New versus established

Acquiring a well-established dental practice has many advantages. You have a ready-made patient base, your surgery is equipped with everything you need to start practising on day one and you can be assured people know where the practice is.

There are a couple of challenges to this, though fortunately they are not insurmountable. One is some patients may not feel comfortable with a new dentist springing up where their familiar dentist had been looking after their teeth for years. Another is recognising the need for modernisation and putting your mark on your new surgery without alienating the patients which came with the practice.

This is the situation that faced Nihir Shah when he acquired the Stag Lane Dental Centre in October 2007. Located in Edgware, Stag Lane was established in 1983 by Harvey Sevitt who stayed until his retirement in September 2008 having served the community for 35 years.

Nihir said: ‘I chose to acquire the Stag Lane practice as it was very well established in its area with a strong base of roughly 1,000 private patients. In addition, Harvey has a similar ethos to myself with regards to how a practice should treat its patients; using quality dentistry with careful attention to patient care and high standards.’