Member Article

Gap in the market proves to be business success for North Yorkshire dentist

A Richmond dentist is celebrating her first year running her own practice with better than forecast client numbers.

Claire Lawson invested over a quarter of a million pounds to open CTL Dental, on Newbiggin in the town centre, in November 2013. Since then, patient numbers are far higher than predicted and, in the last six months alone, have doubled.

The business initially created three jobs for local people and this has since increased to six with plans for more in the coming months as patient numbers grow.

Claire attributes her success to her practice’s unique offering in the Richmond area of a full out-of-ours service- with practical opening times on evenings and on weekends- and her specialisms in family dentistry, restorative and laser dentistry and work with nervous patients and those with special needs.

To mark CTL Dental’s first birthday, Claire is holding a celebratory evening on Tuesday 25th November where she will be raising funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service. Members of the public are invited to attend for drinks and canapés.

Claire said: “As with any new business, the first year has been a real challenge. But community support has been amazing and, as a result, we are now ahead of the forecast expectations with over 200 clients on our books and, as we grow, so do job opportunities for local people.

“We thought our anniversary would be a good time to invite the local community to enjoy a drink and some food whilst also raising money for the wonderful local charity that is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service.”

Having won numerous awards, Claire is one of the region’s most qualified dentists and was recently named as a finalist in the Private Dentistry Awards in the ‘Best New Practice’ category. Claire is also one of only 1% of dentists nationally who have pursued their industry education to advanced MSc level. In 2010, Claire was named Young Dentist of the Year and has also been a finalist in the Dentist of the Year and Private Dentist of the Year awards.

Claire began her career in the military, working in the Royal Army Dental Corp both at home and in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Bosnia. On her return to the North East, Claire worked at Newcastle Dental Hospital, in various dental practices and within community services across the region.

CTL Dental offers a host of services including root treatments, crowns and bridgework, denture design, implants and veneers, facial aesthetics and more. In addition, Claire is one of only a handful of dentists in the North Yorkshire region qualified to offer and extensively experienced in laser dentistry which is especially effective for nervous patients as it is less intrusive and can reduce healing times.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Addison Associates .