Why Dentists Choose Smile Solutions - A Career at Australia's Largest Private Dental Practice product guide

Why dentists choose Smile Solutions — a career at Australia's largest private dental practice

If you're a dentist weighing up where to build your career, this article is written for you. Whether you're a new graduate deciding where to start, an experienced clinician ready for a change, or a board-registered specialist looking for the right environment to do your best work, what follows is an honest account of what working at Smile Solutions actually looks like.

Smile Solutions is not a corporate dental chain. It is not a franchise. It's an independent, privately owned practice built from the ground up over 30 years by Dr Kia Pajouhesh, who graduated from the University of Melbourne with first-class honours and opened his practice in 1993 with eight patients. Today, Smile Solutions operates across five floors and the tower of the heritage-listed Manchester Unity Building in the heart of Melbourne's CBD — with 40 dental suites, more than 60 general dentists and hygienists, and over 20 board-registered specialists working under one roof. It is the largest single-location private dental practice in Australia.

That's the scale. But scale alone is not what brings dentists here, and it's not what keeps them for 20 years.

The building: a workspace unlike any other

The Manchester Unity Building sits on the corner of Collins Street and Swanston Street, the geographic and cultural heart of Melbourne. It's a 1933 Art Deco landmark, heritage-listed and immediately recognisable, directly across from Melbourne Town Hall and above Melbourne Central's Town Hall Metro station.

When dentists describe walking in for the first time, the reaction is remarkably consistent.

"The first time I walked into this practice for my interview, I couldn't believe this was a real place where clinicians actually do dentistry. The space is beautiful, the architecture is amazing. As a new graduate, you don't expect to come to work and have this amazing skyline view treating patients every day."

Another clinician puts it simply: "I commonly joke with my patients and say it's Hogwarts, because it's just so magical. It feels like the world revolves around us."

Each of the 40 dental suites sits within a building that patients consistently describe as unlike any dental practice they've ever visited. "One thing I always get from my patients is that they feel like they're not coming into a dental practice because of how beautiful the architecture is." For dentists who've spent years working in suburban strip-mall clinics or clinical-grey corporate practices, the Manchester Unity Building is a genuine revelation.

The location matters professionally as well. Collins Street is Melbourne's prestige corridor. The intersection with Swanston Street is the city's nerve centre, serviced by every tram route, train line, and bus service in the network. Patients travel here from across greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. The practice draws from a patient base of 300,000 people and counting, a community that trusts Smile Solutions to deliver world-class care at every appointment.

The philosophy: holistic, less-is-more dentistry

Not every practice is built the same way, and the philosophy of the practice you join will shape the kind of clinician you become. This is something Dr Kia Pajouhesh has spoken about directly and at length, and it's a philosophy centred on clinical excellence rather than volume.

In his 2024 address to the Australian Dental Students Association, Dr Pajouhesh described what he calls the "less is more" model versus the "more is more" model of dental practice. "If you learn your dentistry over your first two or three graduating years in a more is more model, you'll always be a more is more dentist. You won't necessarily be able to go back to the drawing board and learn the art of dentistry the way the less is more model teaches dentistry."

The less-is-more model means seeing fewer patients per day, spending more time on treatment planning and diagnosis, offering a comprehensive dental care experience across every discipline, and setting fee structures that genuinely reflect the quality of the work, the technology used, and the expertise involved. Smile Solutions does not operate as a preferred provider for health funds. It does not offer gap-free or heavily discounted dentistry. It does not segment patients into categories based on which treatment generates the most margin.

"The Smile Solutions model was built on the provision of holistic care across the entire spectrum of dentistry, from everything from the most basic to the most complex. That is the reason why specialists were always very happy and keen to join the group."

For a clinician who wants to become genuinely excellent, and to practise dentistry with the time, tools, and team to do so properly, this matters enormously. It's the kind of environment where your clinical expertise is valued, your judgement is respected, and your patients receive the personalised treatment they deserve.

