JOANNA CAREW

Shifting from trainee lawyer to dental practice owner I didn’t know anybody in the industry other than my husband, Melbourne. In truth I didn’t even like dentistry, and had zero interest in it.

I was isolated, clueless, and struggling with the self-inflicted loss of my legal career. A career I’d fought against the odds to pursue, then when it was in touching distance I just walked away and prioritised Melbourne’s career over my own. I was very low and trying to hide my feelings so he didn’t feel guilty; it was completely my choice after all.

Melbourne is an exceptional dentist and his existing practice was small and he couldn’t showcase himself there. In contrast, the squat practice was all bells and whistles: a large purpose built place with a huge car park, bags of potential for expansion, and located just off the major A1 motorway. Acquiring it was a chance of a lifetime for him, and I wanted to help realise his dream and somehow make it my own.

As we got up and running Melbourne was drowning in work, he was principal dentist at two practices, studying for his implant diploma, working with uni research teams, and a hands on father to two young children from his previous marriage. He was exhausted just doing dentistry and didn’t have capacity for running the business. It also turns out he’s not keen on the business side of things; his passion is being with patients in the surgery.

As the months passed I knew I needed help, I felt unprofessional and out of my depth. I was aware of that awful feeling where you don’t even know what you don’t know! Melbourne’s “it’ll be fine, you’re intelligent, you’ll work it out,” attitude was failing to reassure me, actually it had the opposite affect, making me feel even more incompetent as I didn’t know how to run a practice, let alone what was best practise. After some extremely heated discussions Melbourne eventually caved and agreed to me getting myself some help.

My saviour came in the form of the wonderful Jayne Gibson at Practice Plan. Despite my cluelessness, she believed in me just when I needed an ally. Jayne introduced me to an industry coach called Mike Bentley (www.michael-bentley.co.uk), dentistry HR and employment lawyers, Buxton Coates Solicitors (www.buxtoncoates.com), and a compliance company, Apolline (www.apolline.uk.com). With this support in place I could breathe again, and with Mike’s help I set about recruiting staff, and creating systems that we now live by to ensure standardised delivery of everything we do.

My biggest lesson has been to reach out for support when I need it and that the ROI from engaging support can be exponential. It also transformed my relationship with the business, so I have fallen in love with the practice and the industry.

Actually, now I find my diverse non-dental background beneficial as I am not encumbered by traditions and am developing a dental practice that aligns with my values. We focus on the brand, culture, being an exceptional workplace with a huge wellbeing focus, and that drives exceptional patient care.

So, I’m no longer clueless about dentistry, and despite all of the challenges over the past 3.5 years, I have no regrets in abandoning my legal career to start a dental practice 😅😊