Emily Pitcher, Chief People Officer

Role: Chief People Officer — a non-clinical executive role

Registration: Not applicable. This is not a clinical position and does not involve treating patients. The Dental Board of Australia does not register practice management, human resources or administrative staff, and no AHPRA registration is required for, or attaches to, this role.

The practice publishes no further biographical detail for this position.

Why a page like this exists, and what it does not mean

A ‘Meet the team' section on a dental website usually mixes clinical and non-clinical people together. That is entirely normal and not misleading in itself — but it does mean that appearing on a team page carries no implication of clinical qualification.

The safe way to read any practitioner listing:

• A registration number is the only reliable signal. A dentist has a DEN-prefixed number; a dental prosthetist has ADP; a medical practitioner MED; an osteopath OST; a medical radiation practitioner MRP. If a listing carries no number, the person is either not a registered health practitioner or the site has simply omitted it — and the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au settles which. The practice's own summary is on the dentists and registered specialists page.
• A job title is not a registration category. ‘Practice manager', ‘treatment coordinator', ‘chief people officer', ‘clinical director' and ‘principal dentist' are business roles. Some are held by registered practitioners and some are not.
• A specialty title is not the same as a specialty. ‘Cosmetic dentist', ‘implant surgeon', ‘implantologist' and ‘sleep dentist' are not recognised specialties in Australia. There are thirteen recognised dental specialties, set out under specialist care, and only a practitioner holding specialist registration in one may use its title. Why would I need to see a dental specialist? explains when the distinction matters to a patient, and finding a dentist online in Australia covers how to check a listing before you book.
• Only a registered practitioner may give clinical advice. Non-clinical staff can and should discuss appointments, fees, payment arrangements and logistics — the price guide and understanding your treatment pages are written for exactly those conversations. They cannot diagnose, recommend treatment, or explain clinical risk — that must come from the practitioner who will do the work.

The law behind those four points

None of this is house style. The Dental Board of Australia states that "there are 13 dental specialties in Australia which are approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council": dento-maxillofacial radiology, endodontics, forensic odontology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral medicine, oral and maxillofacial pathology, oral surgery, orthodontics, paediatric dentistry, periodontics, prosthodontics, public health dentistry (community dentistry) and special needs dentistry. That list is closed, and only the Ministerial Council can add to it: "under the National Law, only the Ministerial Council can approve a recognised specialty in a health profession or approve an area of practice in a health profession for endorsement."

Only a practitioner holding specialist registration "in a recognised specialty or an endorsement may use the relevant specialist title or a title relating to an endorsement in advertising" — and that restriction expressly "includes in the name of the business or other advertising to the public".

Section 133 of the National Law then sets the wider rule. A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides one, in a way that:

• "is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to be misleading or deceptive"
• "offers a gift, discount or other inducement to attract a person to use the service or business, unless the advertisement also states the terms and conditions of the offer"
• "uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business"
• "creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment", or
• "directly or indirectly encourages the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services"

The maximum penalties are "for an individual (e.g. a registered health practitioner) a maximum penalty of $60,000 per offence" and for "a body corporate a maximum penalty of $120,000 per offence". Where a breach involves the unlawful use of a protected title, an individual faces "a financial penalty of up to $60,000 per offence, imprisonment for up to three years per offence or both".

Where a job title and a protected title meet

The guidelines address employment titles directly, which is precisely the territory a people function operates in. "A title is unlikely to be considered advertising when it is used within the employment context only (i.e. the title is not used externally to promote the service to the public)" and it "is recognised under an industrial award", or "is determined by the employer and appears in the position description", or "the role does not involve providing healthcare". The caveat follows immediately: "it must be clear to the public that the title relates specifically to the position held and the practitioner must not use this title outside the context of their employment."

That is the test this page is applying to itself. ‘Chief People Officer' is an employer-determined position title for a role that does not involve providing healthcare, and it is presented here as exactly that.

There is a related trap with descriptive titles. Ahpra warns that "advertisers must take care that the title does not over-represent the practitioner's skills, experience or qualifications, or imply specialist registration or endorsement", and that where a practitioner does not hold specialist registration, "any advertising using words or titles related to specialty is likely to mislead the public" — including "the words, or variations of the words or phrases ‘specialist', ‘specialises in', ‘specialty', or ‘specialised'". The acceptable alternatives it offers are "substantial experience in" and "working primarily in".

And on the word ‘Doctor'

"‘Doctor' is not a protected title, but registered health practitioners must be careful about how they use ‘Doctor' or ‘Dr' in their advertising because the public historically associates the term with medical practitioners." Ahpra's rule is that "if the title ‘Dr' is used in advertising and does not refer to a registered medical practitioner, then (whether or not a doctorate or PhD is held) the profession the practitioner is registered in should be made clear" — its worked example being "Dr Lee" as a potential breach against "Dr Lee (Osteopath)" as correct. On a dental team page, the profession is made clear by stating the role and the registration alongside the name, which is what the practitioner pages on this site do.

