GAP Australasian-Dentist-Mar Apr 2019

Category 110 AustrAlAsiAn Dentist relationship work, ekera Dental needs to make sure that you are comfortable with the settlement price and are benefiting from your ongoing contributions so that both the clinical and financial imperatives are balanced. ekera Dental achieves this through an incentive on above target profit and offers principals the ability to continue on after their contact term, which many of the ekera principals have taken up – rob stresses, “staying many years after the sale.” “it’s like being in a marriage. You can’t dictate terms if you want it to work. the only way to keep it going is on the basis of mutual trust and respect. that relational mindset is foundational to ekera’s ongoing success.” u For more insights on selling a practice – and what pitfalls to avoid – Rob Harwood is available to answer your queries at 0418-322-424 “Most importantly, you should not lose your autonomy to run the clinic the way you are comfortable with.” “through ekera Dental, rob enthuses, “the company offers all the good points that corporates bring and remove all the bad points. the “Good Points” translates as such: All the “supports” including Administrative and Hr management, buying power for consumables (without dictating brands and supplier), etc. in terms of countering negatives, rob explains that the ekera group has a philosophy “never to enter a practice without being invited.” “in short, ekera Dental respects the practice principals, including their choices on what and where to get supplies, how to run the clinic, who to employ, etc. “As all ekera Dental’s practice principals would have you know, ekera is not about an acquisition but more about a relationship. in order to make this team member at the dental group, he insists having to go through a similar due diligence process, as other practice owners contemplating a sale. “not all corporates are the same,” rob stresses. the indefatigable dental businessman says that ekera Dental was specifically created as a “non- Corporate Corporate.” it alludes to their non-corporate management style while wearing the “corporate” badge as a practice acquisition firm. “selling to the right corporate is critical to your exit strategy. You need to be careful of clawbacks and commission adjustments. some corporates will adjust commission if you’re not hitting your targets.” “You need to avoid corporates that dictate where you get your consumables and which lab to work with. these are very personal choices you make as a clinician and if changed, can dramatically affect your bottom-line and the way you and your clinicians work.” aQuIsItIons t he lecture is organised by Dr Derry rogers and russell Young, the master ceramists and prosthetist at Omega Ceramics Dental lab in Melbourne. the three first met when Dr rogers and russell Young were invited by Dr robert Coachman (Christian’s father) to lecture in sao Paolo Brazil in 1994 to a class of dental and technician undergraduates. Christian Coachman (then a 19 year old training as a dental technician) was in the class. the youthful student was most impressed with the speakers and the topics: ‘Cosmetic choreography of smile design,’ from Derry and ‘refractory veneers in smile creation,’ from russell. Derry and russell continued to develop these techniques in their respective Melbourne practices, creating the precursor to Digital smile Design, but in analogue format. Christian Coachman graduated as a dental ceramist working in his father’s clinic in sao Paolo and his creative ceramic skills were noticed by many leading clinicians around the world. He saw the need for patient visual recording to provide insight to the ceramist as to how the teeth fitted in the patients face as well as a photographic colour overview. this started his journey down the smile design pathway to design the smiles he was asked to build in ceramics. His lecturing role started to develop as the changing tide in world dentistry related to cosmetics was in full swing and he shared his time between the delivery of fine ceramic work as well as developing the digital design process behind the DsD brand. He subsequently invented the first concept of facially driven aesthetics. Meanwhile Dr rogers was developing his Dr institute, training dentists in smile design internationally and russell was building his reputation as one of the leading international ceramists in smile design. Christian Coachman returned to dental school in Brazil and graduated as a dentist, thus complementing his skills in smile design from a clinician’s perspective and as a ceramist. Christian is now one of the worlds’ most famous and influential speakers, doingworld tours sponsored byQuintessence and has lectured to over 100,000 dentists in 30 countries. His creative developments have changed the face of dentistry forever and he continues to revolutionise traditional dentistry. these three creative leaders have always stayed close, sharing ideas and clinical skills. this has culminated with Christian’s upcoming lecture in Melbourne in May. this event is sure to give all attendees a head start in this exciting field of cosmetic dentistry. u Changing the face of dentistry forever Dr Christian Coachman, who is about to embark on a forthcoming lecture in Australia, has a long and productive association with the organisers of this event.