Thank you

Dentists

Lida Sayadelmi

To All The Hardworking Volunteers

Seerat Aneja

Ethan Lloyd

Le Xuan Chan

Deb Liddelow

Shanash Bishnulall

Ashlee Bence

Andrew Heap

Karen Hughes

Chandrama Banerjee

Manorika Ratnaweera

Rebecca Vo

Zeidri Rasmussen

Rachel Wu

Selina Kwok

Zara Torre Assistants

Alena Varonets

Ben Lundberg

Chris Marfici

Lisa Searle

Kanako Bird

Amy Chandler

Kristi Viitkar

Sandy O’Brien

Ella Chen

Monisha Morshed

Rewards and challenges

We speak to ADAWA members about the rewards and challenges of practice ownership.

Dr Louise Winters

Dr Louise Winters is relatively new to practice ownership – purchasing Southbridge Dental in April 2022. “I was approached by the previous owners Dr Simon Shanahan and Dr Millicent Woon around July 2020 right in the middle of the pandemic with the offer of a job as an associate and if things went well the option to purchase the practice,” she recalls. “I had known Simon and MIlly for quite some time as we had met through the Dental Study Group of WA and our ITI study group. We always got on really well and continue to do so! I think the pandemic caused us all to reflect on our careers and where our lives were heading. Luckily Simon and Milly's vision coincided with mine and I began working with them in early 2021 and then made the leap to purchase the practice in April 2022.

The South Perth practice with three chairs employs four dentists (including Louise), who practice all aspects of General Dentistry.

The challenges

When asked about the biggest challenges of practice ownership, Louise says it is time management. “I have to keep reminding myself Rome was not built in a day,” she says. “There is always a lot to do, and I am slowly starting to get through everything, finding systems and processes that work for me. I have become much more comfortable with the knowledge that I still have a lot to do the next day, but that it's ok to stop and switch off. I could live at the practice if I wanted to!"

The rewards

Louise says having a wonderful team that works hard to provide a great quality service has been very rewarding. “It is truly a great joy to work with people who are talented and motivated, and to be able to provide them with a happy, supportive and flexible work environment,” she says.

Advice to others

To other dentists considering practice ownership, Louise suggests they reflect as to whether practice ownership is for them.

“If you want to be in control of everything and micromanage, then it is likely it is not for you,” she advises. “You can make a good living in dentistry without owning a practice. Once you are an owner, teamwork is everything. It is essential to be able to delegate and to empower your staff to take on responsibilities and to work with initiative. It's important to understand and learn the business (I am still learning and will be for a long time) but if you try to control every single aspect you will likely fall in a heap. Once the figures are out of the way, look for a practice with a good culture and ultimately, it's also important to go with your gut. If it feels right to pursue, then go for it.”

Future plans

Louise’s practice is currently updating their software and computer network, installing an OPG machine, and upgrading equipment. “My hope is that we continue to be a busy three chair clinic and potentially grow to a four chair practice with the aim of providing friendly and quality general family dental care to the South Perth community,” she says. “When feasible, the next transition will be to digital impressions/ workflow and continue to update processes to make our work more efficient. More importantly, I want to continue to foster a great work environment for myself and my staff.

“In April I will be taking three months of maternity leave to have my first child,” she adds. “It was not in my plans to have my first business and first child within 12 months, but life has its own plans for us sometimes! And it's a wonderful as well as busy time. They say that teamwork makes the dreamwork, and it is true for us. I am sure Southbridge Dental will continue running like a well-oiled machine in my absence. It helps that I also live five minutes up the road, so if there is a crisis, I am only a phone call away.”

Dr Zahida Oakley

Dr Zahida Oakley is a co-owner with friend and business partner Dr Amy Hope of Central Periodontics and Implants in Mount Lawley.

“Our practice is a specialist periodontal practice,” she explains.

“We specialise in all aspects of periodontics and implant surgery. We are in our newly fitted out premises with three surgeries since December 2022 and are loving our new place."

Amy and I each have clinics on three days per week and we also have a hygienist supporting us on four days per week. We have an all-female team of five staff who all work part-time to support us with dental assisting and reception tasks.”

The challenges

Zahida says she finds the biggest challenge of practice ownership is the difficulty in having a complete mental break or ‘time off’ from the business. “As opposed to clinical duties, business management tasks seem to continue after hours and on weekends,” she explains. “I am lucky to be able to share the load with Amy and my husband Paul. More recently, there have also been challenges in hiring a new staff member as there has been a real shortage of dental assistants.”

The rewards

When asked about the most rewarding part of practice ownership, Zahida says it is having the flexibility of choosing her working hours to fit the lifestyle of her family.

“We have a very hard-working and loyal team who also appreciate the flexibility of working part-time and prioritising work-life balance,” she adds. “I get a real sense of achievement when the whole team gets together, and they genuinely enjoy each other’s company. We are lucky to have a great work culture and I take some credit for hiring the right staff who enjoy coming to work.”

