According to Dental Board data, Australia has approximately 10,000 more practising dentists than it did 13 years ago.
What’s even more interesting is that the number of practising dentists has grown around two and a half times faster than the Australian population.
Think about that for a moment. If you’re finding it harder to grow your practice than it was a decade ago, you’re not imagining things.
The reality is that there are significantly more dentists competing for the same patients.
Years ago, many practices could rely on a relatively simple formula: provide excellent dentistry, look after patients well, and let word of mouth do the heavy lifting.
Today, that’s no longer enough. Don’t get me wrong. Clinical excellence is still essential.
But patients can’t experience your dentistry if they never contact your practice in the first place.
Over the years, I’ve worked with practices across Australia and internationally. When I look at the practices that continue to grow, one thing becomes clear.
Success is rarely about one thing. It’s usually the result of getting a handful of key areas right.
1. Patient Attraction
Every practice needs a consistent flow of new patients. The challenge today is visibility.
When prospective patients need a dentist, they usually start online. If they can’t find you, understand what makes you different, or see a compelling reason to contact you, they’ll often move on to another practice.
Being a great dentist matters. Being discoverable matters too.
2. Conversion
Many practices focus heavily on generating more enquiries while paying little attention to what happens when those enquiries arrive.
A missed phone call. A delayed response. A weak conversation with a prospective patient. These small moments can have a significant impact on growth.
Before investing more money in marketing, it’s worth asking a simple question:
How many opportunities are we already losing?
3. Patient Experience
Patients don’t just judge clinical outcomes. They judge the entire experience.
Why? Because they’ve got no objective way of being able to tell what your clinical skills are like, but research points to the fact that they make assumptions about your clinical skills based on the overall experience.
From the first phone call to the moment they leave the practice, every interaction shapes their perception of your business.
The practices that grow consistently tend to be intentional about the experience they create, not accidental.
4. Patient Communication
Strong practices communicate consistently. They educate patients, build trust and stay connected throughout the patient journey.
Communication isn’t simply about reminders and confirmations. It’s about strengthening relationships. And stronger relationships usually lead to better retention.
A critical part of patient communication is from the practitioner to the patient about the dental procedure they’re recommending. If you want an all-too-sobering assessment of the patient communications at your practice, run some reports and check on:
- the go-ahead rate for treatment plans
- patient re-appointment rates, and
- dollars per chair per day.
These will give you the clearest indication of how effective patient communication is at your practice, and frankly, you might not like what you see.
5. Follow-Up
This is one of the biggest missed opportunities I see.
Many practices are sitting on patients who never booked, never completed treatment, or simply disappeared over time.
Growing your practice isn’t always about finding new patients. Sometimes it’s about reconnecting with the patients you already have.
Executed well, follow-up can deliver significant growth without increasing your marketing spend.
6. Leadership and Culture
Every result in your practice is driven by people. Your team answers the phone.
Your team creates the patient experience. Your team follows systems and processes.
Which means leadership matters.
The strongest practices I’ve seen typically have strong cultures, clear expectations and leaders who understand that business growth ultimately comes through people.
One quick assessment of the culture in your practice is how effectively you cope when a team member is away or when someone makes a mistake. Is the prevailing culture to just get the job done and step in and help each other? Or is it more about pointing the finger and worrying about whose role it was?
The Bottom Line
If there were half as many dentists in Australia, you could probably get away with focusing solely on clinical dentistry.
That’s no longer the environment we’re operating in.
The practices that thrive in 2026 understand that growth depends on more than clinical skill alone.
They focus on:
- Patient attraction
- Conversion
- Patient experience
- Patient communication
- Follow-up
- Leadership and culture
When these six areas work together, growth becomes far more predictable.
If you’d like to learn more about one of the biggest opportunities most practices are overlooking, join our upcoming Centaur webinar:
You Don’t Have a Lead Problem. You Have a Conversion Problem.
Wednesday 15 July, 2026 12:30 PM AEST
If your books aren’t as full as they should be, more marketing won’t fix it. In this session, we’ll show you exactly where the breakdown happens—and what better-performing practices are doing differently.
We’ll explore why many practices don’t need more leads at all. They simply need to convert more of the opportunities they already have.
About the Author
Angus Prior
Practice Growth Partner
