Meet the Board – Fazeela Khan-Osborne

There are many challenges to being a dental clinician, from treating difficult patients to staying at the forefront of the latest industry developments. For those who are also dental practice owners, the responsibilities grow: managing staff, monitoring finances and enhancing the business’ visibility, to name a few. This workload may seem exhausting, but with the right support and passion, it is an achievable reality in which dental clinicians can flourish.

Dr Fazeela Khan-Osborne is the founding clinician of The One To One Dental Clinic, located on Harley Street. With a passion for implant dentistry, Dr Khan-Osborne has extensive experience across a multitude of areas, from world-class clinical skills to  setting up a practice and making the leap from clinician to business owner. She reflects on her career and how it drew her towards The Female Dentist:

“As a female clinician I entered the dental industry and grew up with not having the doors open to me that are open now. There were also fewer women role models. Now there are so many amazing, inspiring women out there and more than 50% of qualifying dentists are female. The needs that we have are still very different to our male counterparts, not just in the way we learn and the way we run businesses, but we also have childcare, we also have menopause – we have unique breaks from service that are slightly different and I don’t think the market necessarily has a dedicated organisation that deals with that. I gravitated towards The Female Dentist as it fills this vacuum.

“I am particularly interested in education because women have sometimes remarked that they feel intimidated learning in the same forum as men – The Female Dentist has a solution to this by offering more custom CPD opportunities that appeal to women. There is a lot of choice too: from training days in a spa to legal and insurance services, they cater to what women want rather than just tagging something along at the end of a more generic outing. This is an aspect of The Female Dentist that I am very supportive of.

“As for the help I can offer, I have the experience of being a practice owner and someone who organises and delivers education, along with being a woman who started a business whilst bringing up two kids. I can guide women in dentistry along any of these paths but am also here if anyone just wants to talk and have some time-out. The Female Dentist provides help where help is needed, and I look forward to being a part of that.

“I hope the legacy of the network is that it builds a strong cohort of women in dentistry. Having continual support and passion shared through The Female Dentist would be excellent to maintain our love for our work. The marketplace today is different to when I started; there is more fear and pressure around litigation, more GDC demands and more limitations as to what treatments can or can’t be done. We don’t get better at things we aren’t doing, so having The Female Dentist is vital for women nationwide, adapting to our current needs and giving us the support and confidence to flourish in their careers.”

Join The Female Dentist today.

For details on membership visit https://thefemaledentist.co.uk/membership-benefits/