In his own words: Eben Van der Walt on how working with The Dental Partnership has given his dentistry a new lease of life

I have always been passionate about dentistry and providing the very best level of care for my patients. After several years of growth, it was time for my partners and I to look for new premises for our practice, Portmore Dental. At this time the banks were unwilling to lend and we were struggling to obtain finance. One of our partners was also just about to retire, and we all felt that we really needed help with the admin side of our business.

There are just so many regulations in dentistry now. We didn’t have the time to look after CQC and all the admin work as well as doing our day-to-day dentistry. We’re all dentists and we love our jobs, but all the other stuff outside of dentistry was becoming a major burden.

Thankfully, we discovered The Dental Partnership, and their CEO Justin Stewart. The Dental Partnership came in and took over all of the admin side from the CQC to the HR. This has helped us all focus on providing high quality dentistry and growing the business while they handle all the rest. It’s been a year now, and I’ve been totally released from all the administrative burdens. It’s been a massive weight off my shoulders. When I’m finished with clinical work for the day, I’m finished with work for the day, and that’s a really good feeling.

Before we started working with The Dental Partnership we didn’t put very much effort into marketing. We were so consumed with CQC compliance and ‘ticking all the boxes’ that marketing wasn’t really on our agenda. As a result our new patient numbers were quite low, and not what we might have come to expect.

When we started working with The Dental Partnership, Justin and his team were keen to help us develop our business through marketing. The help they have provided has been invaluable. Since they started working on the practice marketing our new patient numbers have doubled!

The Dental Partnership is different to any other corporate. They don’t employ associates for a start, and they are very clear that they work with dentists as partners. This means I have a share of the practice’s profits because I am a partner. If the business does well then I will do well as well because I share in the profit.

I’m very happy we decided to work with The Dental Partnership. If I’m honest, I don’t think I would still be working in dentistry if we hadn’t taken this step. All of the ‘outside’ stuff – the admin, the legislation – it was all becoming too much for me, and I was becoming really disillusioned with my career. I want to help people with dentistry; I don’t want to push papers around all day.

By working together with The Dental Partnership we can now all focus on dentistry, and we are certainly all enjoying our work a lot more. From a personal point of view I can say it’s given me a new lease of life. I am enjoying dentistry once again and I have far more time to focus on the things that really matter.

For more information call 020 8255 2022 or visit www.tdpgroup.co.uk

About the author:

Eben Van der Walt is a Partner at Portmore Dental Practice, Weybridge, Surrey. Eben qualified from Stellenbosch University in June 2000. After relocating to the UK, he joined the Portmore Dental Practice in 2004. His special interests include Aesthetic Dentistry and Endodontics.