Clifton thriving under new ownership

Clinic going from strength to strength with growing team of experienced professionals and expanded services

12 February, 2019 / editorial
 

When Allan Pirie made the decision to begin winding down a little, he was faced with a number of options and decisions. Having spent the last 17 years building a highly respected implant referral clinic, Allan knew finding a successor was going to be a difficult decision to make, especially when he was not quite ready to hang up his high speed just yet!

Clifton Dental & Implant Clinic’s acquisition in March 2018 by the Cheltenham-based Portman Dental Care family meant that Allan was able to remain within the clinic as clinical lead, while ensuring the services that the clinic had provided to many referring colleagues over the past 17 years would not only remain in place, but would continue to thrive and further develop the foundations that Allan had put in place.

Building a successful clinic

While expanding the range of services available over a number of years, Allan’s reputation has allowed him the luxury of selecting experienced clinicians with a similar passion for providing exceptional quality patient care, building a strong team of skilled clinicians at Clifton Dental.

Ross Henderson joined the team in 2010, while completing his master’s degree in endodontics introducing a private endodontic referral service.

Over the past five years the implant team has continued to grow with the welcomed addition of respected local dentist Mark Sorrentino and Edinburgh-based dentist Helen Young, both of whom bring a huge wealth of experience in implant and restorative dentistry.

Mark is a well-known name in dentistry, having previously built his own successful practice in Ayrshire. Since selling this practice he has maintained strong links with his successors, providing both business and clinical mentoring.

2019 sees Helen celebrate a remarkable 40 years in dentistry! During this time Helen has seen almost all aspects of dentistry, including spells in both general dentistry and maxillofacial units.  Helen has lived and worked in Australia and perhaps one of her proudest achievements remains providing both clinical training and dental treatment within aid projects
in Tanzania, something which Helen continues to do today.

Allan’s passion for learning and continued development has made him a sought after mentor among local dentists undertaking post graduate implant training, as well as developing a popular Refer & Restore programme.

One of Allan’s most recent mentees, Dr Catriona Easton, has since joined the clinical team at Clifton Dental & Implant Clinic. Catriona graduated from Glasgow University in 2007 and completed her VT in Anstruther in Fife. She went on to spend the next eight years splitting her time between dental practices and oral and maxillofacial surgery units in Glasgow, Livingston and Inverness. Today, Catriona is undertaking a Diploma in Implant Dentistry at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in her spare time.

Catriona brings considerable experience in both sedation and oral surgery and is looking forward to developing a surgical referral service at Clifton Dental. Her expertise adds oral surgery and sedation to the implant, endodontic, CT, periodontic and cosmetic referral services offered at Clifton Dental & Implant Clinic.

Forging strong partnerships with referring colleagues has played a central role in the success of Clifton Dental & Implant Clinic. They are very conscious of the vulnerabilities often felt by dentists when referring a patient and are committed to building a trusted and collaborative referral service for referring dentists, with a first-class experience for patients. This commitment has seen the clinic build a trusted referral base of more than 100 practices across the country.

Their clinicians in both implant and endodontic fields have always had an open-door policy, where they are delighted to welcome referring dentists and their teams into our surgeries to gain an insight into their patients’ experience.

This enthusiasm for involving referring colleagues in implant dentistry has led to the development of Clifton Dental’s popular Refer & Restore programme, where they work closely with referring colleagues, providing everything from team CPD lunches to restorative training modules, where the clinicians learn to complete the implant restorative phase in their practice.

Refer & Restore Training Program

In order to address their referring dentists’ desire to be more involved in their patients’ dental implant treatments, Clifton Dental have extended their ‘Relax’ implant restoration program, and in conjunction with Dentsply Sirona Implants, have developed it into a three-unit Refer & Restore modular training programme. This has proved hugely popular with many practices joining the first two cycles, learning to develop not only their clinical skills
but the entire team’s approach to implant dentistry.

Future of Clifton

The future for Clifton Dental & Implant Clinic is looking great. Portman Dental Care is fully supportive of all that Allan has built and continues to support the practice to thrive under its new ownership. One of the benefits of being part of a group is the administrative support, ensuring dentists have more time to spend doing the dentistry they love, while providing support to develop skills, training and referral programmes further. And as Portman guarantees their practices clinical freedom, the level of service and technology you have come to know and expect from Clifton Dental & Implant Clinic won’t be changing.

Allan Pirie told us “We are looking forward to the upcoming year and extend a warm welcome to the practice for any local dentists wanting  to find out more about our referral or training programmes.”

Tags: 2019 / clifton / implant guide / new ownership

Categories: Magazine

Comments are closed here.

Scottish Dental magazine