Happy Kids Dental

Roksolana Mykhalus, co-owner and director of Happy Kids Dental tells us about how and why this squat private practice has been designed to bring a totally new approach to children’s dentistry in the UK

Happy Kids Dental is a unique dental practice that has been set up from scratch by my brother and myself and we finally opened our doors in December 2017. We are both qualified dentists, originally from the Ukraine, but it had always been our ambition to set up our own practice in London. My brother has owned several dental practices throughout his career and still maintains a practice in the Ukraine, so starting up a new practice here was not a first-time venture for us.

We chose to set up the practice in central London because it’s convenient for most patients no matter where they live - great connection for all forms of public transport, it seemed to be the ideal location for us. From the outset we wanted to create something that was very different to more traditional dental practices and to focus solely on paediatric dentistry. Paediatric practices 
are relatively common in other countries including the USA, Germany and the Ukraine, but we believe there are certainly not enough of them here in the UK.

OUR AMBITIONS
We had been searching for suitable premises for nearly two years when we finally found the ideal building for us in Marylebone West London. The building, a former Schwarzkopf hairdressing academy and training facility, has a ground floor and basement and was ideal for us. The practice is located in a predominantly residential area, which did cause some issues with our planning application, but we managed to overcome the obstacles and set about renovating the building to our specifications.

We purposely set out to develop a space in which we could create a unique environment. We wanted our practice to resemble a children’s theme park rather than a regular dental surgery, with the aim of attracting younger patients who would want to stay with us for a long time. Fear of the dentist is a big problem for some children and we have built a practice in which our patients are cared for by a team of specialists and dentists with a passion for paediatric dental care. 

From the moment you walk into the practice you are greeted by colourful murals and happy smiling faces. Our team is exceptionally friendly, always smiling and we try to never say ‘no’ to our patients as we strive to satisfy all their wishes. Every detail at Happy Kids Dental has been considered from a child’s point of view with age-appropriate waiting zones designed to entertain the most active minds. We have a toy-filled toddler room, games consoles and TVs for older children, a separate, quieter space with free Wi-Fi for teens to hang out, and complimentary refreshments for parents and carers.

All our staff have experience of paediatric dentistry having worked either in community centres, hospital paediatric departments, or had lengthy training in the field. We currently have 15 surgeries, seven dentists, and three hygienists/therapists including one dentist with extensive experience of treating children with special needs and autism, so we are a big operation.

IT’S ALL IN THE PLANNING
Having found the ideal premises and in order to achieve our dream practice, we had to plan the whole theme-park concept from scratch and needed to find the best dental build experts and suppliers in the business to bring the project to fruition.

Our architect was Rapleys Healthcare and we had the pleasure of working with Roger Gullidge and Neil Clarke, who were incredibly responsive when it came to providing in-depth knowledge and experience, leading the project from pre-construction planning to completion.

Our builder was Doherty Contract Services, a specialist in dental care design and construction based in Port Talbot. We cannot recommend this company highly enough, especially director Mike Doherty, who is a true professional, delivering great quality work and most importantly, is a person you can trust. Mike is passionate about the quality of his work and he made all the difference to the final outcome.

In 2016, we visited BDIA Dental Showcase and started negotiating with several different equipment suppliers, but it was Henry Schein Dental who really stood out from the crowd. They were the most open about what they could do for us and their consultants took a great deal of time and effort to understand exactly what we needed. It wasn’t just a matter of them trying to sell us something, they were very perceptive to our ambitions and tried exceptionally hard to accommodate us and this is why I think they provide such a great service.

Because we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve and had previous experience of setting up a dental practice, it wasn’t going to be easy working with us. Henry Scheain Dental worked hard to listen to our needs and guided us in the right direction when necessary, but they also appreciated that we had our sights set in a certain direction and were happy to go along with our ideas.

We had two dedicated consultants looking after us throughout the project - one on the imaging side and one on the equipment side – the equipment sales specialist for the project was Simon Hemstead, who was our main point of contact when deciding exactly what equipment we wanted to have in each of our surgeries, we felt very supported by Simon, and never felt forced to do anything we didn’t want to do. 

In the design stages, we needed a lot of drawings that were constantly being modified as we worked out the best configuration of an extensive range of high-tech equipment, cabinetry, and furnishings. I want to compliment Simon and the Henry Schein team who were always very accommodating to our needs. There was never a point when they said, ‘Okay - enough is enough!’ - I really appreciate that.

HIGH TECH DESIGN
Plans were drawn up and building work began in May 2017 and finished in October 2017. Everything went according to plan and we are delighted with the welcoming, child-friendly environment we have created. We have all the latest treatment modalities needed for paediatric dentistry, from The Wand painless computer anaesthesia and inhalation sedation to dental lasers and microscopes - all designed to make paediatric dentistry as pain-free and efficient as possible.

Simon and Henry Schein have ensured our 15 treatment rooms are all equipped with the latest generation of dental technologies including OPG, Nomad hand-held X-ray devices, the latest intraoral scanners, sensors for digital imaging, and the lowest dose digital X-ray machine, which is very important for the health and wellbeing of children.
We have a very specific décor within the practice, which includes custom-made murals to create a stimulating, colourful environment that feels like a theme park rather than a dental practice. This idea came from when I lived in the USA where paediatric practices are designed to be fun for children and parents alike. 

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT

My advice to fellow professionals undertaking a similar project to ours is to make sure you have a team around you that you can trust and be prepared to multiply your budget and timeframes by two! We learned that patience is key and when undertaking a project of this size and complexity only strong passion and firm belief in what you are doing will get you through it.

We’ve chosen to work with some of the best specialist dental companies in the business, which lends an air of quality to everything we do. We planned everything from the start and never once compromised on quality.

Our vision for Happy Kids Dental going forward is to become a centre of excellence for paediatric dentistry with the best staff, best facilities, and the best technology. We want to have a lot 
of happy patients who will recommend us to friends and family - that’s our goal. Remember, when we opened our doors for the first time we had no patients, but now our patient numbers are growing day-by-day and we are well on the way to achieving our dream.