Danielle Collins, General Practice Operations Manager

Role: General Practice Operations Manager, Smile Solutions

What the role covers

Operations management is the day-to-day running of the general dental side of the practice — the layer between the clinical work and the business.

In practice that means:

• Appointment scheduling and clinic flow — how long each type of appointment is allocated, how emergencies are fitted in, how delays are absorbed
• Rostering clinicians and support staff against demand
• Surgery allocation and equipment availability
• Recall systems — the reminders that bring patients back at the right interval
• Patient records and their movement between clinicians
• Process and standards across reception, nursing and administration
• Resolving the things that go wrong on any given day

It is a non-clinical role: operations managers do not diagnose, treat, or advise on treatment.

Why scheduling is a clinical issue in disguise

The part of operations that most affects patients is how long appointments are, and it is worth understanding why.

A practice that books short appointments sees more patients and runs to time, but leaves less room for a clinician to explain, to check something unexpected, or to slow down for an anxious patient. A practice that books longer appointments gives more room but has fewer available. Where that balance sits is an operational decision with real clinical consequences. How important is communication in dentistry? makes the case from the clinician's side.

The same is true of emergency capacity. Holding slots open each day for emergencies means those slots are sometimes unused; not holding them means someone in pain waits. Practices make that trade differently. See What is considered a dental emergency?, What should I do in a dental emergency? and Why choose Smile Solutions in a dental emergency?

And recall intervals are where operations and clinical judgement meet directly: a recall system that sends everyone a six-month reminder is administratively simple, but the correct interval is risk-based, and it should follow what the clinician recorded rather than a default. Someone with active decay, dry mouth or periodontal disease may need three-monthly; someone with healthy gums and no history may safely go longer. Ask what your interval should be and why. See How often should I go to the dentist?, Is it important to have a family dentist? and Dental Cleans and Hygienists.

Those are reasonable things to ask about when choosing a practice.

The one recall a practice should chase hardest

There is a recall interval that has an external recommendation attached to it, and it is the earliest one.

The Australian Dental Association states that a child's "first dental visit should occur when the first baby tooth comes through or by one year of age and at least every 12 months", and that "first dental visits are recommended when the first teeth appear in the mouth" (ADA). Its own consumer survey found the practice does not match the advice — "one third (32%) of parents reported their child's first visit" happened later — and it gives the reason bluntly: "a first dental visit for a tooth ache may create a negative first experience. We don't want that to be your child's introduction to the dentist."

That is an operations problem as much as a clinical one. Whether a family is asked about the children at all, whether a reminder goes out, and whether the appointment offered is short and unhurried are all decisions made outside the surgery. See Children's Dentistry and, for families who may be eligible for Commonwealth assistance, Child Dental Benefit Schedule.

Getting the most from the appointment you have

Since appointment length is finite, a few things genuinely change what fits into it:

• Say at booking what the appointment is for. 'A check-up' and 'a tooth that has been aching for a week' need different amounts of time, and booking the wrong one usually means coming back.
• Bring a current list of your medications, including anything started recently, and any supplements. Antiresorptive medications for osteoporosis and anticoagulants matter a great deal, including if taken years ago.
• Say if you are anxious, gag easily, cannot lie flat, or need a longer appointment. All of these change how the visit is run, and none of them are unusual. See Dental Anxiety, How can I ease my anxiety about visiting the dentist? and, where it is severe, Sleep Dentistry.
• Say if you need an interpreter, wheelchair access, a support person, or a quieter time of day — phone ahead on 13 13 96 so it can be arranged properly rather than improvised. Contact Us.
• Write your questions down. People reliably forget them in the chair, and the ones that matter most — what happens if I do nothing, what are the alternatives, what will it cost — are the easiest to forget. 5 questions you've always wanted to ask your dentist is a starting list, and Understanding Your Treatment covers what a plan should contain.

Running late, and cancellations

Practices run late for a reason that is worth knowing: an emergency was fitted in, or something a clinician found took longer than the booking allowed. The same flexibility that makes you wait is what gets you seen the day something breaks.

On cancellations: most practices ask for notice, and many charge a fee for a missed appointment or very late cancellation, because a long booking left empty cannot be refilled. Ask what the policy is, and ask for it in writing. If something genuinely unavoidable happens, say so — policies are usually applied with judgement. Published fees for appointments are in the Price Guide.

Your records

This sits with operations, and patients have clearer rights here than most realise.

