription and maybe a shot. However, the dentist managed to convince me to finally get it over and done with.The total came out to CHF 700 and that included the sunday premium. The doctor was nice, spoke perfect english and explained all the costs and procedures upfront. She did not charge me for any of the 3d xrays etc. Luckily i did not have much complications as the nerves did not run near the affected teeth and no drilling was required. It has been a week now and have gone for 2 follow up appointments for which I have not been charged and my gums seem to be healing well.
Just adding my experience here for the benefit of others.
In Bern, Zahnarztzentrum.ch are also in the main railway station, open every day, on the lower ground floor, near the Post Finance cash machines (But the businesses in the station seem to move around a lot: you might need to ask))