Happily ensconced in his practice Revive Dental Care in Monton a short distance from Manchester, Ben Atkins lives in Cheshire with his wife and two young children, a son aged three years and a daughter of 18 months.
Having qualified in Sheffield in 1998 and spent a fascinating exchange for four months at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm through the European ‘Erasmus’ scheme, Ben took only two years before he started Revive in 2000. Given his interest in business and specifically its application to dentistry such a swift move is probably not so surprising.
The Monton site has grown considerably since the early days of a single dentist, single surgery practice, to the nine-dentist, four-surgery award winning practice it is today. But this is only one of six practices in the Revive group, the others being located at Davyhulme, Ancoats, Salford and Stockport. Ben also runs the emergency out-of-hours service, expanding his team to over 60 staff and dentists.
As well as running the practice, Ben lectured at Manchester Dental School and undertook specialist complex restorative work at the Ordsall Dental Centre for Salford residents. He also mentored children from Levenshulme High School, who are interested in becoming dentists. It is hardly any wonder then that Ben is a past winner of the national Dentist of the Year Award and Northwest Young Dentist of the Year. Ben is press and parliamentary representative for the British Dental Association and in his younger days was the chair of the Local Young Dentist Committee and a member of the National Young Dentist Committee, advising the BDA on matters that affected the young dentists. This year he will become a clinical advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) looking into oral health and the dental practice.
Drive
Ben believes the key to great dentistry is communication. He is particularly interested in smile design and making his patients feel comfortable. Ben describes himself as having a passion for hard to reach groups of patients and the range of services available in his practice, from sedation to tooth whitening via implants and orthodontics, attest to this commitment. He is also passionate about prevention seeing this as the foundation of good oral health.
The belief in prevention is one of the reasons Ben advises patients to use a power toothbrush. He says: “I think that not advocating an electric toothbrush is all but negligent nowadays.” Ben maintains that he can tell if a new patient to the surgery is a power or a manual-brusher.
The recent Cochrane Review came out emphatically in favour of power brushes as they remove more plaque over short and longer terms than manual brushing. The review, the third of such reviews in recent years, also re-emphasised the superior plaque removal ability of oscillating-rotating brushes. Enabling patients to try out a power brush in the practice is a plus, Ben believes, as it allows them to feel the benefits within a ‘safe’ environment and with people whose recommendation they trust.
Pilot to the future
As a pilot practice for the new NHS contract, Ben feels that the way that the test scheme has been designed to follow the patient journey is a logical process but expresses the widely held view that the real crunch will come when the financial side of the proposals is added. Nevertheless he is clear that a skill mix is essential for the practice of the future and urges his colleagues to try it out for themselves. He believes that direct access has its place too, once the profession has got its head round it, and demonstrably practices what he preaches by employing a full range of DCPs including clinical dental technicians.
References available on request.