What a Chief People Officer does in a healthcare business

The role is the senior human resources and organisational function: recruitment, employment conditions, workplace culture, training and development, workforce planning, and workplace health and safety.

In a healthcare setting it carries some obligations that a general business HR role does not:

• Verifying registration. Employers of health practitioners are expected to confirm current AHPRA registration and to re-check it at renewal. Employing someone to practise dentistry without current registration exposes both the individual and the practice.
• Immunisation and infection control requirements for clinical staff.
• Mandatory notification obligations. Under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, registered practitioners and employers have a legal duty to notify AHPRA about defined notifiable conduct — practising while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, sexual misconduct in connection with practice, placing the public at risk of substantial harm through an impairment, or a significant departure from accepted professional standards. This is a legal duty, not a discretionary internal matter, and having a clear internal pathway for raising a concern is part of the people function.
• Supervision and scope arrangements — ensuring that oral health therapists, hygienists and therapists and early-career dentists have the structured professional relationships and support their registration requires, and that nobody is working outside their scope of practice. What is the difference between a dental therapist and a dental hygienist? sets out where those lines fall.
• Working with children checks and police checks where relevant. A practice treating children under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule and otherwise has obligations here.
• Continuing professional development. Registration requires a minimum amount of CPD annually, and practices commonly support and track it — as do the practice's dental internship and graduate program.
• A culture in which raising a clinical safety concern is safe. Most healthcare failures are known about internally before they become public. Whether staff feel able to say so is an organisational question, not a clinical one — and it is probably the single highest-leverage thing this function influences. How important is communication in dentistry? makes a related point about the chair side of it.

The registration standards an employer is checking against

The Dental Board publishes the standards every registrant must meet, each with a date from which it has had effect. They are the concrete content of "current registration in good standing":

The scope of practice standard "applies to all practitioners registered with the Board" and "requires dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their education, training, and competence at all times" — which is the regulatory basis for the supervision-and-scope point above.

And the verification itself is straightforward, because "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", a register that "also includes details of the specialty or specialties for dentists who hold specialist registration". An employer uses the same register a patient does.

Who actually does what in a dental practice

The patient-facing versions of those distinctions are set out in what does a dental hygienist do? and dental hygienist vs dentist; the appliances themselves are made in the Smile Solutions laboratory, and dentures and sports mouthguards are the two a prosthetist may provide directly.

Dental assistants and dental technicians are skilled and essential, and their absence from the register is not a comment on their competence — it reflects a decision about which occupations sit inside the national registration scheme. It does mean there is no public register to check, no mandatory continuing education requirement, and no AHPRA complaints pathway for those roles. Complaints about a practice as a whole can be made to the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria.

If you are considering working in dentistry

Since this is the people function, the practical routes in:

• Dental assisting — Certificate III or IV in Dental Assisting, often begun on the job. No registration required; additional certification available in radiography and infection control.
• Dental hygiene, dental therapy or oral health therapy — a university degree leading to registration with the Dental Board.
• Dental technology — a Diploma, Advanced Diploma or Bachelor of Dental Technology. Laboratory-based, no patient contact, no registration.
• Dental prosthetics — an Advanced Diploma or Bachelor, leading to ADP registration and the ability to treat patients directly for dentures.
• Dentistry — an accredited dental degree, then general registration; then, for a specialty, at least two years' general practice and a three-year full-time postgraduate programme.
• Non-clinical roles — reception, administration, treatment coordination, management and finance, none of which require registration.

On that second-to-last point, the Board's own wording is that an applicant for specialist registration must have "completed a minimum of two years general dental practice" — a requirement that "may be achieved by experience outside Australia, subject to assessment and approval by the Board" — and must "meet all other requirements for general registration as a dentist". For a practitioner qualified overseas, the sequence is general registration first: "your application for general registration will be assessed first."

See Join our Team.

Related pages: Our Team, Join our Team, Contact Us, Our Technology.

Common questions

Can the practice ask me for a review? And why does a dental site publish so few of them?

Asking is not the problem. Using what you write is, and the boundary is narrower and more precise than most people expect.

Ahpra's guidance is that a comment becomes a testimonial — and therefore cannot be used to advertise a regulated health service — when it expresses a clinical aspect, which it defines as any one of three things: the “symptom – the specific symptom or the reason for seeking treatment”; the “diagnosis or treatment – the specific diagnosis or treatment provided by the practitioner”; or the “outcome – the specific outcome or the skills or experience of the practitioner either directly or via comparison”. Praise of a clinician's skill is caught by the third of those, which is why the warmest reviews are the least usable ones.

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”. Parking, reception, being listened to, running on time — all publishable. The same person on the outcome of their root canal — not.

Three consequences worth knowing.

