DentaltownUK June 2018 - 45

through the keyhole

surgery

Dentists spend most of their waking hours working in practice, and don't get
many opportunities to see inside other dentists' surgeries. DentaltownUK's
recurring feature takes you through the keyhole into surgeries in the UK and
around the world. You'll meet the dentists and their teams, see the practices and
learn about what has made it work for them.

THROUGH THE KEYHOLE-SURGERY: HOME

Introduce yourself and tell us
what made you pursue a career
in dentistry.
My name is Carol Somerville Roberts,
and I am the founder of Evolve Dentistry in
Portishead Bristol. Becoming a dentist was a
bit of an accident: I had always wanted to be
a doctor, but in a throwaway comment my
mother told me that I would be a rubbish
doctor, because she thought I had no natural
empathy! So I looked around for another
career and found dentistry. The irony is that
as a dentist you need masses of empathy,
and my mother doesn't even remember the
comment. I graduated from Bristol University
in 1996, and have generally stayed in the
area all my working life.

What are your particular skills
and interests in dentistry?
Initially I thought I would pursue a
hospital career and spent around three
years in various SHO posts, but eventually
found myself in an NHS practice. I lasted
nine months. I think that was the lowest
career point for me, because I just wasn't
fast enough, and I realised that I needed
to change something when I resented an
elderly patient taking 30 seconds too long
to take off her coat when I had already been
running 30 minutes late.
I was ready to stop doing dentistry and
find another career, but I couldn't think what
else to do, so I found a different practice
instead. From the year 2000 I have worked in

private practice-first as an associate, then as
an owner. Over the years I've found myself
drawn to minimally invasive dentistry, and for
the past year I have been using the Bioclear
system, which I think is fantastic. The finished
result that can be achieved is outstanding
and now seeing the patients a year later, the
composites still have an amazing polish. It
has changed how I do my dentistry.
I am a member of the BACD, which
continues to inspire me by the cases I've seen
presented at the annual conference.

When did you decide to become
a practice owner, and how did
you go about it?
I was really lucky as an associate that my
boss was happy to share his knowledge and
his passion for dentistry with me and I started
to love what I do. One day he called me up
and asked me if I would run the practice
for a year because he and his wife wanted

to take a sabbatical, so I said yes. One year
turned into two, and by the time they came
back I knew I could run my own practice.
In November 2007 I made the decision
to open my own practice and really started
to get the process going. I was lucky to
find some great premises with the correct
building consent adjacent to a large new
Waitrose in Portishead, close to Bristol.

dentaltownuk.com \\ JUNE 2018

45
http://evolve-dentistry.co.uk http://www.dentaltownuk.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK June 2018
