Dentist Times Owners Club event kicks off with sector insights

The first Dentist Times Owners Club (DTOC) event was held last week in Windsor.

Organised by Dentist Times publisher, Nexus Media Group, the one-day event brought together dental practice owners from across the country who took part in one-to-one business meetings.

There was also a packed conference programme, with speakers offering an insight into everything from practice acquisitions to optimal management approaches.

First to speak was Kunal Thakker, chief executive and founder of Tooth Club, a 15-site dental group.

He provided an overview of the business’s growth, which concentrates on rethinking the patient experience, the brand, and the typical business model.

He was followed by Shaz Memon, founder of Digimax Dental, whose session was entitled ‘From Start-up to Stand Out’.

And he put his success down to his focus on delivering value.

“We want long-term patient retention,” he said.

“Patients come back, not for flashy marketing, but for quality care, and, in healthcare, personal recommendations often carry more weight than paid-for advertisements.”

And he urged delegates to ‘master your craft and create long-term success, then use marketing to amplify that success’.

For this, branding is king, he added.

“A memorable name helps patients instantly recall your practice and, in a crowded market, being recognisable sets you apart from your competitors.”

He also offered advice on scaling a brand via marketing and social media.

“With countless choices for dental practices, your potential patients don’t have the time or patience to sift through vague messages,” he warned.

“They need to know immediately what kind of dentistry you offer, and how it will help them.

“If your marketing materials are unclear, potential patients will move on to a competitor who clearly states what they do.

“You need to cut through the noise by defining your specialty or unique offering upfront.”

Recruit and retain

Completing the morning line-up at the event was a presentation by Jack Rhodes, chief executive of Ember Solutions, who looked at the challenge of recruitment within the sector.

He revealed that there were currently only 24,543 dentists active in England, with this figure increasing, on average, by just 1.4% a year, despite a growing demand.

This equates to just 42 dentists per 100,000 people – a ratio which has remained flat for many years and which is also impacted by widespread regional variations.

And the challenge is not just recruitment, he said, but retention, with dental nurses leaving the profession faster than they can be replaced.

Echoing the comments made by Memon, he said adoption of technology would be key to addressing these pressing issues – including embracing cloud practice management, AI diagnostic tools, and teledentistry.

“AI systems demonstrate superior performance in caries detection and lesion identification compared to traditional methods,” he said.

“And studies show significant improvement in early-stage diagnosis.

“Visual AI analysis also helps patients understand treatment needs more clearly, leading to higher acceptance rates and better-informed consent processes.”

Businesses must also consider reshaping practice culture, offering hybrid or remote working where possible and ensuring clear career progression and training.

In addition, offshoring administrative functions can help businesses to cut costs and improve efficiencies, he added.

“The challenge is real,” he said.

“But solutions exist, and they work, and action drives results.”

Growing your practice

The afternoon sessions kicked off with Dental Times editor, Jo Makosinski, interviewing Anushika Brogan, chief executive of Damira Dental Studios.

She took delegates through her journey from buying her first practice as a 25-year-old, newly-qualified dentist in 2003, to the 41-site business she owns today.

Nearly all of her practices rely on NHS contracts – a key part of their ongoing success.

“When I bought my first site, I bought the property as well as the business and remodelled the interior,” she said.

“I knocked down walls and started doing private work, too.

“It was an interesting model and I paid off that property really quickly, so I ran with it.”

After going through a divorce, Brogan had to rebuild her business, but decided not to take on investors.

She said: “Back then there were not very many big groups and no one around to get help from.

“Everyone was talking about the big private equity investors, but, for me, I decided I would rather do it myself than give away a lot of my business.

Yes, we are in healthcare, but we are also salespeople and if a clinician wants to provide a proper service, they need to understand this

“The model is to buy sites with NHS contracts. NHS business is really important and gives you security – it’s your bread and butter!”

When asked about the main challenges facing the sector, she urged dentists to become salespeople.

“I don’t understand it when people say they aren’t there to sell,” she said.

“Yes, we are in healthcare, but we are also salespeople and if a clinician wants to provide a proper service, they need to understand this.

“It’s about what you can do to inspire your dentists and other staff to do more, and we do lots of in-house competitions.

“A practice might get a coffee machine if they sign more people up for whitening, for example.”

Embracing technology

She also believes that technology will play a key role in the future of services.

“The technology coming in is phenomenal and it will change everything,” she said.

“An AI receptionist is better than any salesperson. They can take a patient through all the options, and you do not have to pay them in the same way.

“It will take a lot of coaching a training, but those who have embraced technology have done really well.”

