Dental & Facial Aesthetic Addlestone

I have been principal dentist at Caterham Dental Centre in Surrey since January 2001, a mixed practice where I have enjoyed meeting the challenges of adult orthodontics as well as providing a high quality of clinical care in the field of implantology and restorative dentistry.
As the Caterham practice flourished, I felt the time was right to look at expanding our business model into three new practices, the first being in a new-build unit in Addlestone. The building we found there was effectively an empty shell with just four walls from which we could design and build a new practice from scratch.

There is a strong demand for the provision of NHS dental services in the Addlestone area so we submitted a bid for an NHS contract which 
was successful. 

However, we also wanted to build a state-of-the-art practice with all the facilities patients now expect from a leading private practice.

The plan was to create five new state-of-the-art surgeries, an LDU room, a CBCT room and a plant room from the empty shell built to the highest possible standards. We envisioned a beautiful interior equipped with the latest digital equipment including intraoral scanners and digital X-ray machines. I knew it was time to call in the best dental build experts and suppliers to get the project completed.

My architects, Bateman & Harris drew up the design of the new practice layout with an indication of where everything should go. 

We then liaised with Dan Payne from Henry Schein Dental, who had previously worked on equipping and furnishing the Caterham practice, to finalise the plans and draw up a schedule of works to bring the project to fruition. Dan took the time and effort to understand exactly what we needed and his opinion and advice became invaluable to me.

THE BUILD

Work began on the new practice in late May 2021 and was scheduled to last for 12 weeks. Our building contractor was Dentalbuild, headed up by Managing Director Gareth Davies, who specialise in providing comprehensive refurbishment packages for dental practices.

The Dentalbuild team, working closely with Dan as project manager, took care of all the building works including installing the new electrics, plumbing and cabinetry as well as fitting the essential specialist lead lining in the walls and door of the new CBCT room.

We purchased all our surgical equipment through Henry Schein Dental and their team of engineers, led by chief engineer Gary Macy, came to fit out, test and provide essential staff training. Choosing the right dental chair is central to the success of any surgery and being a user and admirer of Anthos chairs for over 22 years I wanted each of the five surgeries to be fitted with the high specification Anthos A5 dental chair, for which Henry Schein is exclusive distributor in the UK.

Microminder IT Solutions worked with Henry Schein to install the necessary computer equipment and I chose Dentally to provide our dental practice management system, which would allow me to manage the practice from any location using its cloud-based software. 

THE CHALLENGES
As with any major building project there were some hiccups along the way but if there were any problems, I was able to contact Dan and he 
dealt with any issues on my behalf. I was involved with the project the whole way through, but the really hard work came from the teams at Dentalbuild and Henry Schein Dental who, despite the tight deadline, made sure everything was finished right on time.

Of course, there was a notable impact from the COVID-19 pandemic which was a very difficult time for us as a business but in the end, we managed to deal with it very well. 

I knew of other projects where work had been delayed with supply chains breaking down and equipment not being delivered on time, but thanks to a bit of luck and a lot of hard work from Dan and Gareth, everything was always delivered on time and to specification.

THE RESULT
The build was completed at the start of September 2021 and the practice finally opened its doors. Because of its prominent position in Addlestone we found we didn’t need to specifically market the practice prior to opening and thanks to word of mouth alone we found ourselves very busy very quickly.

With the new practice now up and running I am delighted with the results. Our patients love the comfortable new surroundings and the whole project looks amazing. Patients love the layout, the feeling of freshness, not to mention the new equipment which delivers very comfortable and efficient treatment. 

Thanks to the advice and support from Dan and his team they have not only provided the right solutions but also fixed any issues and pre-empted where problems may occur. This has made all the difference to ensuring our new practice has a very successful future.