Amy Turner, Practice General Manager

Role: Practice General Manager, Smile Solutions

What a practice general manager does

The practice general manager runs everything that is not clinical care, so that the clinical side can concentrate on patients. It is a senior operational role covering:

Staffing — recruitment, rostering, training and support for reception, nursing, hygiene and administrative teams. Current openings are listed under Careers, with entry pathways through the Graduate Program and the Dental Internship
Facilities and equipment — maintenance, replacement, and the surgery environment itself. See Our Technology
Systems and scheduling — appointment books, records, recall systems, and the software that holds them
Compliance and accreditation — infection control standards, radiation licensing, privacy obligations, workplace health and safety
Patient experience — waiting times, communication, billing processes
Complaints and feedback, and the changes that follow from them

It is a non-clinical role. A practice manager does not diagnose, treat, or advise on treatment.

Amy Turner has written about the job itself in Running a large dental practice and, on the staffing side, The Great Resignation in the Private Health Sector.

Why this matters to a patient

Most of what shapes a visit is decided outside the surgery: whether the appointment ran on time, whether your records were where they should be, whether the recall reminder arrived, whether the quote matched the invoice, whether the person on the phone could actually help.

Those are management outcomes rather than clinical ones, and they are the parts of dental care people most often find frustrating. How important is communication in dentistry? takes up the same problem from the clinical side.

The compliance side is less visible but more consequential. Infection control in particular is not something a patient can assess by looking — sterilisation of instruments, tracking of autoclave cycles, single-use items, and staff training are all managed behind the scenes and audited against national standards. It is entirely reasonable to ask a practice about its infection control procedures, and a well-run practice will answer plainly.

What a dental practice is actually obliged to do

Worth setting out, because patients are rarely told any of it and all of it is management's responsibility:

Verify and monitor practitioner registration. Every clinician must hold current registration with the Dental Board of Australia, renewed annually, with professional indemnity insurance, continuing professional development and recency of practice. The practice is responsible for checking this, and you can check it yourself, free, on the AHPRA public register. The clinicians here are listed on Our Team and, for those holding specialist registration, on Dentists and Registered Specialists.
Meet infection prevention and control standards, including validated sterilisation with monitored, documented cycles and instrument traceability.
Hold radiation licensing. In Victoria, radiation apparatus and its use are regulated by the Department of Health under state radiation legislation. Anyone taking radiographs must hold the appropriate qualification. For what that means for you as a patient, see How safe are dental x-rays and How safe are dental X-rays and when do they become unsafe?.
Protect health information under the Privacy Act 1988 and, in Victoria, the Health Records Act 2001 — including secure storage, retention for the required period, and giving you access to your own records on request. The practice's own Privacy Policy sets out how that is handled here.
Meet workplace health and safety obligations to staff and patients.
Handle complaints, and have a process for doing so.
Make mandatory notifications. Registered practitioners and employers have obligations under the National Law to notify AHPRA about certain serious conduct, impairment or practice concerns. This is a legal duty, not a discretion.
Advertise lawfully. Section 133 of the National Law prohibits testimonials about clinical care, misleading claims, unreasonable expectations of benefit, and encouraging unnecessary treatment. Compliance sits with the practice.

Some practices also seek voluntary accreditation against national safety and quality standards through an approved accrediting agency. It is not compulsory for dental practices, and its absence is not a red flag — but where it exists it means an external body has audited the systems described above.

The registration standards the practice has to keep checking

The phrase "current registration" hides a list. The Dental Board of Australia publishes a set of registration standards, each with its own date of effect, and every registered clinician in the building has to meet all of them, every year. The Board describes them as defining "the requirements that applicants, registrants or students need to meet to be registered" (Dental Board of Australia, Registration Standards).

The ones that bear on a patient most directly, with the dates of effect the Board publishes:

Continuing professional development — in effect 1 December 2015
Recency of practice — in effect 1 December 2015
Professional indemnity insurance arrangements — in effect 1 July 2016
Scope of practice — in effect 1 July 2020
English language skills — in effect 18 March 2025, with the Board noting "changes to minimum test scores effective from 23 April 2026"
Criminal history — in effect 15 July 2026
Endorsement for conscious sedation — in effect 27 October 2015
Specialist registration — in effect 1 July 2010, with the current list of recognised specialties, related specialist titles and definitions in effect from 1 October 2017

Two of those are worth translating. Recency of practice means a practitioner cannot hold registration on the strength of a qualification alone after years away from clinical work. Professional indemnity insurance means there is cover in place if something goes wrong — which matters to you, not only to the practitioner.