• You can request access to your own dental records. Under the Privacy Act 1988 and, in Victoria, the Health Records Act 2001, you have a right of access to your health information. A reasonable fee may be charged for providing copies. The practice's Privacy Policy sets out how records are handled here.
• You can have records transferred to another practitioner. Ask your new practice to request them, or ask this practice directly. This is routine and is not something to feel awkward about — including when you are seeking a second opinion. See Second Opinions and Corrective Dentistry and Why would I need to see a dental specialist?
• Radiographs transfer too, which avoids repeating imaging and repeating the radiation exposure — see How safe are dental x-rays
• Records are kept for a defined period after your last visit, and longer for children.
• If you believe your health information has been mishandled, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is on 1300 363 992, and in Victoria the Health Complaints Commissioner also handles health-records complaints.

Checking who is treating you, and what the register actually shows

Rostering decides which clinician you see. You are entitled to know who that is and to check them, and it 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 it will tell you:

• The division — dentist, dental hygienist, dental therapist, oral health therapist or dental prosthetist. Those five are also the titles the National Law protects for the dental profession (Ahpra, Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, Tables 1 and 3).
• Whether specialist registration is held, and in which specialty. The Dental Board records that "there are 13 dental specialties in Australia which are approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council", and that a specialist must additionally have "completed a minimum of two years general dental practice".
• Any conditions, undertakings or reprimands. This is the field most people never look at, and it is the one worth looking at.

Every practitioner on that register is also meeting a published set of registration standards, each with its own date of effect — continuing professional development and recency of practice (both 1 December 2015), professional indemnity insurance arrangements (1 July 2016), scope of practice (1 July 2020), English language skills (18 March 2025) and criminal history (15 July 2026), among others (Dental Board of Australia, Registration Standards). Rostering has to respect the scope of practice standard in particular, which "requires dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their education, training, and competence at all times" (Dental Board of Australia, FAQ: Specialist registration) — it is why the appointment type and the clinician are matched rather than interchangeable.

Where to direct what

• Clinical questions — your dentist or specialist. The clinicians are listed on Our Team, and those holding specialist registration on Dentists and Registered Specialists
• Costs, quotes and health funds — reception or a treatment coordinator
• Appointments, delays, records, access — operations and reception
• Unresolved complaints — practice management, and externally the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria, or AHPRA for practitioner conduct

Raise a problem with the practice first. Most complaints are about communication or cost rather than clinical care, and most are resolved at that level. The external avenues remain available regardless, and using them does not affect your care.

Registration

Operations 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.

The registrations that matter for your care are those of the clinicians treating you.

Related pages: Our Team, Contact Us, Understanding your treatment, Dental Anxiety, and if you are overdue, Start the New Year with a dentist check up.

Common questions

I have not been to a dentist in years because I am frightened of it. Is there any point telling the practice?

Yes, and it is the single most useful thing you can say when you ring — because it changes the booking before anyone touches you.

It is worth knowing first that you are describing something common and measured rather than a personal failing. Armfield's analysis of the Australian National Dental Telephone Interview Survey (n = 6,112) found 11.9% of Australian adults reported being very afraid of going to the dentist, with a further group quite afraid — around one adult in six between them.

The avoidance is measured too, and so is what it costs. Among people who were very afraid, 43.9% had last visited more than two years ago, against roughly 29% of those who were not afraid. And 29.2% of the very afraid fitted the vicious-cycle profile — avoiding care, then attending only in pain, which reinforces the fear — with the odds of a very fearful person fitting that pattern at 3.33 (95% CI 2.67 to 4.15) compared with those who were not. The cycle is the thing to interrupt, and the way to interrupt it is at the booking rather than in the chair.

What a practice can actually arrange in advance, if it is told: a longer appointment; an early slot before the day runs late; a first visit that is a conversation and an examination with nothing else attempted; an agreed stop signal; and a plan broken into short visits rather than one long one.

One honest caution about the comfort measures you will see advertised. Recent meta-analyses have not found significant effects for background music (13 trials, 923 participants; standardised mean difference −0.25, 95% CI −0.49 to 0.01, low certainty) or for lavender aromatherapy (3 trials, 522 participants; −0.39, 95% CI −0.86 to 0.08, not significant), and similar conclusions were reached for virtual reality and acupuncture. Those things may still make the room nicer. They are not treatments for dental anxiety, and a practice presenting them as such is overstating the evidence. See Dental Anxiety and How can I ease my anxiety about visiting the dentist?

What does “sleep dentistry” actually mean, and who is allowed to provide it?

It is a consumer term, not a clinical one — and the clinical terms underneath it describe four quite different things. The Australian Dental Association's policy on conscious sedation sets them out, and none of the marketing phrases (“sleep dentistry”, “twilight sedation”, “happy gas”) appears in it.

