Dental Practice Ownership
Dr Jilka discusses his career journey and the rewarding role he has as the clinical director of his six surgery specialist clinic.
Dentistry is an amazing profession and I am truly privileged to able to treat my patients. Focus on what you like and develop experience and a passion for it, you will then start enjoying the profession and naturally excel.
Amit Jilka
Journey into Dental School
I can’t say I had wanted to be a dentist from childhood but I did always want to be in the medical profession. I was lucky enough to achieve good grades to have a range of options. For me it was either Medicine or Dentistry. After arranging work experience I felt Dentistry had a good balance of being hands on and academically challenging.
I had interviews and gained acceptance from Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff. They are all great universities but for me Sheffield stood out. I graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2008.
Foundation Training
I moved back to my home city of Birmingham and worked in a predominantly NHS practice during my Vocational Training (Now DF1). I always had a passion for Oral Surgery during dental school and after completing my VT position I joined the Oral and Maxillofacial team (Head and Neck) at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham as a Senior House Officer. Here I gained advanced surgical skills as well as understanding the importance of trauma, plastic surgery/reconstruction, orthognathic surgery and cancer. Here I appreciated the importance of a multidisciplinary team (MDT). It was during this year I gained the MJDF qualification from the Royal College of Surgeons England.
I considered carrying on with oral surgery at the Birmingham Dental Hospital but eventually declined the position as I had always wanted to own a dental practice and therefore pursued this career instead.
Associate Dentist
After leaving the hospital I joined a single surgery dental practice in Wednesbury. The owners had just purchased their second practice and they had initially struggled to recruit a dentist that was happy to work in a practice independently. For me this was ideal as it would give me a taster of what life would be like to own a practice without the financial risk. This was a stressful but an enjoyable position as everything was my responsibility.
I started the process of purchasing my own practice with my wife in 2011 in Staffordshire. The process took much longer than expected. During this time I had been a dental locum at a number practices across the country as far north as the Lake District. This time enabled me to see a number of dental practices and gain tips and tricks from them. After a year later we were officially practice owners.
“Dentistry had a good balance of being hands on and academically challenging.”
— Dr Amit Jilka
Practice Owner
Owning a practice comes with its pro and cons. You can have full clinical freedom, you get to lead a team, drive and shape a business and a good long term income. However having only trained as a Dentist with very little business skills running a practice is stressful; there are spiralling costs, never ending paperwork, pressure from authorities (NHS, CQC, LAT), pressure from employees, local community and countless hours of overtime in non-clinical activities.
When we purchased the practice it was a 2 surgery NHS practice with one full time dentist and one part time offering routine dentistry with no advanced equipment or computers.
Over the years we invested heavily into the practice and expanded our team of clinicians, nurses, management and admin. We are now a 6 surgery mixed practice with 9 dentists, 2 Dental Hygiene and Therapists, a Clinical Dental Technician, 3 visiting specialists in Endodontics, Periodontics and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. Our team offers a comprehensive implant service, IV and RA sedation, orthodontics and aesthetic dentistry. We are fully computerised with an on-site Cone Beam CT Scanner, intraoral scanner and intraoral cameras. We have created an atmosphere of learning with most of our dental nurses having extended duties with in-house training available for dentists and nurses in IV and RA sedation, impression taking (digital and traditional) and dental implants.
Recently refurbished advanced clinic with ceiling mounted TV’s and aquarium lighting. A subtle touch for our anxious sedation patients
Dental Career Pathway and Training
I have always had a passion for learning and wanted to encompass my surgical training in my previous posts with aesthetic dentistry. I initially carried out a 1 year Cosmetic Dental seminars training course in London which taught the fundamentals in aesthetic dentistry. At the same time I trained in IV sedation at SAAD and Yorkshire Sedation training. This then enabled me to offer our patients IV sedation. This goes hand in hand with aesthetic dentistry and oral surgery. Following this I did my Implant training with the Royal College of Surgeons over a few years and visited prestigious institutes in Germany. After being mentored on a number of cases I continued offering more advanced implant dentistry for my patients and continued with training at the Campbell Academy in Nottingham.
I also wanted to ensure we offered a comprehensive sedation service for our patients and therefore trained with the RA Coach Richard Charon in RA sedation. Having become an experienced sedationist I am now an official Sedation mentor for IV and RA sedation.
Current Role
I moved away from NHS dentistry a number of years ago and now focus my work on dental implants, private dentistry, mentoring and ‘smile makeovers’. As I took on more of these types of cases it was crucial for us to offer a range of advanced services and therefore we have now moved to a more multidisciplinary approach to our patients in order for us the achieve the best result for the patient. I truly love taking a patient with a multitude of issues and solving and improving their function and form. I love having the support of my excellent team of nurses, hygienists, treatment coordinators and clinicians in delivering this outcome for our patients.
Future ambitions
I would like to see the practice expand its clinical team and move into digital dentistry further with the purchase of in house milling machines. I would personally like to mentor more and offer more training for our team to improve our patient experience.
Final Words
Dentistry is an amazing profession and I am truly privileged to able to treat my patients. Unfortunately, with increasing litigation, patient demands and professional bodies demands the career is extremely stressful for many of us. I would say its important to focus on what you like and develop experience and a passion for it, you will then start enjoying the profession and naturally excel.