We are all getting really excited about the finals of the Dentistry Awards 2010 which take place in 3 days time here in Leicester.  The girls of Smile Essential have been busy shopping in and around Leicester for their evening dresses and booking hairdressers appointments to help to make it a night to remember. Nik and Shrik have decided to join in the excitement and have both had dress rehearsals to make sure that they look suave in their tuxedos.  Being a tooth-crazy bunch, we have all been carrying out tooth whitening top-ups on our own teeth to make sure our pearly whites are in good order!

We are  celebrating the news that we have retained our Investors in People (IIP) status and achieved an additional recognition by securing a Bronze award, placing our practice in a small minority of organisations in the country to achieve this feat.

Investors in People is a nationally recognised standard awarded to organisations that show excellent people management leading to improved business performance. As of April 2010, those achieving the Bronze standard are in the top 3% of Investors in People recognised organisations.

The Bronze status was awarded to us after a day of intense assessment involving a random sample of staff within the practice and covering things such as communications, learning and development, and continuous improvement.

To enable us to achieve this level of accreditation we were assessed against the Investors in People profile framework of good practice.  This framework provides further challenges for Smile Essential by looking beyond the standard Investors In People framework. This gives us an indication of how good we are in certain areas and what areas we need to focus on to improve our People Management. 

 Lina Kotecha said, “I’d like to thank everyone within Smile Essential for helping us achieve this positive accolade. It’s an excellent acknowledgement of our developing ‘people first’ culture and our ongoing commitment to learning and continuous improvement.

We are delighted to announce to all of our patients that we have been short-listed for three national dental awards: Best Practice, Best Team and Best Young Dentist Award in the forthcoming  Dentistry Awards 2010.  Now in its fourth successful year, these regional awards launched by Dentistry magazine have been created to recognise outstanding individuals, teams and practices who have an active interest in continuing professional development and staying at the top of the dental profession.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been short-listed for the second consecutive year in the prestigious awards which help to recognise contributions made to our profession by individuals and/ or dental practices who are passionate about offering the very best for their patients says Shrikesh Kotecha, a joint partner at the practice nominated for the Best Young Dentist award.

To enter, we had to write 500 words per category saying why we  think we deserved to win the award, backing the entry up with pictures, marketing material and testimonials.  Battling against practices within the region ensured the entries were of an exceptionally high standard.

The judging panel consists of top members of the profession including dentists, hygienists, and practice managers who will be looking to decide who is the Best Practice, Best Team and Best Young Dentist in the Midlands region.

The winners will be announced at The Dentistry Awards Ceremony on Friday December 10^th 2010 at the Athena – a beautiful Art-Deco cinema in Leicester.  The evening is a black-tie event and will be hosted by the comedian Paul Thorne.  Last year over 650 people attended making this the largest annual dentistry event ever in the UK and the event looks to break records again this year!

We would like to thank all of our patients for their continued loyalty and look forward to caring for you for many years to come.