Sab Bhandal, CEO of Obex, explains why Obex is a crucial leader in Smart Dentistry and how it could help with the next step in your dental career.
Finding where to build or develop a career in dentistry is a big decision. There are many essential factors for consideration, such as pay, rewards, surgery conditions, nursing support and opportunities for training and growth.
My advice for anyone looking to progress their career would be to join a company with well-developed plans for its future. It would also be about embracing opportunities where there is investment across the business and a difference in purpose. With that in mind, I hope you will consider Obex Dental. Let me explain why.
The mindset of Obex Dental has always been one of innovation. Dentistry should be about more than just equipment and product development.
Here at Obex Dental, we are finding innovations that can help solve challenges and improve lives – this is why we are investing in what we call smart dentistry. The journey getting here has been one of learning and passion, but one I am incredibly proud of.
Beyond general dentistry
I founded Obex in 1995, growing our independent group from one to 11 practices across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
We believe in dentistry for difference, which means we go beyond general dentistry services and look to make a further positive impact on the healthcare levels of the communities we have the privilege to serve and in supporting our staff.
Across all our practices, we serve a range of communities with NHS and private work, including at our specialist centre for dentistry in Harpenden (Hertfordshire Centre for Dentistry), which supports scores of other referring practices in the region with specialist dentistry treatments.
Now, whether you work for an independent, group or corporate, you will be aware of how today, the challenge any dental business faces are how we can deliver an oral healthcare service fit for the age we live in.
The after-effects of the pandemic in labour and its resulting pressures on funding, and now the economic shocks from the war in Ukraine, are putting all healthcare services under incredible strain. Yet, expectations for a high-quality service remain, and patients rightfully expect progress.
My team and I nurture a dynamic business attracting new talent and helping develop clinicians, nurses, and support staff across our business.
Ready for the challenges ahead
Our mantra is to help people be the best version of themselves. So we take a personalised approach for each team member, helping them individually to achieve a progression pathway.
A point of pride is that our team regularly tells us that aspects such as this and our investment in the latest equipment for every surgery, well-organised operations support, and a commitment to helping find work-life balance sets us apart.
For me, that is still not enough. To deliver on my promise to help enact change in the industry and provide a healthcare service ready for the challenges of the years ahead, I saw that we need to think differently.
I am passionate and loyal to finding solutions for our communities with significant challenges. For some time, we have been developing a new side to our business: Smart Dentistry.
We are transforming our business through the benefits of better oral care and wider healthcare for our patients and our valuable team.
Early adopters of technology
Across the Obex business, we continue to invest in the latest equipment. We were one of the very first digitised practices in the 90s. We were then one of the first adopters of digital dentistry to improve the delivery of examinations, diagnoses, treatments, or procedures.
Crucially, our Smart Dentistry programme is how we can deploy other digital technologies and systems to improve the patient experience.
We are now investing in new cloud-based systems spanning; patient communications, practice management, team training and clinical operations to bridge the gap between traditional dentistry and digital dentistry. This all helps make the experience of our patients and staff genuinely exceptional.
To continue that exceptional agenda, we are shaping a training academy for all our staff to ensure they have access to the best, up-to-date training.
This is a critical differentiator between us and other dental practices and allows our team to progress, and learn more in the areas they want to grow. This enables us to provide an even better service to our patients.
Connecting patients
I’ve always been very self-aware that education about what it means to visit the dentist is the industry’s Achilles heel.
Patients across the country only come to us out of a need, rarely a desire. We want to connect to our patients through technology and innovate the healthcare industry, being a chosen and sort after provider.
I would say ‘everyone knows’ that oral health is a litmus indicator for general personal health, but not ‘everyone’ does, and we want to share that message as far-reaching as we can.
At Obex, we also have the capacity to deliver further healthcare services for our communities, such as the diabetes tests that nearly half of our practices are offering as part of a trial for the NHS – this has already seen some of our team be life savers by supporting an early diagnosis!
We want to form better connections with patients to help and support them, whether for pre and postnatal care, children, adolescents, adults, older patients, or those in care. The connectivity from our Smart Dentistry thinking will make that difference.
If anything I’ve said resonates with you, and you want to join a different kind of dental business, there are many opportunities here. The team and I would welcome the opportunity to explain more.
For more information visit www.obexdental.co.uk/recruitment.