• The rule binds the advertiser, not you. The prohibition “does not affect: patients sharing information, expressing their views online or posting reviews on review platforms”, nor “how members of the public can interact with review sites or discussion forums”. Write what you like, wherever you like.
• It only bites when a review is used in advertising. A review sitting on a public platform that the practice does not reproduce or promote is not caught by section 133 at all.
• Selective publication is its own problem. A practice that keeps the flattering half is not solving the compliance question, it is creating a different one under the prohibition on misleading advertising.

So a compliant dental site looks quieter than a restaurant's, and that quietness is a legal artefact rather than an absence of opinion. See Reviews.

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

For anything clinical, no — and that is a rule the employer is obliged to enforce, not a judgement about the person in front of you.

The Dental Board's scope of practice standard requires registrants to practise within the scope of their “education, training, and competence at all times”. People who are not registered practitioners at all — reception, treatment coordination, practice management, dental assistants — sit outside clinical practice entirely, as the table above sets out. Making sure nobody drifts across that line is one of the concrete duties of a people function in a health business.

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 obtain 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 including doing nothing, 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 — it is to ask for 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 line runs the other way, and that failure is the more common one: a cost question answered from the chair is worth confirming with the people who prepare the quotes. Neither side of that line is the other's job.

I have a concern about the practice. Where does it actually go, and what happens then?

It depends what the concern is about, and sending it to the wrong body costs months.

• About a registered practitioner's conduct, health or performance — that is Ahpra and the relevant National Board. Where a practitioner breaches the National Law, “a National Board may decide these breaches raise concern about the practitioner's conduct and take action which may include placing conditions on a health practitioner's registration”. Those conditions, along with undertakings and reprimands, then appear on the public register, which is part of why the register is worth checking.
• About advertising — a claim on a website, a before-and-after image, an offer without its terms — Ahpra and the National Boards manage advertising complaints directly.
• About a member of staff who is not a registered practitioner — a dental assistant, a technician, reception or management — there is no Ahpra pathway, because those occupations are not inside the national registration scheme. There is no register to check and no registration to condition.
• About the health service as a whole, including how you were treated administratively, is a matter for the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria.

Two things to do first, whatever the category. Raise it with the practice in writing, so there is a dated record of what was said — most concerns are resolved at that step, and a regulator will generally ask whether you have. And be specific about what outcome you want, because the bodies above differ sharply in what they can deliver: a regulator can act on a practitioner's registration, but it does not resolve a billing dispute or award you compensation. Contact us is the first step here.

I want to work here. Which roles need registration, and what should I check before I accept one?

The routes in are listed above; what that list does not tell you is what to verify.

If the role requires registration — dentist, oral health therapist, hygienist, therapist, prosthetist — you are personally responsible for holding it and for meeting every registration standard, not the employer. The ones that catch people out are recency of practice (in effect since 1 December 2015), which matters after a career break or a move from overseas; continuing professional development (1 December 2015); and professional indemnity insurance arrangements (1 July 2016) — confirm in writing whether the practice's cover extends to you or whether you carry your own. If you qualified overseas, the sequence is fixed: “your application for general registration will be assessed first.”

Ask what your scope is understood to be, and get it written down. The scope of practice standard binds you to your “education, training, and competence at all times”, and a disagreement about what you are expected to do is far cheaper to have before you start. For an early-career dentist or a therapist, ask specifically who you go to when something is outside your scope, and whether that person is actually on site.

If the role does not require registration — assisting, reception, coordination, technology, management — the trade-off is worth understanding. There is no public register, no mandated continuing education and no Ahpra complaints pathway attached to those roles. That cuts both ways: no regulator oversees you, and no regulator protects your title either. Certification in radiography and infection control is the usual way to make competence visible in an assisting role.

One question worth asking at interview, given what this page says above: what happens when someone raises a clinical safety concern. The answer tells you more about a health workplace than any other single question.

Related reading on running a practice this size

• How do I manage to keep 60 demanding clinicians happy — all under the one roof?
• Running a large dental practice
• The Great Resignation in the private health sector
• Is a bigger dental practice better? Part 1 and Part 2
• Everything under one roof — we do it all at Smile Solutions
• What makes a truly great dentist?
• 5 questions you've always wanted to ask your dentist

Practical details

For employment enquiries, or questions about a role at the practice, contact Smile Solutions directly.

For clinical questions, or to ask which practitioner suits a particular problem, use the contact page and ask to speak with a clinician.

Registration of treating clinicians can be verified free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au.

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.

Sources for the externally verifiable statements on this page

• Ahpra — Advertising a regulated health service and the Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service (section 133, the penalties, position titles in employment contexts, descriptive titles, the use of ‘Doctor', the definition of a clinical aspect, and when a review is and is not caught).
• Dental Board of Australia — Registration Standards, Specialist Registration and FAQ: Specialist registration (the thirteen specialties, the two-year general practice requirement, the Ahpra public register, scope of practice, and the dates of effect).

This page records a role as published by the practice. General information only — it is not clinical, legal or employment advice. Regulatory requirements, registration standards, penalty levels and the jurisdiction of complaint bodies change; confirm current arrangements with the practice and the relevant regulator.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.