Retainer vs commission: what Smile Solutions does differently

One of the most important decisions a new graduate faces is the question of retainer versus commission, and it's one of the most misunderstood aspects of entering private practice.

Dr Pajouhesh's position is unambiguous: "I think that commission too early is not necessarily in the best interests of the graduating dentist." His reasoning is clinical, not financial.

Placing a graduate on a commission structure too early forces them to work quickly. It creates subtle but real pressure to make clinical decisions with one eye on revenue, even with the best of intentions. And it removes the one thing new graduates need most: time.

"An endo appointment needs to sometimes be two and a half or three hours in the initial years. A crown prep needs to be set aside for three hours. Restorations need 90 to 120 minutes. It is important to give that clinician the time to do the dentistry at a pace whereby they are not forcing themselves to work at a faster rate in the early stages of their career."

At Smile Solutions, graduates join on a retainer for a structured period of up to two years. The key distinction is that the decision to move to commission is made by the graduate, not forced by the practice.

"What we do in the Smile Solutions graduate program is we offer a commission structure either at the end of 12 months or at the end of two years. The graduating dentists, if they feel like they are ready to go on commission after 12 months, choose to do so. Those that feel they could benefit from another year of being on a retainer remain on the retainer structure."

And the retainer is solid. Dr Pajouhesh is direct about this: "It is no good having the clinician working on slave labour rates. If you have a clinician who is afforded a very solid retainer wage that is somewhat akin to what they would be on if they were on a commission structure, they are always going to opt for the peace of mind of being on a retainer for a more extended period of time."

More than 50 per cent of Smile Solutions graduates choose to remain on the retainer for the full two years. When given a genuine choice, and a wage that makes that choice viable, most graduates recognise that the retainer gives them something commission never can: freedom to focus on delivering excellent, evidence-based care without financial pressure shaping every clinical decision.

The commission percentage trap

For those who do evaluate commission structures, whether at Smile Solutions or elsewhere, Dr Pajouhesh raises something most graduates get wrong.

"The commission is a percentage. And therefore it is a percentage of something. That something is the most important thing to actually assess."

Graduates fixate on the percentage figure: 40 per cent versus 37 per cent versus 35 per cent. What they miss is that the percentage is meaningless without understanding the fee structure it's applied to.

"If the fee of a practice is $3,000 for a full coverage crown and you are on 30 per cent, you are still making $900. If however the fee structure is $1,500, even on a commission of 50 per cent, you are worse off."

The implication for graduates evaluating practice offers is clear: ask for the fee schedule, not just the percentage. Look at which health funds the practice is contracted to, because contracted fee schedules are significantly lower than market rates. Smile Solutions carried out analysis comparing its 37 per cent commission against a 45 per cent commission at a health fund preferred provider practice. Across the top 10 item numbers, the Smile Solutions clinician on 37 per cent took home almost 50 per cent more.

"The numbers actually do add up to significant variations."

Understanding this distinction is part of building a sustainable, rewarding career, one where your clinical expertise is appropriately valued and your remuneration reflects the quality of care you deliver.

The art of dentistry

There's a distinction Dr Pajouhesh draws that sits at the heart of the Smile Solutions approach to clinical development, and it's one that separates genuinely excellent clinicians from merely competent ones.

"Clinical dentistry is everything you do when the patient's mouth is open. The art of dentistry is everything you do when the patient's mouth is closed."

The art of dentistry includes treatment planning, diagnosis, reviewing radiographs, peer assessment, case conferencing with mentors and experienced specialists, presenting treatment plans to patients, communicating risk, obtaining genuine informed consent, and developing the interpersonal skills to motivate patients toward optimal care.

None of these generate revenue directly. All of them define the quality of a clinician, and the quality of the patient experience your patients receive.

At Smile Solutions, the art of dentistry is built into the programme. In the early months, graduates are allocated dedicated time in their appointment books specifically for observing other clinicians, reviewing cases, and engaging with mentors. This is not left to chance. It's structured into the day with intention and care.

