Business basics for dentists

  • D. O. Willis
Wiley-Blackwell price £37.99; pp 432 ISBN 9781118266069 | ISBN: 978-1-1182-6606-9

Business basics for dentists provides an interesting overview on managing a successful dental practice and aims to add to the business knowledge and skills of the dentist. David O. Willis, in his preface, notes that this book is primarily for dental students about to graduate or recent graduates who have been out of dental school for five years or less – I would agree. This is a book written to educate the new dentist who is least prepared in practice management. The concepts discussed in the chapters are basic and form a foundation for understanding the financial aspects of the field.

The book is divided into four easy-to-read sections. It is designed for convenient access with clearly defined chapters to make it easy to refer to by the busy practitioner. The well-structured text is complemented with a rich variety of text boxes, summarised tables and graphs. The text in each chapter is based on mainstream concepts tempered with practical suggestions gleaned from the author's experience in working with new and young practitioners.

Chapter eight is primarily based on American laws and regulatory bodies that are not always applicable to dental practice in other parts of the world, but it is not within the remit of this book to do so.

This book contains a particularly interesting chapter on career planning that many dental students and new graduates will find insightful and thought-provoking. The book aims to provide solutions for many management problems that I could relate to as a practising clinician. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learnt a lot of tips that are useful in daily practice.

In summary, a well-structured and written reference book accumulating knowledge of a very experienced clinician enables this book to be of relevance to the newly qualified dentist and a tool to reinforce well-known concepts with stimulating ideas to the well-established dentist.