Dr Fazeela Khan-Osborne explains how she successfully relocated and renovated her dental practice on Harley Street, London, during the first national lockdown of 2020.
I’ve been qualified as a dental practitioner for over 25 years, working as an oral surgeon in several hospitals before buying my first practice. I also completed my master’s degree in restorative dentistry because I wanted to be able to handle both the surgical and restorative aspect of dental treatment. This piqued my interest in implant dentistry, which is what I predominantly focus on now.
Over the last 20 years, I have educated GDPs worldwide on all aspects of implant dentistry, now primarily teaching from my practice. I recently launched a new one-to-one dental implant course led by international leaders from the field, and several major players within UK implant dentistry. This was a key motivator for my practice renovation on Harley Street, as I wanted to ensure I had specialised facilities for performing implant dentistry in London’s West End.
I also bought my current practice knowing that it would be the last one I would build before I retired. As I had built four practices in the past, I was keen to apply everything I’d learned from those experiences to the new project in order to create a really safe, secure and beautiful treatment environment for my patients, my team and myself. There was a true need to get it right with help from the right people.
Another important motivator for taking on this project was the fact that the lease on my previous practice was due to end on 16th July 2020. At the beginning of the year, I had found new premises at 80 Harley Street via a colleague and had, essentially, paid my deposit and signed the paperwork for it. Renovation work was scheduled to start on 20th March 2020, with the idea to reach completion by June. The practice would then close for two weeks for the relocation whilst ensuring minimum disruption to the business. Of course, a national lockdown was imposed on 23rd March 2020, which ground the whole process to a halt.
We had to plan the entire project over Zoom, though lockdown provided us the time to do so. Clark Dental, Elton Jaku from ME&K Ltd, myself and my daughter – an architecture graduate – spent thousands of hours planning every detail of the renovation, from sockets and filtration systems, to units and drawers. As the building contractor and project manager, ME&K Ltd was amazing at working with everybody to stick to the brief because I was very specific about what I wanted. I even had a virtual diary that I sent to every single contractor so that in any room of the practice, on any given day during the project, everybody knew who was doing what and when – like a wartime strategy.
The renovation eventually started on 11th May during lockdown. Under social distancing measures, it was very difficult to carry out the demolition work with so many people on site, going in and out of the building having to check their temperatures each time. Moreover, we couldn’t get many of the materials delivered – half way through the project, we didn’t have any plaster. I ended up driving to builders’ merchants to pick up materials just to keep the renovation on schedule, which Clark Dental was integral to ensuring.
When it came to the supply of my dental equipment, I chose to work with Clark Dental as it is a family-run business and an A-dec supplier. I’d always had a good experience with the team as well. Technical Director, Matt Rowlingson, had met me in late 2019 and assessed my old practice, as I was intent on relocating two of my A-dec dental chairs and investing in two new ones. Through Clark Dental, I ended up refurbishing my older A-dec chairs with new leather seating, overhead lights, delivery units and other features.
I’ve had A-dec chairs since the day I qualified because they are phenomenal pieces of kit. As such, it was very natural for me to invest in a top-of-the-range A-dec chair again. I bought an A-dec 500 from Clark Dental with all the lighting and other features that came with it. I also purchased a NOMAD® Pro 2 handheld x-ray as this was useful for my surgery room with a glass wall, which was unable to accommodate a wall-mounted unit. We even replaced £40,000 worth of dental handpieces.
I invested in top-of-the-range equipment as I had done so in the past. I wanted to make sure that everything was infallible and I was delighted with what I received. I’m a great believer in doing your research and buying the best you can because, in the long-term, you save money.
We were carrying out a £700,000 renovation with massive lighting and construction components on a Grade II listed building, which comes with its own set of challenges. For instance, it has a fresco ceiling in one of the surgeries, so we had to work within the planning consent in order to build certain architectural features that would enable us to install a glass wall in the room without interfering with the fresco ceiling, which also had to be restored. As a result, lights had to be mounted on the wall and we came across multiple problems that meant we had to get a structural engineer in – a particularly difficult task in the middle of lockdown.
The two most important companies involved in any practice renovation are the builder and the dental equipment supplier. All I would say to anyone who is looking to take on a similar project is to work with companies that have a track record. Ask your colleagues whom they have worked with and don’t simply go online. Engage with professionals like Clark Dental, whose team is reliable, trustworthy and has good ethics. You’ve only got one pot of capital so it is important to maximise your investment, especially during these times when all of us are not earning the same as before the pandemic.
I built a practice beyond my wildest imaginations as a result of the people I chose to work with. Looking back on the project, it’s a miracle we achieved what we did in the midst of a global pandemic. When barriers came up, everyone put their heads together to find a solution and never did anyone think that these barriers couldn’t be overcome. I chose to work with a company that aligned with the way I do business and, for that, I will have a lifelong relationship with Clark Dental. It is the type of company that I would always wish to do business with.
Even when I have called the team at 5.30pm on any given day, nothing I have asked them for help with has been too much trouble, which is an approach that I applaud and respect. The team has put me first on every occasion and I couldn’t have achieved the high-quality practice renovation I have without Clark Dental. I can’t fault them.
