A friendship that began as colleagues has now developed into a partnership in a practice caters for the needs of nervous patients.
Amy Hughes and Debbie Havard, partners in Tranquillo Dental Studio, were both working as dental nurses when they met in 2007. After nearly a decade in dental nursing, Amy decided to train as a dentist and qualified in 2013. Debbie also chose to take additional qualifications and progressed in dental nursing and practice management.
The two found themselves working together at another practice and found that they both had a desire to set up a practice that catered for the needs of nervous patients. Their shared vison took shape nearly two years ago when, along with another partner, they established Tranquillo Dental Studio where Amy is Principal Dentist and Debbie is Practice Manager.
Calm atmosphere
Although this may seem like a niche market, government data from the Adult Oral Health Survey found that more than 50% of respondents experienced extreme or moderate anxiety about visiting the dentist, so they are catering to a significant proportion of the population.
To try to help patients feel calm and relaxed, Amy and Debbie chose neutral tones and a spa-like feel for the décor and uniforms. All the staff have also been recruited to ensure that everyone subscribes to their vision and ethos. As Debbie says: “Amy’s really good with nervous patients, so we were trying to make it calm and relaxing so that it’s more inviting for nervous patients and hopefully help build up their confidence in us and diminish their anxieties.”
The practice currently operates two surgeries with Amy providing the dental and some aesthetic services along with two hygienists. They also work with an oral surgeon who visits them part-time. “We’re quite small at the moment,” Debbie explains. “Our team is hand-picked because they’re people we’ve worked with in the past and so we’ve got the best team, and we all get on really well.” Some of their patients have also followed Amy from different practices.
Flexible patient-centric approach
Debbie credits the team members with producing the calm and relaxed atmosphere in the practice. Everyone is committed to ensuring patients have a positive experience. To this end they also have TV screens on the surgery ceilings to help distract patients and iPads for children to use while they’re waiting. For patients who are particularly anxious the team encourages them to come in and visit the practice before committing to an examination or treatment.
“We can break them in gently if that’s what they need,” Debbie says. “We can do things in stages, if they want. We go at their pace, and if there are things that we can do to make things more comfortable, we will adapt.
“For example, with our hygienist, if the patient finds they are too sensitive to cold, we can use a different suction adapter to make it less sensitive, turn the water down or hand scale if they need us to. And both the hygienist and the dentist will explain all these things when the patient comes in, and then they can adapt it for them.”
Why are so many people frightened of visiting the dentist? Debbie believes it’s often based on previous trauma. “I think it’s just down to past experience and how things used to be,” she says. “People talk about gas and air and all the things that they used to have. Some people didn’t even have anaesthetic, back in the day. Whereas it’s very different now. There are things we can do to make the experience of anaesthetics better so that it’s not even that painful when it’s administered. Also, Amy will put local anaesthetic gel on all her patients before she puts the needle in just to make them feel more comfortable. So, it’s nothing like it used to be.”
Building trust to establish a lasting relationship
Debbie and Amy’s aim is to ensure patients feel happy and comfortable when they visit the practice and develop a lifelong habit of maintaining their oral health. This is why they were keen to introduce a membership plan.
Having both dealt with Practice Plan at previous places of work they were keen to take advantage of the backup they would receive as new owners. “I’ve worked with them in the past and they’ve always been really good at supporting the team, training the team and helping with any queries. So, I knew they were good in that aspect, and it just makes it more affordable for patients to split up the cost,” Debbie says.
As well as offering patients the option of spreading the cost of their oral health maintenance, Debbie also appreciated the reduction in admin burden on the team using Practice Plan as their plan provider would afford them. “It’s great because Practice Plan can deal with all the direct debit side of things and we just get our statements through. We don’t have to check who’s paid and who hasn’t. We just get a report. So, rather than running our own plan, it’s a lot simpler. I’ve always enjoyed working with Practice Plan and they have always been good.”
Plans for the future
Even though the practice is in its relative infancy Amy and Debbie have clear ideas of how they would like the future to look. “At the moment, we have two surgeries set up and running. We’d like to have three or four surgeries going eventually,” Debbie says. “As well as general dentistry, we’d also like it to be a referral centre for more specialised treatments such as implants and perio treatments. Especially because of our calm setting, it’d be nice for people to be referred here to have treatment,” she adds. “Amy is very happy doing her general dentistry and aesthetics, so we’d have different people coming in to deliver those sorts of treatments. But we’d make sure they fitted in with our ethos still.”