Weston Grove Orthodontic Clinic

I was advised to go to Sophie Hepenstal by my dentist when I was 11 and needed to get braces. Living nearer to Overleigh Orthodontics, my mum wondered if I should go there, but my dentist said that Miss. Hepenstal was very good and I would be fine with her. To this day, we regret not going to Overleigh (which is where I eventually went, 6 YEARS later and got my teeth sorted within months of being there). I later found out that my dentist recommended Miss. Hepenstal because she had done his daughter’s braces. By that point, having had the misfortune to meet Sophie Hepenstal, I would not have been surprised if the daughter of the man who sent a lot of clients her way, had received a far more pleasant and polite version of Miss. Hepenstal than I ever seemed to. To cut a long story short, I made many, MANY visits to Miss. Hepenstal during my time in high school and each one seemed to be worse than the last. She and her staff were often rude and seemed fed up from the word go. I remember on several occasions sitting in the waiting room and me and my mum hearing other clients and their parents having similar experiences to ourselves- feeling that she was rude to clients for mistakes/ errors that she made. One such occasion was when a boy had come in to have a bracket re-attached. Miss. Hepenstal glued it on and sent him back out into the waiting room to for the glue to set whilst she saw another patient. I watched the boy sit there and do absolutely nothing wrong- he didn’t touch it, talk or even move his mouth- yet for some reason the bracket came off again. Even though he’d done nothing wrong, Miss. Hepenstal proceeded to scold the boy in the patronising and oh-so-disappointed manner that was familiar to me and many of her other clients. Because it’s never just an accident, or even Miss. Hepenstal’s fault- at Weston Grove, you take the blame. On another (very memorable) occasion, I was in the chair and Sophie was working on my braces. Sophie was talking to one of the orthodontic nurses about a recent holiday she’d taken to France. She paused to ask me if I had ever been to France and I mumbled ‘no’ as best as I could. She then carried on the conversation by saying ‘a lot of black people in France, you know? More than you’d expect’. And she and the nurse made noises which didn’t exactly express delight at that revelation. I should point out here that I am not white- and even if I was that comment would still have been totally unnecessary and completely inappropriate. As it was, it made me feel extremely uncomfortable and looked down upon- and I look back on the experience and wish I’d left that day and never come back to the practice. By the time I was 15 or 16 I had had multiple retainers, fixed braces, countless repairs, and at one point, a fixed brace AND a retainer (which was an incredibly uncomfortable experience which had me in tears on several occasions- not unlike Sophie Hepenstal). The ridiculous thing was, I should only have needed braces for a year and a couple of months AT MOST. Not the majority of high school. I didn’t even need my bottom teeth doing, it was only the top. Eventually me and my parents had had enough and we left Sophie, her rudeness and her unpleasant staff for Overleigh Orthodontics which felt like heaven after all the awfulness we’d put up with for so long. Maybe some people are lucky enough to go here and not have too many problems, but this is my personal experience and I have 0 good memories of going to Sophie Hepenstal. Truly awful.

Extremely friendly staff, make you feel welcome. Pleased with the work that has been carried out, you are made to feel at ease, highly recommend!!!

I have never had such a bad experience with anybody working for the NHS! Actually with anybody providing health treatments.These people are rude and horrible! Don't be fooled by the reviews on the NHS which say that the brackets are replaced on the same day, my son waited 4 months to get his bracket replaced the first time it came off because his teeth collided with the brackets, I would recommend taking your child anywhere but this disgrace of a practice.

I needed a new retainer, I was given an appointment within a few days. A quick friendly service, would highly recommend.