Next up was a dual talk by Phil Kolodynski, director at Medical Elite Recruitment & Practice Sales; and Faisal Dhalla, partner at law firm, Bevan Brittan.

They explored the current acquisitions market, focusing on EBITDA arbitrage and the recent changes which have seen independent and first-time buyers entering the sector.

It used to be a winning strategy that just by successfully running that business you could get EBITDA arbitrage selling at 17 times, but those days have gone

EBITDA multiples are perhaps the most-commonly-used method for valuing businesses, but, according to Kolodynski, the days of buying at five, six, or seven times EBITDA and selling at 17 times are long gone.

He said: “I have sold and brokered more than £500m worth of dental practices and we recently saw changes to the market with Bridgepoint’s new partnership with {my}dentist in the UK.

“It used to be a winning strategy that just by successfully running that business you could get EBITDA arbitrage selling at 17 times, but those days have gone.

“What we are seeing is the rise of micro consolidators and family-led groups.

“In the future I think we are going to see individuals buying 5-10 sites and the reason is that cash for individuals is a lot more affordable.

“NatWest is coming into the market and lending to dentists who are just one year in the business – and they are securing £750,000.”

One case study he offered showed that from a typical purchase price of £2m, practices with an EBITDA of £278,000 (seven times) would need a 10% deposit – £200,000 after tax.

The annual loan payment would be £186,546 and the free cash flow before tax would be £91,500.

If this was replicated five times this would lead to an annual pre-tax profit of £457,000, with a fully-paid-off group in just 15 years.

But larger corporations are suffering, he revealed, because of the high cost of head office functions.

Managing costs

“For big groups their head office function can be as much as £5% of their revenue and, as they own a lot of sites, they are sometimes not nimble enough to change, and they don’t have the right sites with EBITDA potential.

“For them it is all about managing costs.

“The first thing I would do when buying a site is to look at occupancy and treatment reports. I find it very difficult to understand why buyers are not interested in what that practice is doing and focused on where the growth opportunities are.”

And this may mean that, for larger groups, this leads to the break-up of assets, with sales of underperforming sites.

“There is a massive opportunity here,” he said.

Dhalla added: “Streamlining processes brings lots of efficiencies.

“People focus on clinical and operational costs, but the same can be done with legal costs.

“Look at dental associate agreements and if they are all on different contracts, then think about how you will manage those.

“We are spending a lot of time and money trying to buy sites, but we should be trying to navigate hurdles up front.

“People with a vested interest do not care how long it takes and what we do not want is everyone running at 100mph and focusing on the CQC when they have forgotten there is a lease to sign.”

Prepare to fail

The day finished with an upbeat performance from Dr Jin Vaghela and Dr Kish Patel, founders of Smile Clinic Group and the Smile Dental Academy.

Using The Lion King movie plot as an analogy, they offered an insight into the ‘Eight pillars every dental owner needs to know’ to run a successful business. These are:

• Finance
• Sales and marketing
• Operations
• HR
• Training
• Clinical
• Compliance
• Procurement

Having met at university, and both having failed their finals, the duo has since built a successful group and run one of the biggest dental training schemes in the country.

Patel said: “In dental school you learn nothing about actually running a practice or talking about money.”

Vaghela added: “We started 15 years ago, and it has not been an easy journey, and one full of failures.

“It’s about building a solid team and the right team.

“It’s also about using data and technology, something that the UK is not great at doing.”

For them, this means using a plethora of IT systems, but ones which are interconnected and speak to each other – from VoiceStack, an AI-driven phone systems which enhanced business communication with features such as smart call routing and real-time analytics; to outsourced finance and recruitment software.

This event was a great networking opportunity. It helps you to make sure you are not missing the obvious and the conversations I’ve had have been super valuable

Vaghela concluded: “Build a business that reflects who you are, not what you do. Stay true to yourself.”

Commenting on the event, delegate, Mike Hesketh of Hesketh Healthcare, said: “For me, it was great to be able to come here and network with my peers, as well as to meet potential buyers and suppliers of services.

“It has been a great day and I have had some really good conversations.”

Luke Frizoni of PortmanDentex Ireland added: “You can always learn from people and this event was a great networking opportunity.

“It helps you to make sure you are not missing the obvious and the conversations I’ve had have been super valuable.

“Suppliers, in particular, have that market-wide view and that is really helpful.

“To try and have all these conversations can take time, but to be able to do it in one day is so valuable.”

The next Dentist Times Owners Club event will be held on 4 December at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield. For more information click here.