A dental practice with a difference that was founded less than two years ago has spent a six-figure sum on creating a new clinic after outgrowing its former site.

Smile Stories was previously located in a former four-bedroom house in Castle Lane West, Bournemouth.

The property had been a clinic for around 70 years, latterly as Castle Lane Dental Care.

Just seven months after dentists Gareth Edwards and Zak Kara acquired the practice and officially launched Smile Stories in March 2021, they were looking for new premises.

And now, after nine months of extensive building work, Smile Stories has relocated into the former Santander building in Wimborne Road, Winton.

Five new jobs, including two dentists and two hygienists, have been created.

The number of treatment rooms has doubled from three to six.

Gareth, Co-Founder and Director of Smile Stories with Zak, said: “After only being open a comparatively short time it was a big decision to move premises.

“We obviously took the risk and it’s meant opening more doors to being able to help more people.”

Zak, who first met Gareth in 2018 during a social at The Grasshopper in Poole – at the time both were working at different dental clinics for the same group of dentists – said: “Previously we had three treatment rooms that were all operational.

“We realised that there would come a tipping point where we ran out of capacity completely.

“The two options, broadly, were putting in planning permission to extend out the back which was fraught with danger and also would have created loads of disruption during the normal working day.

“We would probably have taken one or two treatment rooms out of action for some time which was going to be a nightmare.

“Then this opportunity arose.”

Smile Stories has a membership plan with 1,000 clients.

It also looks after non-members who attend regularly and regard the clinic as their dentist.

Previously focused on cosmetic dentistry, the extra capacity means the practice can now offer general dentistry as well.

And, as with the previous Castle Lane clinic, the new Smile Stories is about as far removed from the sight, sound and smell of most people’s experience of a dentist as is possible to imagine.

Zak said: “It’s much more like a comfy café than going to the dentist.

“For us, it’s about creating an experience where people don’t feel they are judged and blamed in that old-fashioned fusty way of doing things.

“It says on our windows: ‘Nothing like your old dentist’.

“The double-meaning is deliberate.

“We don’t do old dentistry and we’re not old dentists.

“It’s there to change perceptions.

“The sub-heading, in brackets, says ‘and definitely never just a quick check-up’.

“The comment we’ve had from every client who has seen us in this last couple of years is that they’ve never had it done like this before.

“We sit down, look at the details, discuss the details and take time.

“The comment we often hear is that ‘my dentist used to sit me in the chair and boot me out three minutes later’.

“We don’t do that here.”

Building work at the former bank presented its challenges, not least the concrete reinforced floors as pipework was needed to be installed for the dental chairs.

The pair first looked at the property in October 2021, the legals were completed in March 2022 and the building was finally ready for occupation earlier this month.

Gareth, 35, who grew up in Winton and first identified the site which had been derelict since Santander departed, said: “It’s been a long nine months.

“There were builders, delays and unforeseen things.

“To be finally moved in and have a home and something we can build  and be part of the community for the next ten, 15, 20 years or whatever it is, just feels so good.”

Zak, 36, said: “We can finally take all of the great systems behind the scenes that we’ve spent so much time and love in creating and we can finally boil them down into a place where they suit.

“Everyone who comes in says, without fail: ‘Wow, you guys have  created something here. It feels amazing’.

“Thankfully, the comment we don’t have is that ‘it’s posh here’ because we don’t want anything pretentious.”

Gareth, added: “It still feels real.

“We’ve got the brick wall, the wood and the feel of Smile Stories because we’re real people and that’s the kind of vibe we want here.”

• smilestories.co