NHS Treatment is available for Children Only.

Any child, aged 17 or under when they reach the top of the NHS waiting list, qualifies for a free NHS consultation. At the consultation you will be told of the treatment required and whether or not the NHS will fund this treatment.

The NHS now only pays for treatment to correct the worst orthodontic problems.

If NHS treatment is not available, you have the option of various payment plans to proceed privately should you wish to.

Because of the long NHS waiting list, many patients choose to have a private consultation to be advised of the treatment required and whether or not they are eligible for NHS treatment. Those that are eligible can then choose between an 18 month wait for NHS treatment or immediate private treatment. Those who are not eligible have not waited for 18 months unnecessarily.

Our NHS Policy

NHS appointments are between 9.00am and 3.30pm.

We understand that most patients would prefer appointments outside school/work time. We work hard to accommodate your appointments to suit your school/college timetable. However 95% of our NHS patients attend school/college and for that reason we would need to work from 3.30pm until midnight each day to accommodate everyone outside of school time.

If any of our NHS patients are unfortunately late due to traffic delays, parking or other unforeseen problems, we cannot in fairness to other patients 'squeeze' the late patient(s) into our NHS schedule. We can either let the late arrival wait for a possible opening to occur in the schedule, or we can re-schedule an appointment with you. We endeavour to re-schedule all failed or late appointments within 2 weeks of the original appointment.

If you require an emergency appointment we do not offer a 'walk in' service. By telephoning the surgery you will be offered a timed appointment, avoiding the need for a long wait or causing inconvenience to other patients who are in active treatment.

We greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation and we are sure you will realise that if we seem inflexible at times, it is simply because we must be fair to all of our patients.