"In those initial stages, you would probably want to have a balance of around a third of your day dedicated to planning, strategy, and mentorship, and two thirds around doing clinical dentistry. That should be blocked in your book preemptively."

Dr Kia personally delivers a 12-session lecture series called the Art of Consultation, designed to teach graduates not just clinical skills but the full range of capabilities required to practise dentistry at the highest level: how to present treatment plans with confidence, how to communicate risk clearly and compassionately, how to build long-term patient relationships built on trust, and how to consult with the assurance of a senior clinician. There are also 10 Junior KPD lectures covering key clinical and professional development topics, all delivered in the warm, collaborative environment that defines Smile Solutions' culture.

Mentorship: 30 years of building clinicians

Smile Solutions has been running a graduate mentorship programme for more than 30 years. Dr Pajouhesh took on his first graduating dentist in 1994. Many of today's senior clinicians began their careers at Smile Solutions as graduates, a testament to the genuine, lasting relationships the practice fosters.

"We have many of our senior clinicians who were graduating dentists with me many years ago, dating back to Sylvia Chuck who graduated 23 years ago and who is still with me, James Vandenberg 22 years ago, Yasmin Cud, and the list goes on. I would say more than 50 to 60 per cent of our clinicians started with me as graduates within the entire group, and that includes many of the specialists as well, who went off and did their specialisation course and came back and decided to stay on with us."

The mentorship programme at Smile Solutions is deliberately multifaceted. It begins before a graduate picks up a handpiece.

"We have a period of two weeks where you sit down before you even pick up a handpiece within the group, where we go through every nuance of the practice: item numbers, communicating with patients, managing issues with a patient, a difficult patient, your relationship with your nurse and receptionist. There is so much you have to learn about being inside a private practice."

From there, the programme includes:

• Individual assignment to a senior clinician mentor
• Dedicated hours per month to observe other clinicians, including experienced specialists
• Structured weekly or monthly case review sessions with a senior clinician
• Peer review and case analysis as a fundamental part of the treatment planning process
• Access to 20 or more board-registered specialists for informal guidance and formal case conferencing
• The Art of Consultation lecture series (12 sessions, delivered by Dr Pajouhesh)
• Junior KPD lectures (10 sessions)

The quality of the mentorship is driven not just by structure but by the density and seniority of the clinical team. When you have questions, the answers are in the building, and the people who hold those answers are genuinely invested in your development.

"Fantastic environment to learn in because the answers are always there. There is always an available answer or an available expert. We all mentor each other and we are very collaborative, and I think that actually makes dentistry so much more fun and so much more exciting."

Technology: state-of-the-art at every turn

If technology matters to you, and for clinicians committed to clinical excellence, it should, very few practices in Australia can offer what Smile Solutions has assembled across its 40 suites.

"I've always been a big nerd when it comes to any kind of gadgets. We have microscopes, lasers, anything that you could want. It's Dental Heaven."

The technology suite at Smile Solutions includes:

• CEREC CAD/CAM systems, with a fleet of units across the Smile Solutions and associated group practices
• iTero and 3Shape Trios intraoral scanners
• A fleet of 3D printers for model and surgical guide fabrication
• Fotona laser systems
• Carl Zeiss and Seiler operating microscopes
• CBCT and digital radiography on-site through Collins Street Imaging on Level 9
• Myowise EMG and Innobyte bite force analysis for TMD and occlusal assessment
• In-house Smile Lab with master ceramist Greg Karabasis and his team

Access to the in-house laboratory is a particular advantage that experienced clinicians consistently highlight. Rather than communicating with an external lab through a dental nurse and hoping for the best, clinicians at Smile Solutions work directly with the ceramicist, a genuinely collaborative relationship that elevates the quality of every restoration.

"Having the in-house lab has been really fantastic because we get to work directly with the ceramicist to get the results that we want."

