The Spicer Road Dental Practice is looking for the right person to join their team!

The Spicer Road dental practice is looking for the right person to join their team. Could that person be you?

We require a qualified dental nurse to join our team in January 2015.

The person we want must fulfil the following criteria. Could it be you?

"We need a qualified dental nurse to work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 20th January 2015 at this independently run, private, traditional family practice within the heart of Exeter.

You must be caring, a great communicator, customer focused and an active team player.

The practice is fully computerised with digital x -rays. Our brilliant team look forward to welcoming someone to join the the practice for a long term position at a happy practice where we offer high quality dentistry and put patients first.

Applicants MUST be GDC registered with and up to date CPD file, DBS check and vaccinations.

Contact Practice Manager Jo Anderson at the Spicer Road Dental Practice on 01392 272937"

We look forward to hearing from you.

Some Dental Reading and websites you may find interesting

It's been a while since I have written on anything dental. In keeping up with my commitments to lifelong learning I'd like to share some books. websites and even podcasts that I have found interesting the last few months.

First up, I'd like to share two blogs by dental business coach Chris Barrow, Chris describes himself as a marmite character either loved or hated by the dental profession. I fall into the former category, I find his writings and presentations to be both thought provoking and challenging. His two blogs can be found on the 7connections website and his personal blog "letters from an imperfectionist" here.

Second, I would like to recommend a book by Ashley Latter. The book is called "You are Worth It." I read this book earlier in the year, it is an easy read and packed with tips and knowledge to help dentists become more confident and to achieve the fees their skill reflects.

This is how Ashley describes his book:-

"Do you sometimes reduce the price of your treatments in your head because you feel your patients cannot afford them? Does talking of money in your surgery make you feel uncomfortable? Are you worried about quoting a price due to the fear you might get a negative response from your patient? Do you feel your services are worth more than you get paid for them? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then I promise you will enjoy reading this book."

You kind find a link to Ashley's site here. 

Now two other websites I recommend, first Mark Oborn, Mark offers Dental Marketing, website and SEO consulting for dental practices, he also blogs on this too. His blog can be found here. Also I would like to take the time to recommend Kevin Rose. He is a business coach and writes about business leadership in dentistry, his blog can be found here.

Finally I'd like to write about a podcast, I discovered at the end of last year. The Thriving Dentist Show is broadcast weekly and can be downloaded to your MP3 device. It is presented by American Dental Coach Gary Takacs. It's usual format is that Gary will have an interview with someone who is an expert or respected opinion in a particular area of dentistry. Despite being slightly biased to an American audience, he often has British contributors on the podcast. It's worth a listen and is available here.

Our Customer satisfaction Survey

The Spicer Road Dental Practice is a member of Denplan Excel.



What does this mean for you?

This means that as a practice, the team at Spicer Road Dental Practice have achieved the high standards required to join the Denplan Excel Accreditation Programme, developed by Denplan. The programme helps dentists to develop better relationships with you, our patients, through good communication and improving your experience of coming to the dentist.

Denplan Excel is the first accreditation scheme to be approved by the Patient’s Association and was developed as a result of studies showing that patients who enjoy a good relationship and effective communication with their dentists are less anxious about examinations and treatment.

As a member of this groundbreaking scheme we are regularly monitored to see that we maintain these high standards. We first achieved Excel accreditation three years ago and  have been re-accredited twice since, most recently in July 2011.

We are delighted to achieve these high standards of patient care and see our Denplan Excel Accreditation as a badge to be worn with pride.


We recently undertook a patient survey and had the results returned to us in July. I thought I should show you some of the great feedback we've had from our patients. these comments have been transcribed exactly as written by patients. Only obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected.

"Convenient, competent and comfortable"

"Very helpful, friendly all round good guys"

"In spite of my age(86) I am always treated with friendliness and respect"

"Accessibility and availability: feeling of confidence and trust"

"Friendly reception,spacious clean waiting area.Competent dentist, appointments on time. relaxing environment"

"Friendly dentist, nurse and hygienist. Cleanliness is wonderful"

"I like my dentist, very skilled. Appreciate the text reminders"

"My dentist is fantastic. He takes time with me and talks with me about dental problems no other practice dentist does this"

"Very local and always able to get an appointment at short notice. Friendly staff"

"Prompt on time appointments. Friendliness of reception staff"

Its great for the team at Spicer Road Dental Practice to be shown such great appreciation by our patients and we would like to thank those that replied to the survey for their comments.

