Philosophy
Care Dental Centre is the longest serving dental practice in our community, caring for the families of Newcastle and the Hunter for over 100 years. Established in 1918, our practice is firmly dedicated to providing a whole-health approach to dental care. Rather than simply focusing on a "downstream approach" of treating problems when they occur, our practice aims to spend the time with each and every patient, providing a thorough assessment of the condition of their entire mouth and oral cavity. We also provide tailored home care instructions to help every patient understand how they can better prevent their own unique problems from occurring.
Our dedicated hygiene department spend a great deal of time working with each of our patients. Together with the guidance and support of our dentists, we aim to stabilise people’s whole oral health, and educate our patients to help prevent the further continuation of dental disease.
New patients to our practice typically notice that their time spent during their routine examination and cleaning of their teeth is much longer and more thorough than what they may have experienced in the past, and we have found that this approach inevitably helps achieve better and longer lasting oral health outcomes for our patients.
Care Dental Centre strives to continue the tradition of providing an excellent standard of dental care. Our practice has always taken pride in adopting and adapting to new technology, and we continue this tradition to this day. We employ state of the art equipment including Cone Beam Computer Tomography (3D scanning technology) and Cerec CADCAM technology within the practice. We use local dental laboratories, and have built professional relationships over a number of years, allowing us to provide the standard of care that our patients expect. We also work closely with other medical and dental specialists in our bid to deliver the highest care possible.
History
1918—Practice established by Charlie Solomon at 99 Tudor St Hamilton.
It was Upstairs opposite a dance studio; the Boulevard Hotel is now on the site. A nurse Ady Ogara started with Charlie when she was 16 and stayed with the Practice till she retired aged 65. Trevor Emanuel was responsible for her long service leave at the time and was heard to state” its iniquitous” when he was told how much he had to pay.
1938—Trevor Emanuel bought the practice from Charlies Solomon’s estate as he died of a heart attack while actually working in the practice.
A large part of a dental practice in these early times was the making of dentures, so Trevor in 1946 employed a young dental technician named Eric Smith who had been working at Newcastle Hospital dental department during the 2nd world war. Eric stayed with the practice for 45 years. In that time, he married one of Trevor's dental nurses Pat Border who had started when she was 18. The custom of this time was that married women could no longer work once married so sadly Pat had to leave the practice.
1954—The practice moved into a brand-new building around the corner at 133 Beaumont St.
Trevor was very good friends with the Stronach Brothers who were building an office block at the site call HP chambers. They encouraged him to move in and designed a surgery layout for him on the second floor. The practice stayed here for 40 years.
1962—Doug Cowan started at the practice and bought in for the princely sum of 3,500 pounds. Doug was born and bred in Newcastle.
1972—David Hancock joins the practice. David was also born and bred in Newcastle.
Doug Cowan had decided to restrict his practice to Endodontics and Crown and Bridge and David Hancock took over his general practice patients. David had been a patient of Trevor Emanuel's since he was 6 years old.
1978—Colyn Pavey starts at the Practice, another Newcastle boy.
Colyn had also been a patient of the practice and his father Keith, was a dental technician who did all of Doug Cowan's ceramic work and had a laboratory at 119 Beaumont St.
1982—Trevor Emanuel retires after 42 years in the practice.
1989—The Newcastle Earthquake destroyed the building where Keith Pavey's laboratory was and a new building constructed there.
The practice moved into a suite on the second floor of this new building at 119 Beaumont Street, Hamilton, where it is still located today.
1991—Eric Smith the technician retires after 45 years.
1994—The practice moves to a new building at 119 Beaumont St.
1995—The practice adopts the name of CHP Dental being the initials Cowan Hancock and Pavey.
2000—Commencement of the dedicated dental hygiene department, with the first Hygienist being employed. We now have five dedicated dental hygienists.
2005—Doug Cowan retires after 43 years in the practice and 47 years doing dentistry.
2008—Curtis Kemppainen joins the practice. He hails from Calgary in Canada but obtained his Dentistry degree at Sydney Uni.
2008—The name of the practice is changed to Care Dental Centre.
2016—Another Newcastle local, David Pilgrim, joins the practice.
2017—Colyn Pavey retires from the practice after providing 36 years of dental service to the Hamilton and Newcastle community.
2018—David Hancock retires from the practice after 47 years. David continues to offer his dental expertise and care by donating time to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
FAQ
Bulk Billing/ No Gap Statement
New patients often ask if we bulk bill for our procedures.
Existing bulk-billing programs are a marketing exercise mostly run by insurance companies and practices to get patients to attend specific dental offices. Think of them as the equivalent of the grocery stores offering cheap milk in order to get shoppers into their stores. They are looking for high volume turnover and hope you will require other items whilst there.
Some "preferred provider" and bulk-billing dental practices are owned by the insurance companies themselves or are contracted to dentists who have entered into agreements with the insurance companies. Other practices simply bulk-bill in a bid to get large volumes of patients through the door. However due to the level of bulk-billing fees, these practices are typically unable to spend as much time thoroughly assessing and treating their patients. This brings into question what your relationship with the dentist who treats you is. Are they spending quality time looking after your dental interests? And are they looking at you as a whole, or simply treating concerns reactively and quickly, as they arise?
Medical research is discovering more and more about the importance of oral health in conjunction with overall general health. It is our philosophy that dental patients are not just another number in the queue. Our relationship is with you and only you. We do not have low cost/high volume sales and an in/out style of dental services for our patients. It takes time to develop trust and to understand what the individual challenges and needs for your dental health are. Your health needs are special and unique to you, and we want to treat you accordingly.
We recognise that not everyone wants to have a "home" for their dental health needs. It is ok if you want to go to whomever can see you quickest when problems occur. However, this is not the type of dentistry we want to provide for our patients. Our philosophy is to provide the very best professional care we can and this is difficult to provide without developing a relationship with our patients.
It is these high quality relationships we have with our patients that makes the dental profession a pleasure to be involved in year after year, and keeps our staff proud to be providing your dental health care.
Sincerely,
Dr's Hancock, Kemppainen and Pilgrim