And the Scope of practice standard is the one that decides who in a practice may do what. The Board states it "requires dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their education, training, and competence at all times" (Dental Board of Australia, FAQ: Specialist registration). That single sentence sits underneath rostering, referral and every decision about which clinician takes which case.

What lawful advertising actually costs to get wrong

The advertising rules are not advisory. Ahpra notes that "in 2022, the National Law was amended and one of the changes was to increase the maximum penalty for advertising offences. For an individual, the maximum financial penalty per offence increased from $5,000 to $60,000, and for a body corporate the maximum financial penalty per offence increased from $10,000 to $120,000" (Ahpra, Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service). The same guidance records that for an individual there may be "a financial penalty of up to $60,000 per offence, imprisonment of up to three years".

Why a patient should care about a penalty regime aimed at the practice: it is the reason a regulated dental website cannot publish patient reviews of clinical care, cannot promise a result, and cannot tell you a treatment is painless. Where you see those things, you are reading advertising that does not comply — and the absence of them is not the practice being coy. See Reviews for what can and cannot be published.

How to check a practitioner yourself

You do not have to take the practice's word for any of this, and checking takes about a minute. Ahpra "publishes an online register of all dental practitioners that provides the profession and the public with up-to-date information about a dental practitioner's registration status", and that register "also includes details of the specialty or specialties for dentists who hold specialist registration" (Dental Board of Australia, Specialist Registration).

What to look at when you get there: the division (dentist, dental hygienist, dental therapist, oral health therapist or dental prosthetist), whether specialist registration is recorded and in which of the 13 specialties approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council, and — the part most people skip — whether any conditions, undertakings or reprimands are recorded.

Who to contact about a concern

If something has gone wrong, the order that usually resolves things fastest:

Raise it with your treating clinician first, if it is about the treatment itself. Most issues are a misunderstanding about what was planned or what it would cost — Understanding Your Treatment covers what a plan should have contained.
Raise it with practice management if it concerns billing, scheduling, staff conduct, records or the practice environment — or if you raised it clinically and were not satisfied. Contact Us.
Escalate externally if it remains unresolved. In Victoria that is the Health Complaints Commissioner; for concerns about a practitioner's conduct or competence, AHPRA. You do not need the practice's permission to do either, and doing so does not affect your right to care.

The external bodies, and what each actually handles:

AHPRA / the Dental Board — a practitioner's conduct, health or performance. They regulate the practitioner. They do not award compensation and do not resolve fee disputes.
Health Complaints Commissioner (Victoria) — complaints about a health service, including communication, treatment and fees. They can conciliate.
Private Health Insurance Ombudsman — disputes with a health fund about a claim or a policy.
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 1300 363 992 — mishandling of your health information.
Consumer Affairs Victoria — consumer-law matters such as a service not supplied with due care.

Put it in writing, keep a copy, and set out what outcome you want. Complaints that specify a remedy — a refund, the work redone, an explanation, an apology, a change of process — are resolved faster than those that do not.

A practice that handles complaints well treats them as information. Asking what changed as a result of a complaint is a fair question.

Registration

Practice managers are not registered health practitioners, which is appropriate to a non-clinical role. The Dental Board of Australia registers dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral health therapists and dental prosthetists — not practice managers, dental assistants or administrative staff.

That division is set out in the National Law itself. Ahpra's advertising guidelines list, for the dental profession, the protected titles "dentist, dental therapist, dental hygienist, dental prosthetist, oral health therapist", and the same five as the divisions of the dental practitioner register (Ahpra, Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, Tables 1 and 3). No management or administrative title appears on either list, in dentistry or in any other profession.

The registrations that matter for your care are those of the clinicians treating you, verifiable on the AHPRA register.

Common questions

Why are there no patient reviews of the treatment on this site, when every other business has them?

Because the law does not allow it, and the boundary is narrower and more specific than most people expect. Ahpra states plainly that “the National Law does not allow the use of testimonials or purported testimonials to advertise regulated health services or a business that provides a regulated health service” (Ahpra, Testimonials: Understand the requirements).

