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When redesigning your practice—and to guarantee a successful transformation—it’s important to ensure you feel connected to the finished product. By Tracey Porter
When husband and wife dental team Dr Yvette Fahey and Dr Rishi Weerasinghe sought professional help to design the front-of-house for their new clinic, Torquay Dental, they knew it was a big job.
Not only did the new space need to sit comfortably in its beach environment, but it also needed to mirror the expert quality of care patients could expect while visiting, as well as meet all commercial and medical building codes and an array of technical requirements.
Most importantly, Dr Fahey stressed, for the new space to work, it would also need to reflect the couple’s joint personalities.
Also looking for a personality-driven design change for a new practice they were building in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak were the owners of Oryx Dental, Dr Kevin Kok and wife Grace. Having signed to relocate their existing practice into a new tower development, the pair sought to design a clinic that reflected their appreciation of French and Belgian design while demonstrating their top-tier dental technology.
The design brief was to ensure everything from the layout to finishes to the plumbing, lighting and electrical created a calming environment that “balanced austerity with grandeur and was clinical yet warm and inviting”.
Dr Yvette Fahey says personality plays a vital part in practice design because it’s important to have an inclusive space where people of all ages feel welcome and comfortable.
“Often people can be so nervous to come to the dentist that it can be tricky to even begin discussing treatment. Allowing people to open up and relax while in our clinic definitely allows communication to flow more freely and ideal treatment is more widely accepted.”
In 2021, not long after deciding to renovate, Drs Fahey and Weerasinghe passed another new clinic, D-Spa Dental in South Yarra, and fell in love with what they saw.
They learned Studio A.mi was the agency responsible for D-Spa Dental’s design and convinced studio owner Anouska Milstein to work with them to bring their vision to life.
Milstein says she recognised almost immediately the dentists’ vision and her own were aligned.
“My educational background was both a psychology undergraduate degree, as well as an interior design degree. Psychology is worth mentioning as it was an aspect of interior design that I never lost focus on, and when I began my own practice, I knew that creating truly client-centric design was going to be my main focus and point of difference.”
Milstein says Drs Fahey and Weerasinghe felt much of the D-Spa end product design resonated with them because they wanted a clinic that reflected their individual personalities.
The pair had undertaken their first practice build on a tight budget without much thought put into design, she says.
“Their renovation was to expand the clinic physically, but they felt it was a great opportunity to show the community how they had grown as practitioners and to have a space that reflected their quality of care.
“They wanted the clinic to be welcoming to young and old, and to reflect its coastal context.”
Dr Fahey says because Torquay Dental is based on the surf coast in Victoria, surfing culture is a huge part of the town. She says this brings with it a deep respect for nature and appreciation for the environment.
“Anouska designed our clinic with this in mind with lots of natural stone and textural pieces. The practice also portrays a relaxed feel which isn’t an easy feat for a dental practice.”
Torquay Dental’s scope was achieved entirely remotely because due to COVID, Milstein did not have physical access to the site. Instead, she focused on bringing together purchasable pieces alongside unique finishes to create what she describes as an “almost boutique, hotel-like experience.
“We were proud to achieve the result we did from afar. My favourite part of the design was how we were able to imbue a sense of the clinic’s coastal context through finishes, textures and forms.”
Milstein credits the successful design of both Torquay Dental and Oryx Dental to the fact each had owners who were passionate about patient care and professionalism, and communicating something of themselves that could be easily translated into the design.
“We always believe that form must follow function, so regulatory and practical constraints shape the parameters within which we can then explore how to bring across personality. Every single decision behind every single detail can be related back to a client and their story.”
Milstein says while in the past excellent care was enough from a dental practice, that is no longer the case.
Having a dental practice that reflects its owner’s personality is a natural extension of great patient care while having a clinic look different to others will also always be a drawcard for new patients, as well as new staff.
Milstein says the best practice owners recognise that when outfitting a dental practice, they need to communicate their likes and dislikes, and what is important to them about the identity of their business to their design professional.
“[In our case, this means we can] create a narrative to describe the space we will go on to design, as experienced sensorially. We use these elements as a springboard for each design decision, ensuring that every choice feels perfectly suited for each client.
“Your average person now cares more and more about their physical environment, so the expectation is that places look great alongside a great offer. If patients can form a connection with their doctor through a physical environment, this breeds culture, and in turn, loyalty.”
