There are many considerations
for a new dentist opening a practice, from finance,
to location, surgery design,
surgery equipment, legal requirements,
furnishings, staff,
marketing and consumables.
Dentec 2000 can
help direct you and make decisions in all of these areas, for more information,
call or email Sam Marshall here
at our office.
Finance
First of all you will need to seek out financial advice. Medfin
Australia caters especially for the Medical and Dental Professions.
Their team will allow you to fine tune your finance and allow your practice
to open quickly and smoothly. You will also need to gain access to a
skilled accountant.
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Location
Next you will need to study the marketplace for a good location for
your practice. You will possibly want to look for somewhere that will
have a passing trade such as a main road with a good frontage exposure.
Some examples are adjacent to a Shopping or Medical Centre. Make sure
to consider where other practices are so that you are not in conflict
with one another. However, this is not always a large problem as in
some professional areas, such as the inner city, there are pool areas
of dentists and they all do very well indeed.
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Design
When you have found a good location you will need to look for a
building area that is of a workable size. Something around 80 to 120
square metres is best. Check the lease. Legal advice should be sought
if you are in any doubt, and possibly consider purchase, as property
is always a good asset.
Once you a found
a suitable building, a preliminary floor plan design of the layout of
the rooms will be required. Dentec 2000 will actually provide this service
for you if you wish.
When you have your
layout designed then Dentec will organise quotes for the trades required
to carry out the work and will take care of any building licences should
they be required by the council.
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Surgery
Equipment
Now you will need to think about the equipment you would like to
use. Quality is definitely an issue here if you would like long-term
reliability and service. Second hand equipment is a very dubious route
indeed and not recommended. By now you will have collected enough information
to have a rough budget to submit to your financier. Please be aware
that in order to enhance their equipment sales, the various dental houses
will offer a similar service to our own. Be advised that although they
are very good at selling their equipment, surgery design is our forte.
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Legal
Requirements
When you are happy with your location, design and financial state,
then you will need to register a business name and apply for an Australian
Business Number (ABN). You are required to comply with Radiation Health
and Worksafe regulations
and so you may want to source the relevant information. The ADA
also has certain regulations governing your business of which you will
need to be aware. The way you advertise should comply with these regulations.
Your new X-ray, when installed, will need to be compliance tested also
by Radiation
Health.
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Furnishings
The next step is to consider the standard items such as telephones,
security, furnishings and other décor items. Computers will play a larger
role within the surgery in years to come so make sure to shop carefully
for your hardware and software, there are a few good practice management
programmes around and you may want to consider these. Intra Oral cameras
are very common things these days and Digital X-rays are not far behind
so make sure to consider compatibility for these machines. Even if you
do not purchase them straight away, it is best to cater for them.
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Staff
Now is when you will need to look further ahead and think about what
you need when all the construction of your practice is completed. First
you will need to advertise for staff. You could start with only a nurse
or assistant who can double as a receptionist but this arrangement will
only be short term if you are successful.
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Marketing
and Advertising
Consider the image you want for your practice. Think about where it
is placed in the community. You really do not want to go for anything
too flashy as conservative is what the public will tend to expect. The
advertising scale you are allowed is limited so make it effective and
worthwhile.
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Consumables
Organise your supply of consumables. The various dental houses all have
knowledgeable reps and our advice would be to contact them all rather
than just one but they will all go out of their way to help you.