If you would like to join the practice, why not contact our reception team on 01392 272408 or visit or practice website for more information about us.

New technology at Spicer Road Dental Practice

At the Spicer Road Dental Practice we are constantly looking at ways to improve our patient's experience at their regular dental visits.


Last week we installed a digital x-ray scanner, this will mean that we can get crystal clear x-ray images on our computer monitor screen within seconds. This will allow us as dentists to provide patients with an accurate diagnosis and information within seconds of us taking any x-rays of your mouth.


We are finding this new piece of equipment remarkably useful and many patients have been amazed at seeing their x-ray images appearing before their eyes.

If you are interested in joining us as a patient why not visit out website for more information or call our reception team for an appointment on 01392 272408.

Spring Clean your Smile!

Yes folks, it's that time of year again to think about Spring Cleaning Your Smile!


We are running this fabulous offer until the end of June 2012.


Is a brighter whiter smile something that interests you?  If so, contact our reception team on 01392 272408 and make an appointment. Our team at the Spicer Road Dental Practice looks forward to hearing from you.


A fabulous smile could be yours in a matter of weeks!

Terms and conditions apply.

Mouthguards, Why we dentists think they are important.

Half term is here and it possible that many of our patient's have taken up a new sport at school.


Protect your smile, it is the only one you have, and to damage it would be devastating. It will also mean you may need many years of work to repair your smile.


Here's a poster that we are displaying at our dental practice.

Prices for a custom fitted mouthuard start from £59.

For appointments contact our reception team on 01392 272408, or visit our website.

A new day and new crowns for a patient.

I had seen this patient for several years, he recently told me that he was unhappy with the appearance of his smile. He was concerned that his existing crowns were not in an ideal position, the crowns showed black lines adjacent to his gums and that the colour wasn't ideal.


After much discussion we decided to replace the patient's existing crowns with two new all ceramic (porcelain) crowns. We would also alter the position of one of his incisor teeth and alter the teeth so that the black lines would no longer be seen adjacent to the gums.


Here is a picture of the patient before his treatment.

We decided to fabricate this patients crowns from Emax, a ceramic made by Ivoclar Vivadent. Emax is a great material that combines amazing aethetics with great strength, and is ideal for use in situations where a great aesthetic result is needed for example when replacing incisor teeth.

Here is my patient after treatment. 

The patient and I were really happy with the appearance of his new crowns and his new smile.


Does this sort of dentistry interest you? If it does visit our website or contact our reception team to make an appointment for a dental health check and a chat on how we can help you gain the amazing smile you have always wanted.

The snow arrived in Exeter. A winter wonderland in chaos!

Today, was a strange day. I was awake fairly early to let the dog out, the clock was showing 5:30 am, there was still only a faint dusting of snow on the ground. A few flakes were blowing in the air. Within an hour it was snowing heavily and a good inch of snow was lying on the ground. It continued snowing heavily during the morning. Exeter started to look like a snowy winter wonderland.

I arrived at the practice to find three inches of snow on our entrance path and spent the first 10 minutes after I arrived clearing snow from the path to make things safe for the arrival of our patients.

I went back inside to get a well deserved cup of coffee to find that we were cancelling patients because some of our colleagues were snowed in and couldn't get into Exeter. So, a strange day began. Initially things were busy, my first group of treatments arrived and were all treated satisfactorily, during this time the weather worsened, the snow was falling more heavily and gradually settling. This was probably the heaviest snow I'd seen since living in Exeter. Then the cancellations began, patients probably quite sensibly didn't want to travel in such awful conditions and who can blame them! By lunchtime I had two patients left for the afternoon and by 3pm I was finished and heading home.

I did wander around Exeter and did see some amusing sights, a snowman in the middle of the main roundabout at Paris Street, and a poster of David Cameron urging us to vote Conservative being pelted with snowballs. Our nurses even made two snowmen in the front garden of the practice!

More snow on the way so I expect to see more chaos later in the week!