What counts as a testimonial is defined by content, not by tone. Ahpra says a clinical aspect exists if a comment expresses any one of three things:

Symptom — “the specific symptom or the reason for seeking treatment”
Diagnosis or treatment — “the specific diagnosis or treatment provided by the practitioner”
Outcome — “the specific outcome or the skills or experience of the practitioner either directly or via comparison”

Anything touching one of those cannot be used in advertising. But not every positive comment is a testimonial. Ahpra is explicit that “comments about customer service or communication style that do not include a reference to clinical aspects are not considered testimonials for the purposes of the National Law”. So a comment about parking, reception or being listened to is permitted; the same person praising the outcome of their root canal is not.

Two consequences worth knowing. The prohibition does not restrict you. Ahpra states that it “does not affect patients sharing information, expressing their views online or posting reviews on review platforms” — it binds the advertiser, not the patient. And editing is its own offence: selectively published or edited reviews are named as a risk of harm in the same guidance, so a practice cannot lawfully keep the flattering half. That is the reason a compliant dental site looks quieter than a restaurant's. See Reviews.

How do I get a copy of my records and my radiographs?

Ask in writing, and ask for the radiographs specifically. Your health information is protected under the Privacy Act 1988 and, in Victoria, the Health Records Act 2001, and access to your own record is part of what those Acts provide — it is not a favour and you do not have to justify the request.

Make the request concrete. Say what you want (clinical notes, radiographs, photographs, treatment plans and quotes, referral letters), over what period, and in what form — most practices can send images digitally, which is faster and better quality than a print. If you are moving to another practitioner, you can ask for the records to be sent directly to them; that is usually the quickest route and it means nothing is lost in transit.

Two practical expectations. A reasonable fee may be charged for providing copies, so ask what it is before you agree. And ask how long it will take, in writing, so there is a date to follow up against.

If a request is refused, or simply never answered, the escalation is set out above: the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 for mishandling of health information, or the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria. Neither requires the practice's agreement, and using either does not affect your right to continue being treated. The practice's own Privacy Policy describes how records are held here.

The invoice does not match the quote I was given. Who deals with that?

Practice management, not the clinician — and the sooner the better, in writing. A fee dispute is an administrative matter, and raising it at reception on the way out is the least effective way to resolve it. Contact Us and put it in an email so there is a record of what you were quoted and when.

It helps to know why dental fees are so hard to check independently. Australia has no national dental fee schedule. A submission to the Commonwealth Parliament's inquiry into private health insurance and dental fees states the consequence bluntly: “There are no consumer guidelines to ascertain the reasonableness of dental fees charged.” So there is no published benchmark you can hold an invoice against — which makes the written quote you were given the document that matters. Keep it.

Ask for the itemised breakdown with item numbers, and compare it line by line against the quote. Most discrepancies turn out to be something that was genuinely added during treatment — an extra radiograph, an additional surface on a filling, a step that was discussed in the chair and never written down. That is a communication failure rather than a billing one, and it is usually resolved by an explanation.

If it is not resolved, the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria handles complaints about a health service including fees, and can conciliate. AHPRA does not — it regulates practitioners and does not resolve fee disputes or award compensation. Sending it to the wrong body costs you months. The price guide publishes fee ranges so you can read before you ask.

Someone at reception explained my treatment to me. Can I rely on that?

For anything clinical, no — and that is a rule rather than a judgement about the person. The Dental Board's scope of practice standard requires dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their “education, training, and competence at all times”, and the people who are not registered practitioners at all — reception, treatment coordinators, practice management, dental assistants — sit outside clinical practice entirely.

What non-clinical staff can properly help with is a long and genuinely useful list: what an appointment will cost and what is on the quote, what your health fund is likely to pay and which item numbers to ask it about, how long to allow, what to bring, how to reschedule, how to get your records, and who to speak to about a concern. Treat that as reliable and use it.

What has to come from the practitioner doing the work is the diagnosis, the options, the risks, the likely outcome, and the recommendation. If you find yourself being told at a desk what a treatment involves or why you need it, the answer is not to distrust the person in front of you — it is to say you would like the clinician to go through it, and to get it in writing. Understanding Your Treatment sets out what that written plan should contain.

The same applies in reverse, and it is the more common failure: a cost question answered from the chair is worth confirming with the people who do the quotes. Neither side of that line is the other's job.

Practical details

Registration of treating clinicians can be verified free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au, or by calling 1300 419 495.

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment. Location and directions.

This page records a staff role as published by the practice. General information only — it is not legal advice. Regulatory requirements, registration standards, penalty levels and the jurisdiction of complaint bodies change; the dates and figures above are those published by the Dental Board of Australia and Ahpra at the time of writing, and current details should be confirmed with the relevant regulator.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.