CERTIFIED DENTAL PRACTICE COORDINATOR

At ACE Courses, we recognise that the true success of a dental practice extends beyond clinical excellence — it lies in creating an exceptional patient journey from the very first contact to the completion of treatment.

The Certified Dental Practice Coordinator Programme is designed for forward-thinking practices that want to elevate communication, trust, and conversion rates through structured, empathetic coordination. Over six intensive days, you’ll gain the skills to turn enquiries into treatment opportunities, master effective consultation and follow-up systems, harness digital technology for case presentation, and apply measurable KPIs that drive sustainable growth.

This transformative course empowers coordinators, receptionists, nurses, hygienists, therapists, and managers alike to deliver a seamless, high-quality experience that reflects the very best of modern dentistry.

6 days Course

Course Dates and Costings
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Eligibility

Suitable for:

Receptionists
Existing TCOs
Dental Nurses
Practice Managers
Hygienists and Therapists

6-day programme which will lead to a qualification:

Certified Dental Practice Coordinator

One Practice Manager or Principal can attend for free with 3 enrolled staff members

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Melonie Prebble

Melonie qualified in 1995 as a Dental Hygienist and Therapist at The London Hospital. Her
career spans over 30 years in the dental industry. Since qualification she has been enhancing her skills and contributing to the profession.

Predominantly Melonie works in private practice as a dental therapist and provides in house
practice training and consultancy based around preventive practice. Her studies have taken
her abroad on many occasions, and lead to her to attend the Dentsply Sirona Ultrasonic Training Institute (USTI) in Europe and the USA, allowing her to subsequently provide
Cavitron training programmes here in the UK.

Her experience working with a wide range of practices led to an interest in business development skills so, to support this she became qualified as a Master Neuro Linguistic Programming Coach in 2013 and is DISC Flow certified. This additional training enables her
to support professionals and practices in reaching their business goals with a focus on people.

Gemma Seddon

Gemma, known to most as Gem, has nearly 30 years’ experience working within dentistry and has built her career around improving patient experience and supporting dental teams in their day-to-day roles.

She began her journey as a dental nurse and, over the past 29 years, has worked across many areas of practice life including front of house, management, treatment coordination and business development. This breadth of experience gives her a genuine, practical understanding of how dental practices function and how patients experience care as they move through the practice.

Gem currently works as Business Development Manager and Patient Coordinator at Alderley Edge Dental, alongside supporting practices across the UK both in person and remotely. Remaining actively involved in practice allows her to stay closely connected to the realities of modern dentistry and the evolving patient journey.

Through Dental Gem Consultancy, Gem works with practices to strengthen communication, support clearer treatment conversations and build trust through openness and understanding. Her training focuses on practical, people-led frameworks that help teams feel more confident and consistent, supporting both aspiring treatment coordinators and established practices looking to enhance their patient experience.

Day by Day Agenda

Overview of The Patient Journey
Communication Part 1
Enquiry Handling
Behavioural Styles and Learning Styles

Overview of The Patient Journey:

View the whole journey
Explore why it matters to the patient
Learn why your role matters and how each role links together

Communication:

Understand what rapport is and why it matters
Learn practical rapport-building techniques
Practice communication skills for real dental scenarios

Rapport/Non-Verbal Cues/Deep Rapport
Active Listening
Paraphrasing Reflective Responses
Big Picture and Detail
Empathy and Authenticity

Enquiry Handling:

The first contact- The greeting
Best practice
Gathering information
Converting the enquiry to a patient
Scripts/Templates

Learning and Behavioural Styles

VAK- What is your style

DiSC Personality Test

Recap of The Patient Journey

Humanising Clinical Language

Discovery and De-Layering- The Communication Cycle

Case Presentation

Team Awareness and Team Preparedness
Clinical Jargon- translating clinical knowledge into patient friendly language
The four core drivers/ Handling objections within the communication cycle
Learn how to de- layer within conversation to reach agreement
Learn Framing and Inoculation as part of the presentation process
Deep dive into the consultation process

Touch Points
DiSC Recap and Patient Enquiry Recap
The Initial Visit and Consultation Process
Call Handling

What are touch points and the stages of the patient journey
Disc revision
First Positive Responses to enquiries

The Initial Visit and Consultation Process

Creating Calm and Prep
Asking the right questions
Clear guidance to the next steps
Consultation opening Statement
Clinical Check-In/Check Out/Handover
Language in the Clinical Area

Call Handling and Email Handling

Structure of a call
Universal Greeting
Handling difficult conversations
Price Shoppers
Cancellations
Professional email foundations
Handling email cancellations and no shows
Building Rapport via email or whatsapp
Safety and Compliance
What does the research say

Treatment Responses

Financial Arrangement

Scheduling

Develop a set of short snappy patient friendly treatment explanations
Build confidence discussing money
Use the 5-step conversation cycle
Apply TCO model
Handle objections effectively
Close and schedule treatment
Understand production-based scheduling
Identify current scheduling challenges
Learn production block zoning model
Implement verbal skills for scheduling success

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Exploring “The Extra Mile”

Key Performance Indicators

Deep dive into scenarios and how our behaviour affects the experience
Explore the key difference between a bad, a good and an exceptional experience
Why going the extra mile matters
What happens and how do we strengthen the relationship once the patient leaves the consultation
Develop your own critical nonessentials list
Understand why KPIs matter
Identify the most important dental KPIs
Learn how to gather and track KPIs
Understand what the numbers mean
Clarify team roles in KPI success

Our Approach

We combine decades of real-world dental experience with behavioural insight, including DISC and neuro-linguistic communication techniques to help teams communicate more effectively, adapt to different patient personalities and build trust naturally.

Importantly, we are both still hands-on within practice ourselves. This means everything we share is grounded in the realities of modern dentistry and the patient journey as it exists today. Not theory or outdated models.

Alongside this, we cover the practical use of visual tools such as dental photography and digital records to support clearer conversations, stronger understanding and more confident patient decisions.

Gemma and Mel.