Orthodontic Treatment on the NHS

The NHS agrees to provide “such reasonable standard of dental efficiency and oral health so as to safeguard general health.” The Department of Health adds that it also “excludes treatment justified only on cosmetic grounds.” It is easy to understand why in NHS terms, orthodontics is low on the list of priorities, when for instance, it is compared to general medical conditions which can often be life threatening. As a result, NHS funding of orthodontic treatment is limited and available funds are intended for those children under age 18 years where the irregularity of the teeth is beyond a certain threshold.This is normally measured by the use of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need or IOTN further details of this scale can be found on this link.Over 40% of all children will be entitled to free treatment within the NHS.It is not possible to ‘top up’ the NHS system with a private fee.

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NHS treatment at GOC

NHS orthodontic treatment is available at Grosvenor Orthodontic Clinic for all children younger than 18 who come to us with crowded and irregular teeth. The NHS now uses an scale know as the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need which in itself has two components a dental factor and an Aesthetic Factor for more information

NHS appointment sessions at Grosvenor Orthodontic Clinic are limited in length and are not available at certain times i.e.  the very early morning, late afternoon or on Saturdays. We have a waiting time for NHS appointments of about 6 weeks. In situations where we are not able to treat you at our clinic due to the complexity of the treatment required and the need to involve other dental disiplines we will refer you to the nearest hospital orthodontic centre.

NHS treatment is available at Grosvenor Orthodontic Clinic at the following times:

Our NHS Appointment Policy

Understandably many parents prefer that their child does not have to miss school and they themselves do not have to miss work in order to attend an orthodontic appointment, but as 95% of our patients are at the school age we would have to work late into the night to accommodate everyone. By varying the time and day of a pupil’s appointments we can minimise any loss of schoolwork and we will always try to arrange mutually convenient appointments. Wherever possible, we will always prioritise pupils who are in their examination years.

NHS appointments are timed between 9am and 4:00pm and most appointments are surprisingly short as our team spends a great deal of time ensuring that appointments are scheduled correctly to achieve the maximum amount of treatment in a minimum of 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 a further appointment with you. We endeavour to re-schedule all failed or late appointments within 2 weeks of the original appointment.

We always try to move teeth as rapidly as possible and to monitor treatment regularly, so we prefer every patient to make a further appointment and take a printed appointment card before they leave.

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 our NHS and private patients.

As you would expect verbal or physical abuse to our staff will not be tolerated and any such incident reported to our principal orthodontist Dr Pearson will result in your dismissal from this practice and your need to find treatment elsewhere.

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