The Dentalessence family

The dental industry faced mammoth change amidst the global pandemic the gap between the great and the average widening more than ever. What exactly is it that separates the two? Dentalessence share their experience of how they began, where they are going and the ongoing battle of changing the ‘age old’ perception of dentistry

If you took a national survey of how people feel about visiting the dentist, it would be safe to say that the majority of that feedback would be negative.

“When we decided to embark on this journey, opening a group of practices - site by site - altering that perception was our sole focus. It’s an all-encompassing task, requiring all arms of the business to be in sheer synergy.”

Synergy which starts at home. As a brother-sister partnership, owners Dr Sachin Anand and Dr Shalini Anand share an inherent talent in dentistry and more importantly, it’s compassionate delivery.

Sachin says “I decided to buy my own practice as a principal when the new NHS contract kicked in during 2006. It seemed like the right time for me to venture off with my own ideas and aspirations. Knowing that Shal was due to qualify a few years after this, it would allow us to then move forward with further plans to expand as a brother-sister team.”

In 2009 the pair branched out, acquiring a second practice in Weybridge, followed by a third in Worthing, a fourth in Sompting and then their latest acquisition in Haywards Heath. Shal says “Our current focus is streamlining our processes, making the patient journey as simple as possible and our delivery seemless. The goal is to be regionally recognised as the best dental practices in Surrey and Sussex, which we feel we have made headway towards”

The right team; Many of our staff members have been with us for years and are like family to us. We have a very diverse mix of staff and clinicians, bringing a plethora of skills and personalities to the brand. We take a lot of time to get to know each of our staff members on a personal level as best as possible, supporting them and understanding their personal needs. As a result; they each comprehend and buy into the ethos of the business.

Our clinicians take the time to deliver an informative and calm service, explaining everything in detail every step of the way. It is not uncommon to see our patients emerge from our surgeries raucously laughing! We know that a visit to the dentist isn’t going to be the highlight of someone’s day, so we go the extra mile to make it as pleasant as we can! Feedback: Sachin and I each work across the five practices, meaning we have a microscopic perspective (pardon the pun!) of each of the sites and learned in our infancy that no feedback is bad feedback! We listen intently to what our patients have to say. We pride ourselves on being ‘patient-led’, if something isn’t being received well publicly, we simply change it. Our staff are confident in relaying feedback and we are not too proud to change what isn’t perfect.

Compassion: We strive to make each patient feel valued and cared for. We understand a “one size fits all” approach absolutely does not work in this industry and that each patient has their own individual needs and expectations. Taking the time to get to know these and tailoring the service to those requirements, is imperative for a healthy and long-term patient/dentist relationship.”

“It goes without saying that the pandemic threw some very unforeseen and unavoidable spanners in the works. We have worked hard to navigate through those challenges and are extremely fortunate to say that the road to repair has not been as harrowing as it may have been for some. That being said, we are under no illusion that further change will need to be embraced in this ever-evolving situation, so it’s difficult to accurately forecast exactly how we will grow from here. Technology in dentistry is pretty fast-paced and the market is regularly stunned with the next innovative creation, so even when it appears we’re stood still, the business is expanding; adding various digital methods and alternative treatments to its repertoire will be the main focus for now.

dentalessence Burgess Hill 69 Station Road, Burgess Hill 01444 232 292 burgesshill@dentalessence.co.uk

detalessence Weybridge 39 St Mary’s Road, Weybridge 01932 857 998 weybridge@dentalessence.co.uk

We have been banking with Natwest Business for over 7 years now. Charlotte Winbolt is our account manager and her customer service has been second to none. I can say this with full confidence as we have business accounts with other banks and the service from Natwest stands out by far. They keep in touch with you on a regular basis to check if your business needs are being met. During the pandemic, they were very forthcoming in providing financial support to help our business recover. They have a great understanding of our sector.

What we know for certain though, is that we’re committed to continuing to strengthen the brand in the areas which we currently operate, with the possibility of adding a few more to the litter! Watch this space.”

detalessence Worthing 19a Broadwater Street West, Worthing 01903 823 838 worthing@dentalessence.co.uk

dentalessence Sompting 43 Busticle Lane, Sompting 01903 754224 sompting@dentalessence.co.uk

dentalessence Haywards Heath 49 Hazelgrove Road, Haywards Heath 01444 452112/ 01444 458847 haywardsheath@dentalessence.co.uk

The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UK is committed to working with all countries and joining forces with civil society, companies and people on the frontline of climate change to inspire climate action ahead of COP26. The four main targets are:

1 Secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach 2 Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats 3 Mobilise finance 4 Work together to deliver That’s the official line out of the way and now for some reality. Sadly, they have very little hope of achieving anything for, as usual, there will be hours of talks, hours of procrastination, days of countries saying what they can’t do followed by years of failure of leadership, failure of will, and the continuation of bribery in third world countries from logging companies, mining companies and toxic landfill use.

The Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 had most of the same goals, just about all will be missed.The USA pulled out and China had no intention of actually agreeing to anything. It is generally accepted that we do not have a a cat in hell’s chance of keeping the planet’s temperature rise to under 1.5 degrees. So what’s the problem? If we leave out the obvious one of useless politicians, then the main problem is us - the general public. We talk a good game, we all agree this is serious, we all agree something has to be done urgently - but by someone else!

The developed west, who caused most of these problems, needs to stump up hundreds of billions of dollars each and every year to pay less developed countries to preserve their forests. Brazil alone makes $2.75 billion from logging in the Amazon and they log an area the size of Switzerland every year.

The price is high for what humans have done over the past 100 years and, it would appear, that most are simply not willing to pay it. Look what happened when one UK newspaper mentioned there might be a shortage of fuel at petrol stations.

Poorer countries are being told by the west to reduce their land clearance, stop chopping down their rainforests, preserve their wild animals, stop burning coal, stop dumping plastic and much more. Can you imagine their disgust at being told this by the very countries that have been encouraging and paying them to do it for 100 years, have been raping their resources to fuel our drive to modernisation and industrialisation and have enjoyed all the fruits without a thought for them and the poverty and deprivation many of them suffer. Now we have cocked it all up we are telling them that they must stop trying to do what we have been doing for generations. It’s a little like the west gorging on ice-cream and then telling the poor countries to do all the exercise.

In 2021, Earth reached a bleak milestone: The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere hit 150% of its value in preindustrial times, according to the U.K. Met Office. To prevent the worst effects of climate change, the world needs to decrease net emissions of carbon dioxide to zero by 2050. That is ZERO in 29 years time.

But even if we were to achieve this goal, it wouldn't put a sudden brake on the temperature rise, because it takes time to see the effects of CO2 reductions on global temperatures; the negative impacts of global warming will continue for decades. Depressed? Yes, we all should be.

In this special feature on the Climate Catastrophe, we have highlighted just a few of the major problems facing us all. Not future generations but us, today, right now.