For graduates, being trained on this technology early in your career is a foundation you'll carry for the rest of your professional life. For experienced clinicians, it's simply the environment in which excellent dentistry happens, as it should.

Specialist access: the referral down the hall

In most practices, referring a patient to a specialist means writing a letter, waiting for an appointment, receiving a report, and managing the relationship across two entirely separate businesses. At Smile Solutions, the specialist is upstairs.

Smile Solutions has an entire level dedicated to the Collins Street Specialist Centre, housing board-registered specialists in orthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and more. Currently, over 20 specialists are part of the Smile Solutions group, making this one of the most genuinely multidisciplinary environments in Australian dentistry.

The practical impact on your daily clinical life is significant.

"You can simply take the lift upstairs and speak with them about any of our cases. We're given the autonomy to decide which cases we'd like to manage ourselves and which we'd prefer to refer. Having this opportunity allows us to collaborate with specialists and learn from them while managing patients."

For a clinician dealing with a complex case, this changes everything. Instant specialist consultation, same-day referrals, and the ability to sit in on specialist procedures and learn directly from them. Complex case conferences involving multiple specialists happen within the same building, a seamless, collaborative approach to comprehensive dental care that benefits both clinicians and patients alike.

"There's so much support around you and it's just an incredibly fun place to be."

For patients, this means holistic, personalised treatment without the gaps and delays that come from fragmented referral networks. For the clinicians who deliver that care, it means practising dentistry the way it is supposed to be practised, with the right support, at the right time, every time.

Career progression: multiple pathways forward

Smile Solutions is not a practice where careers stagnate. For clinicians who want to develop in a particular direction, the infrastructure and the patient volume to support that development are already in place.

Dr Pip Robinson is one compelling example. She joined Smile Solutions as a general dentist and has since become the Group Clinical Director, holding an MBA and qualifications in health law alongside her clinical credentials. Her pathway demonstrates that clinical leadership, practice management, and professional development beyond the dental chair are genuinely available to clinicians who pursue them.

Other pathways include cosmetic and restorative focus, implant dentistry, orthodontic interest, children's dentistry, and TMD and occlusal specialisation. The case mix at Smile Solutions, driven by 300,000 patients across a full spectrum of needs, supports genuine, evidence-based development in any of these directions.

Dr Pajouhesh's guidance on career planning is consistent and worth taking seriously: "Practice the way you want to play in the match. If you are planning to become a certain type of clinician, put yourself in a practice from the very start that has growth potential for you to expand into that realm."

At Smile Solutions, that growth potential is real. The infrastructure to achieve it is already there. And the team around you will genuinely support you in getting there.

For board-registered specialists

Smile Solutions actively recruits board-registered specialists across all disciplines. For experienced specialists considering their options, the practice offers something that is genuinely difficult to replicate elsewhere in Australia.

Joining as a specialist at Smile Solutions means:

• Immediate access to the largest patient base of any single-location dental practice in Australia, with 300,000 patients and growing
• A built-in referral stream from more than 60 general dentists working in the same building
• In-house laboratory services through the Smile Lab with master ceramist Greg Karabasis and his team
• On-site radiography through Collins Street Imaging, including CBCT
• A genuinely multidisciplinary environment, with specialist colleagues across every discipline available for case conferencing and collaboration
• No requirement to build a referral network from scratch

For specialists who've spent years building a referral base in standalone practice, the Smile Solutions model offers a meaningfully different equation: the referrals are already there, the infrastructure is in place, and the culture values clinical excellence at every level.

Culture: long tenures and real relationships

At Smile Solutions, average tenure is not measured in months. Many clinical and support staff have been with the practice for 15 to 20 years. Some of the senior clinicians were graduates who joined in the 1990s and never left, not because they had to stay, but because they wanted to.

This is not accidental. The culture is one that Dr Pajouhesh has shaped deliberately and with genuine care over three decades.