Advice to others

“I have said it many times, I probably would not have entered practice ownership as a solo owner and a mum-of-two,” she says. “If you can choose to have a partner to share the load with, a colleague that you work well with, it gives you much more flexibility over your hours and taking leave. From a financial perspective, the costs of setting up a dental business are high and having a partner reduces the capital exposure. In addition, I would stress the need for getting appropriate financial and legal advice so the best decision can be made on the ownership structure, particularly when multiple parties are involved. "I recommend having the difficult discussions upfront with a business partner to align on how the workload of running a business and seeing patients will be shared and how each partner will be compensated if the workload and patient sessions are not always a 50/50 split.”

Future plans

In the near future, Zahida says they are hoping to attract another periodontist and a hygienist to the team. “Also, we would be looking for a practice manager to take the load off with business/administrative tasks so that we can focus on our clinical work more,” she adds. “We hope to have more social gatherings for our team this year to build on our great team culture.”

The challenges

Santo says the biggest challenges in a specialist practice are the same as those faced in general practice. “Namely staff shortages, increasing practice costs, government intrusions and compliance, corporate dentistry, search engine theft of your identity and ever diminishing private health fund benefits for their customers,” he says.

The rewards

Dr Santo Cardaci

Dr Santo Cardaci will be celebrating 40 years of graduation at the end of 2023, and has owned his own practice for 30 years.

He runs Churchill Endodontics on Churchill Avenue in Subiaco, where he is the sole practitioner.

When asked about the aspects of practice ownership that are most rewarding, Santo says he had never seen himself being a practice principal, and so just running the practice successfully all these years is rewarding in itself. “I see myself as a trouble shooter for the profession, trying to help dentists and their patients with difficult situations – and to this day there are daily small victories and cases that you cannot resurrect,” he says. “You can only do your best.

“I am most proud of the staff that have helped me over the years,” he adds. “Many have been with me for over twenty years and I have been blessed to see them progress with their lives, seeing many of them getting married, having children and even grandchildren. Many are still in contact with me and drop in from time to time to fill me in on their progress.”

DR SHAHRZAD NAZARI

“I started searching for a good opportunity to own a practice soon after I began working in Perth in March 2022,” she says. “However, I was not sure which area in Perth might be the best for me as an endodontist, whether it would be better to buy a practice or rent one, better to buy a practice from another dentist or start from scratch and whether I wanted to be in a suburb or in a central location. Thus, I took my time to think thoroughly, consult with some experts and consider many opportunities arising along the way.” Her practice, TEETHBYTWO-Endodontist Perth is a brand-new practice located at Adelaide Terrace in Perth.

“There are three surgery rooms, one sterilisation room, a small radiology unit with an onsite CBCT machine, a private consultation room, and a reception area.”

She adds the length of building the practice from buying, council approval and changing the use of the premises and choosing and receiving the dental equipment to seeing the first patient took less than four months.

The challenges

Shahrzad says many years ago, she would have said the biggest issue with owning a practice was branding and getting that brand recognised. “These days, the most challenging part of a practice ownership is employing staff, who can help the dentists running the practice efficiently and with limited amount of stress,” she says.

The rewards

In Shahrzad’s opinion, the most rewarding part of being an owner of a practice is being able to provide patients the best care possible.

“Sometimes, this care involves having freedom to reduce the cost of a treatment for a patient in need, or freely ordering a specific material for a case to improve the outcome of the treatment,” she says. She adds she believes being a practice owner can help dentists to grow freely in their lives and careers in many aspects including financially, legally and professionally.

Top 5 Reasons

Physical practice of yoga or Asana

A regular physical practice of yoga can release mental and physical tension. It can help promote balance, strength and flexibility.

Mind

Many yoga practices counter the fight or flight response and invite the body to move in the opposite direction towards peace and calm. ‘Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day’Deepak Chopra

Breath

Yoga breathing slows your respiratory rate. Taking this practice off the mat can relieve stress.

Mindfulness

Yoga can help you unplug and focus on what’s going on in your body and mind in the present moment. Through a consistent practice, you’ll learn to live in the present off the mat too.

Body awareness

Where you are today will be different to where you were yesterday and where you will be tomorrow. Yoga is accommodating; you can use it to benefit you for what you need in the moment. That could mean a strong fiery practice, it could mean a slower more passive practice.

Yoga in the House with Dr Unna Chidambaram is back!

Stretch away the stresses of the day at ADA House (54-58 Havelock St West Perth) at 7pm on:

Tuesday 4 April

Tuesday 23 May

Cost: $10 a session

BYO: Yoga Mat

No RSVP necessary

Children’s Health Aid Team

The not-for-profit organisation running dental aid volunteering trips in the rural areas of southern Vietnam.

Children’s Health Aid Team (CHAT) is a not-for-profit organisation who run dental aid volunteering trips in the rural areas of southern Vietnam. The charity commenced operations in 2005 through the efforts of Dr David Booth (Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon operating out of Perth). He found basic dental and medical needs were unavailable to many, as well as the presence of a large number of orphanages and underprivileged children.

Dr Booth arranged for a team of self funded voluntary dentists, medical doctors, oral health therapists and support staff to travel into the provinces of southern and central Vietnam for one week at a time. On the ground, alongside local interpreters, they treat orphans, children with special needs and their carers. By 2008, the charity was sending teams from Australia 4 times a year. More recently, the team was also supported by dental students from the University of Western Australia and La Trobe University.

