This year Dental IT turns 20, and across those two decades our dental IT support has meant one thing above all: getting there first. While the rest of the industry was still catching up, our practices were already running the technology everyone else would adopt years later.
That is not a boast for its own sake. Being early is what keeps a dental practice running, secure, and protected before the threats it cannot yet see. Here is what 20 years a step ahead actually looks like, and why it matters for your practice today.
Ahead from day one
When most of the industry was still listening to dial-up modems screech, we were already connecting practices over broadband. When everyone else was content with a basic BT line, we were sourcing high-speed connections so a busy practice never had to wait on its own systems.
The same pattern showed up everywhere we looked:
- While others sold Avaya and "digital" phone systems, we went straight to IP phones. Some of our practices have been running on IP telephony for well over a decade.
- While other suppliers remote controlled machines with PC Anywhere down a phone line, we connected over broadband and actually fixed the problem there and then.
- While everyone else built basic workgroup networks, we were running Active Directory, so access and security were managed properly from the start.
It was true for the small things too. While the rest of the market shipped boxy tower-and-monitor combos, we were fitting all-in-one PCs for the elegance and simplicity a reception desk deserves. And while most people trusted a few external hard drives for their backups, we had already moved practices onto NAS and cloud backup, because a drive on a shelf was never a safety net.
When being early paid off: 2020
Most of the time, being ahead is quiet. It is the problem that never happens, the wait that never comes. Then occasionally the value becomes very obvious.
When COVID arrived in 2020, our practices were ready. Because they already had all-in-one PCs, VPNs as standard behind their managed firewalls, and remote working built in, their reception teams could carry on from home almost overnight. While a lot of the sector scrambled to work out how to keep going, our practices simply kept going.
That head start did not come from luck in a crisis. It came from years of doing the unglamorous groundwork before anyone needed it.
What dental IT support looks like now
The tools have changed completely since 2006. The instinct has not. Here is what we now provide as standard.
Connectivity and infrastructure
Leased lines as standard, so your connection is fast and genuinely yours. All-in-one PCs that keep a practice tidy and simple to support.
Identity and productivity
Entra ID and Intune to manage who signs in and what their devices can do, with SharePoint and OneDrive so your files are organised, shared safely, and available wherever your team is working.
Security and resilience
Managed firewalls, DMARC and DKIM protection on your domains, and immutable backups that ransomware cannot quietly encrypt or delete. On top of that, 24/7 monitoring, MDR-grade antivirus, and privilege access management so the right people have the right access and no more.
Communications
AI-powered phones and video-call support as standard, so patients and colleagues can reach the practice the way that suits them.
You can see the full picture of how this fits together on our services page, and we are always happy to talk through what your practice actually needs.
We hold ourselves to the same standard
Being early is not something we only sell. It is how we run the company.
Over 20 years we have moved our own fleet from diesel cars and vans to electric vehicles, replaced off-the-shelf software with bespoke monitoring apps and our own ticketing system, and built AI-driven business systems into the way we work every day. We test new ideas on ourselves first, so by the time something reaches your practice it is proven rather than experimental.
It is true of our people too. We have taken team members from apprenticeships into leadership roles, and supported them through life's challenges along the way. The result is a team that has grown up solving exactly the problems dental practices face.
None of this is recklessness. We experiment relentlessly while staying cautious and professional, balancing frontier IT with the established protocols that keep your data safe. Because in IT you are either ahead, or the ground shifts and you are suddenly behind.
Why being early matters for your practice
It would be easy to read all of this as a list of acronyms. It is really about one idea. The point of getting there first is not novelty, it is protection. The threats facing dental practices, from ransomware to email fraud to simple hardware failure, do not wait for you to be ready. Being a step ahead means the defence is already in place when the problem arrives.
That is also why we are careful about what we promise. We will never tell you a system is impossible to breach or that it will never go down. What we will tell you, honestly, is that 20 years of doing this for UK dental practices has taught us where the risks really sit and how to stay in front of them.
Here is to the next 20
Thank you to every practice that has trusted us along the way. The technology will keep changing, and we will keep doing what we have always done: getting there first, so your practice is in expert hands.
If you would like dental IT support that is always a step ahead, get in touch and we will talk it through.