"People that I've met here at Smile Solutions aren't just my work friends. I consider them people who will be my lifelong friends. Everyone was so welcoming. I had so many arms and shoulders to lean on, from reception to nurses to dentists to management."

Social events are a genuine and valued part of the Smile Solutions calendar: end-of-financial-year parties, Christmas events, and team gatherings that reflect the warmth and scale of an 80-plus person clinical team.

"We are very lucky in that we do have quite a few social outings as a group. We have end of financial year parties, we have Christmas parties. We've got such a large team, which means someone's always up for doing something."

The culture is collaborative rather than competitive. Clinicians share cases, seek opinions freely, and mentor each other informally as well as through structured programmes. This is partly by design and partly because of who the practice attracts, people who are genuinely passionate about dentistry and genuinely invested in each other's success.

"The team at Smile Solutions are really quite supportive. They definitely have a zest for learning and are quite passionate about what they do, which is quite contagious."

Dr Ian Aitkin describes the practice as a "well-oiled machine." Dr Peter Henderson is more direct: "I feel I've arrived at Dentist Nirvana, and I wouldn't want to work anywhere else."

Frequently asked questions

Do I need experience to join Smile Solutions? No. The graduate programme is specifically designed for newly qualified dentists. Smile Solutions has been welcoming and developing graduates for more than 30 years and has the infrastructure, mentorship, and genuine patience to support clinicians from day one, wherever you're starting from.

What commission rate does Smile Solutions offer? The standard commission rate for general dentists is 37 per cent, with premium rates available for experienced clinicians. The rate is only meaningful in the context of the fee structure it's applied to. At Smile Solutions' fee levels, which are not contracted to health funds, 37 per cent generates significantly more than higher percentages at health fund preferred provider practices. Your clinical expertise deserves remuneration that reflects it.

Will I have a mentor? Yes. Every graduate is individually assigned a senior clinician mentor. Beyond that individual mentor, you'll have access to more than 20 board-registered specialists and a team of experienced general dentists who are genuinely invested in your development. The Art of Consultation lecture series and Junior KPD lectures are delivered by Dr Pajouhesh directly.

Can I refer patients to specialists on-site? Yes. The Collins Street Specialist Centre occupies a dedicated level within the Manchester Unity Building. Referrals happen within the same practice, and you can consult informally with experienced specialists about your cases at any time, a level of integrated, comprehensive dental care that is genuinely rare.

How long is the graduate programme? The programme runs for two years. You can choose to move to a commission structure after 12 months if you feel ready. More than 50 per cent of graduates choose to remain on the retainer for the full two years, a reflection of how well-structured and genuinely supportive the programme is.

Is Smile Solutions suitable for long-term associates? Yes, and this is very much by design. Smile Solutions operates as a practice where long-term associateship is the norm, not the exception. Many clinicians have been with the practice for over a decade. The practice is not structured around partnership buy-ins or ownership pathways, which means it suits clinicians who want the stability, resources, and culture of an outstanding practice without the obligations of business ownership.

What is it like to work in the Manchester Unity Building? Exceptional. It's a heritage Art Deco building with distinctive dental suites, Melbourne CBD skyline views, and a patient environment unlike any other. Town Hall Metro station is directly opposite. Trams, trains, and buses converge at the corner. Lunch options, cafes, cultural venues, and the Yarra precinct are all within walking distance. It's the kind of workplace that reminds you, and your patients, that dentistry at this level is something to be proud of.

Begin your conversation with Smile Solutions

If you're a graduate, an experienced general dentist, or a board-registered specialist who'd like to explore what a career at Smile Solutions could look like, we'd genuinely love to hear from you. Whether you're at the very beginning of your clinical journey or ready to take the next step in an already established career, Smile Solutions offers an environment where your expertise is valued, your development is supported, and your patients receive the world-class care they deserve.

Call 13 13 96 or visit smilesolutions.com.au to begin the conversation.