In preparation for the week-long trip, teams convene at the charity headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City. Here portable dental treatment units, sterilisation equipment, consumables, oral hygiene kits and teddy bears are prepared and packed. All equipment, consumables and teddies are lovingly donated from organisations all over Australia and loaded into buses for the team to travel deep into the rural regions of Vietnam, often several hours outside the capital.

Mobile treatment centres are set up in different locations every day where up to 200 children attend for dental health education, dental checkups and treatment. Venues can range from local government halls, general medical outposts, primary schools and orphanages. Tables and chairs are turned into makeshift treatment centres, while the waiting children are triaged and their general health screened by medical volunteers.

As a developing lower-middle income economy, the children in the regional areas of Vietnam have ready access to a sugar laden, highly cariogenic diet. Unfortunately, education regarding dental health and access to preventative dental care is limited leading to a high proportion of the children seen requiring extensive dental treatment. CHAT places great emphasis on dental health education, with all the children receiving tooth brushing demonstrations, interactive group dietary counselling and bags containing toothbrushes and fluoridated toothpaste.

It is not uncommon to see children requiring exodontia for some or all of their deciduous teeth. Many of the children also have been suffering from pain caused by long standing dental infections, but are often extremely brave and cooperative. Following some local anaesthetic, caring words from the local interpreters and gentle coercion from some forceps, they are usually happily running off with friends, gauze in mouth and teddy in tow. At the end of a long, physically exhausting day, the mobile units are cleaned and packed into the bus, before travelling onwards to the next destination. Volunteers often comment at the end of the week that despite the gruelling conditions, they find great satisfaction in the impact made on the children’s lives. CHAT has been unable to send volunteers to Vietnam throughout the pandemic, with the majority of consumables having expired and dental equipment requiring repair and refurbishment. As the country continues to reopen, CHAT is hoping to run one to two trips in 2023 pending government approval. Acquiring such approval is an arduous process and updates on upcoming trip dates are posted on the CHAT website and social media accounts.

CHAT runs exclusively on the generosity of the Australian dental community, with donations of materials, equipment and tax-deductible gifts being used solely to ensure the underprivileged children in Vietnam are given as much care as possible. If you would like to offer to donate materials, equipment, funds or volunteer for an upcoming trip, please visit CHAT’s website (www.chatinc.org.au).

Dr Black Belt

Colm first got to Aikijujutsu (a traditional Japanese martial art that uses grips, throws, strangleholds, jointlocks and strikes) when he moved to Perth 15 years ago. “I had done karate for five years at university and still was interested in doing further martial arts training before I got too old,” he recalls. “I wanted to get out of the house, do something physically active and train in a club environment to meet new people.”

Colm received his third dan black belt two years ago, after 13 years of continuous training.

“It took eight years to achieve black belt, then once I was up and running two more for second dan and three more for third,” he explains. “In the old days, it was said black belt was attained by training long enough whereby the beginner’s white belt became more worn and battered to eventually turn black. Nowadays, there is a specific syllabus for each level and a test of that knowledge and competency in a pressured environment called a grading.

“There is a very close analogy to Dentistry, where first black belt is like getting the dental degree – a broad understanding of the fundamentals – but it soon dawns there is still a lot to learn and put into practice,” he says. “From there, the other levels are equivalent to doing post-grad studies with fourth dan (which I am just starting to formally study for now, for the next two years) indicating a high level of proficiency, similar to completing a specialisation.” Colm currently trains three times per week and has the occasional seminar or get together of multiple cubs in Perth or overseas, and says training is a circuit breaker to all of life’s slings and arrows.

“Martial art clubs, despite how they may seem from the outside, are generally very friendly places so it is a good way to socialise with people outside of work/family circles and talk about things other than Dentistry,” he says.

When asked what he enjoys most about this martial art, he says it is a very exciting and technical martial art. “It is based on having excellent posture, technique and timing –there are no short cuts which can be frustrating but is ultimately the challenge that keeps me going back for more,” he says.

“It is fascinating to have anatomical understanding, which gives a real appreciation on how clever the original exponents were to have worked out weak points of the body, such as how to manipulate joints the

‘wrong way’ or where various nerves run superficially to apply pressure to them.”

He would recommend other dentists and busy professionals to try it out. “Not for the obvious reason of ‘selfdefence’ – that is incidental really,” he says. “We sit most of the day, often in compromised postures so it is a good way to get moving, develop coordination, exercise mind and body and meet people. The grappling aspects involves lots of physical contact, which is challenging and fun in equal measures.”

Do you take part in a martial art or another sport? We would love to feature the passions and hobbies of more of our members. Email Brooke from the ADAWA Media Team, brooke@adawa.com.au

HIF Corporate Program

ADAWA members are entitled to a 12% discount on health cover each year when premiums are paid by direct debit. Existing HIF members need only call or email to have the discount applied to their membership.

Visit hif.com.au/adawa and use the access code ADAWA Alternatively call HIF on 1300 13 40 60 or email sales@hif.com.au