How I did it – Rothley Lodge

Dr Simon Chard describes how he and his wife, Dr Meghan Chard, completely renovated the space above Rothley Lodge Dental Practice, creating an innovative practice, designed to be a hub for progressive dentistry and teaching

I come from a family of dentists, and the focus behind our expansion at Rothley Lodge was to maintain this family ethos whilst bringing more modern techniques into the practice. I qualified from King’s College London Dental Institute in 2012, coming away with the Academy of Operative Dentistry Award. Since then, I’ve gone on to win Best Young Dentist United Kingdom at The Dentistry Awards 2015, and to become Chairman of Membership for the BACD (British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry). I have lectured nationally and internationally – mostly on digital dentistry, but also on dental photography and minimally invasive cosmetic dentistry. My focus is on aesthetic dentistry, particularly using digital technology to improve aesthetic outcomes.

I co-own Rothley Lodge with my wife, Meghan. She also qualified from King’s College London Dental Institute in 2012, and came second in the year for the Saunders prize for academic achievements. Her key interests are family dentistry and facial aesthetics, plus, she also holds a Diploma in Sedation from King’s College and loves to look after anxious patients.

The practice

We bought the practice from my parents, who had built a fantastic business over the past 30 years. We decided to expand and renovate the practice as we wanted to become a hub of outstanding dentistry, offering everything in-house. The practice was already providing a high level of family dentistry, but was running to capacity, so we would have been unable to make the additions we planned without first creating space.

We knew the aesthetic we wanted to create for the practice, classic British with a twist. We spent time looking at other clinical websites, finding inspiration through clinicians we respect. The main aim was to take Harley Street and bring it to the home counties.

We took advice from my parents throughout the process, and they were a great help. We wanted to make the project as cost effective as possible, while achieving a beautiful end result. Working with SPS and A-dec helped make this aim a reality.

The way the practice will run is unique; downstairs will continue as a mixed family practice and we will look to keep growing upstairs as a cosmetic dental and referral centre for speciality procedures. We want to create a unique patient journey that people will talk about. We want to be modern and social-media led with, for example, video content on YouTube. The aim is to create an interactive and educational experience for patients and the public, and as such, to break down barriers.

The result

The finished space is absolutely stunning – it’s so full of light. The rooms are spacious, and as non-clinical as possible. We wanted to make them as homely as they could be, and the teams we worked with have really helped us achieve this.

A-dec simply makes fantastic chairs. We chose the A-dec 500 side delivery chairs upstairs, and they are great; the units have chair-mounted cuspidors and LED operating lights, which provide an excellent level of lighting. They also really help keep the clinical area looking very clean and clear, as the side-arm delivery systems are stored below the cabinetry, giving full access around the chair. This feature has also allowed for a mobile implant drawer pack for my surgery, which will be fantastic for my implant sessions.

The detailed handover A-dec gave us even helped with the downstairs surgeries as they knew a lot about our existing chairs and could help us make better use of them. We would highly recommend A-dec, the quality of its products is obvious. The clean lines of the design are continued with the Intrafit cabinetry. In white, with solid surface worktops, it looks excellent, and the way it has been fitted really makes the best use of the space. We also went with solid-surface Corian sinks, and LED lighting below the wall units and along the edge of the countertops. In all, this has given us what we were looking for.

Website: www.rothleylodgedentalpractice.co.uk

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