What does a dentist need to do to get ready for practice growth?

by By Josh Jennings. Originally posted by Bite Magazine

What does a dentist need to do to get ready for practice growth? The experts agree it’s all a matter of timing and taking care of the details.

Taking on more staff, more chairs, and even more dental practices sounds like a lucrative business move. In theory. In practice, however, there’s a whole range of factors to consider. Growth can bring increased revenue, but it also introduces new complexities in logistics, leadership, and patient care expectations.

Dentists who are planning to scale up need to know they have the time, mental bandwidth, business acumen and, most importantly, the right kind of practice that is ready for expansion.

Ask anyone who has experienced business growth, and they’ll warn that not all practices are ready for expansion—and just recognising that lack of readiness is paramount.

Andrew Gray, business development manager at Prime Practice, cautions that not every dentist who takes on practice expansion is ready.

“A lot of people don’t achieve their optimum or maximum in their existing practice before they decide to jump to another practice,” he says. “So there are rivers of gold to be made in the existing practice, and just having another practice doesn’t mean you’re going to make any more money.”

In fact, prematurely expanding without operational efficiency or strong patient retention can stretch resources too thin and jeopardise both sites.

Dental surgeon Dr Paul Hwin, owner of multiple thriving dental practices including Melbourne’s Sapphire Dentistry, says dentists who have spent time developing their clinics might believe practice ownership and expansion as a logical next step, but it isn’t the right step for every dentist.

“Business ownership is sacrifice,” says Dr Hwin. “It takes a level of determination and commitment that goes beyond what regular clinical dentistry requires of you.”

It also requires a major investment of not just time and money, but also energy into practice leadership, team development, and the ongoing demands of entrepreneurship.

If your practice does appear to have strong potential to expand, there’s work to be done first to get it ready.

That includes assessing everything from finances and culture to your capacity to manage from a broader business perspective.

Dr Vandana Budhwar, a dental reconstructive and implant surgeon, owns three practices and two general anaesthetic facilities in Ballarat, Victoria. Along the way, she admits she had to change her focus and switch mindsets from self-employed practice owner to business owner with a long-term growth strategy.

She’s also centralised business operations across practice postcodes, syncing clinical protocols, HR platforms and more to the cloud. This shift has enabled greater efficiency and consistency across locations while freeing up time to focus on strategy and leadership.

At the same time, she’s focused on recruitment, culture and retention, offering partnership equity to dentists, along with autonomy, mentorship, cultural days, retreats, and CPD events.

You need to have your cashflow and your debt ratio very much solid. You also need to have your talent pipeline. If you don’t have enough dentists and you don’t have enough support staff, you’re not going to be able to scale. Without people, you can’t grow.

Dr Vandana Budhwar, multiple practice owner

Dr Budhwar says there are certain non-negotiables in getting ready for practice expansion. “You need to have your cashflow and your debt ratio very much solid.

“You also need to have your talent pipeline. If you don’t have enough dentists and you don’t have enough support staff, you’re not going to be able to scale. Without people, you can’t grow.

“And you need to have that vision: ‘I’m no longer going there just to see patients; I have a purpose.’”

Dr Paul Hwin was about two years out of dental school at the University of Melbourne when the opportunity to buy his uncle’s dental practice came up.

His Sapphire Dentistry practice has evolved from one chair to multiple chairs, and one dentist to an entire team of dentists.

This transformation took years of incremental improvements, staff development, and ongoing financial reinvestment. According to Dr Hwin, dentists need a level of business understanding to take on a practice. This extends to operational matters, HR, and accounting responsibilities, including turnover, profit, and cashflow. “Once you have a finger on the pulse, you can tweak and manage things as you go.”

Dr Hwin says he was responsible for 100 per cent of the billings when he bought his first practice. Now, he’s transferred that responsibility, so he can focus on business, strategy, and dentist training.

He says practice owners need to surround themselves with a strong team. “Of course there are the associate dentists, dental assistants, receptionists, and practice managers, but it also extends outside to include family, business mentors and partners. You need trusted people to bounce ideas off, to guide decisions, and to help you stay balanced when challenges arise.

He adds, “Business ownership can take a toll, so you’ve got all that to manage on top of everything else you need to do in the practice. Having a strong support network is key to both wellbeing and success.”

At Dr Budhwar’s Smile Studio in Ballarat, some anxious patients have travelled more than eight hours to receive treatment. Her practice has developed into a destination that appeals to some under-served patients who have avoided the dentist for years.

Today, it’s renowned for providing sensitive full-mouth rehabilitation and medically complex treatment for neurodivergent individuals, those who have experienced trauma, and people with other health issues.

“It became clear that we were starting to solve a problem that other clinics weren’t able to solve,” Dr Budhwar says of her Ballarat practice’s growth. “So it was time to move from the second to the third location.”

The signs it’s time for a practice to expand are easy to recognise, she adds. “You are booked out in advance and patients are waiting. You’ve got team members who are craving more responsibility, so you need to start creating a business that gives them the ability to grow.

“I think that the biggest sign is that you’ve got systems that don’t collapse. If you can take a week off, and the business hasn’t really suffered, I think it’s time to scale, because it’s possibly a big sign that what you are doing is working.”

This article originally appeared in Bite Magazine. You can see the article here.