• Minimal sedation — “a drug-induced state of diminished anxiety, during which patients are conscious and respond purposefully to verbal commands or light tactile stimulation”. A single low-dose oral medication, or inhaled gases.
• Moderate sedation — “a drug-induced state of depressed consciousness during which patients retain the ability to respond purposefully to verbal commands and tactile stimulation”. The ADA notes this includes intravenous sedation.
• Deep sedation — patients “are not easily roused and may respond only to noxious stimulation”.
• General anaesthesia — “a drug-induced state of controlled unconsciousness accompanied by a partial or complete loss of protective reflexes including the inability to maintain an airway independently”.

Who may do what is a registration fact you can verify. The ADA's position is that dentists with sufficient training and experience may use minimal sedation, but that moderate sedation requires a dentist who “have met the registration standards of the Dental Board and have been endorsed to provide conscious sedation” — and that a person seeking that endorsement should have completed “a mandatory two-year period as a dentist in general practice”. An endorsement for conscious sedation appears on the AHPRA register. So a claim about offering intravenous sedation is a claim about holding an endorsement, and it is checkable.

And the sentence the advertising never carries: the ADA states plainly that “both general anaesthesia and conscious sedation procedures encompass risk.” It also notes that the availability of conscious sedation “cannot replace the need for access to general anaesthesia services in hospitals for dental purposes”. If you are weighing this up, ask which of the four levels is being proposed, who is providing it, and what the alternative would be. See Sleep Dentistry.

My face is swollen and the tooth is throbbing. Do I ring the practice or go to hospital?

If you have difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, drooling, a swelling crossing the midline of the neck, or you cannot open your mouth — go to a hospital emergency department now, not to a dental appointment. That is the short answer and it is the one that matters.

The reason is airway rather than tooth. The RACGP's clinical article on spreading odontogenic infection — drawing on more than 1,000 cases — notes that once infection has spread beyond the confines of the jaws “there is an increasing risk of airway obstruction”, and that patients at high risk of airway obstruction should be “promptly transferred to a tertiary” centre. In the Royal Adelaide Hospital cohort described there, 64% of patients were assessed as being at high risk of airway obstruction, against 36% at low risk with only superficial infections. High-risk patients stayed 5.1 ± 4.9 days against 1.9 ± 1.3 days for low-risk.

Two further points from the same source, because both mislead people. First, “fever and systemic symptoms may be absent” — feeling systemically well does not rule out a significant abscess. Second, on the medication question everyone asks: “antibiotic treatment without dental treatment to remove the cause always fails.” Antibiotics may buy time; they do not treat the tooth, and a course that settles the swelling without anything being done to the tooth is a delay rather than a cure.

Where it is a throbbing tooth without those red flags, ring the practice and say what is happening in those words — pain that wakes you, swelling, and how fast it has changed are the details that determine how soon you are seen. 13 13 96, or see Emergency Dentistry and What is considered a dental emergency?

Can I ask for a longer appointment, and will it cost more?

Ask — it is a normal request, and it is better made at booking than discovered halfway through.

Be specific about why, because the reason determines what is arranged. “I am anxious and need to go slowly”, “I gag badly on impressions”, “I cannot lie flat”, “I need an interpreter”, “I want to discuss options before anything is done” and “I have four things to raise, not one” are five different bookings. A reception team told any of them in advance can plan for it; told none of them, they will book the standard slot and the appointment will overrun or under-deliver.

On cost, ask directly and get it in writing. Dental fees are generally charged by item rather than by the clock, so more time spent explaining is not usually a separate charge — but more treatment is, and a longer appointment that covers three items costs what three items cost. That is exactly the conversation to have before the day rather than at the desk afterwards. Australia has no national dental fee schedule and, as a submission to the Commonwealth Parliament on dental fees puts it, “there are no consumer guidelines to ascertain the reasonableness of dental fees charged” — so the written quote you hold is the document that matters. The Price Guide publishes ranges, and Understanding Your Treatment sets out what a plan should contain.

One thing worth asking for that costs nothing: a consultation appointment with no treatment attached, to discuss a plan you have been given and decide at your own pace. Elective dental treatment is almost never urgent, and feeling rushed is a reason to pause rather than to proceed.

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. Privacy and health-records law, registration standards and practice policies change; the dates and figures above are those published by the Dental Board of Australia, Ahpra, the Australian Dental Association, the RACGP and the published literature at the time of writing, and current details should be confirmed with the practice and with the relevant regulator.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.