Chopra & Associates, Kent

Peter Chopra started his dental business 20-years-ago, and now has four practices in Kent serving around 40,000 patients. During 2007 he implemented Pearl Dental Software from Baker Heath Associates Ltd (BHA) to support his mixed NHS/Private practice, which he continues to expand.

Chopra & Associates offer a wide range of General, Cosmetic and Preventative treatments, and his team also includes an Oral Surgeon. His business vision embraces training staff; he currently has 13 nurses, including four trainees, and regularly recruits newly qualified Vocational Trainee dentists to work alongside experienced Associates. Pearl is the first practice management system deployed across Chopra Associates, though ‘System 90’ (a predecessor of Carestream R4) was used at one surgery when he acquired it.

Chopra & Associates, Ashford

Simply does everything you need

Mr Chopra is very clear about why he uses Pearl. “It’s simple to use and does everything you need. That’s important because the more complicated it is to use the more likely it is that mistakes will occur,” he says. And unlike some other well-known systems, Mr Chopra sees no differences in ease-of-use for dentists or nurses. “I’ve personally used Carestream R4 in the distant past. I’m told that it’s an easy system for nurses to use,” he says. “On the other hand, some other systems are regarded as easier for the dentist to use. That’s not helpful either because you have to work as a team – dentist, nurse, receptionist. Everyone needs a common system that helps them perform their role to maximum effect. That’s an essential part of delivering a great patient journey.”

“Designed by you” is more than a slogan

Another aspect of Pearl that impresses Peter Chopra is the way BHA interacts with customers about new developments for the system. “From time to time things change, and BHA is very good at taking advice about how to respond to those changes,” he explains. “Whether changes in regulations, or best practice, or just in the way the business works, BHA have a great feedback process. They will always find time to discuss ideas for new features or
changes in functionality. They then look for ways to incorporate those ideas into the next software update. “This is really important for us,” he continues. “We need to be efficient so we need our software to work the way we do. But we’re dentists – we don’t have the resources or skills to create our own. Working with BHA deals with this problem very effectively. They use the phrase ‘designed by you’ in their marketing, and it rings true. BHA is always happy to take ideas from its customers on how to improve Pearl, even though it’s already very effective

Robust, reliable and cost effective

Having the most highly functional and easy-to-use software is fine, so long as it works. Fortunately, reliability is another characteristic of Pearl that Peter Chopra praises. “Pearl is very robust; it has hardly ever caused us a problem in our 10 years of use. When we have hit a snag or needed to make changes the support we received has always been outstanding. BHA can quickly sort things out using remote access, and they are equally patient and responsive when it is a training issue.”

Over the moon

There is no doubt that Peter Chopra is a committed fan of Pearl Dental Software. He concludes; “Pearl seems to have all the best features of its rivals while being simple to learn and easy-to-use. It is accurate, reliable and fantastically well supported. And its pricing is also significantly more competitive than the offerings of Pearl’s bigger rivals. I have to say that I’m over the moon with Pearl, and that’s why I’ve used it for 10 years.”

The practice in brief

Chopra & Associates Kent

Tel: 01233 637018 (Ashford practice)

Owner / principal dentist: Peter Chopra
Staff :
11 Associate & VT dentists
Practice manager
3 Head nurses
9 Qualified nurses
4 Trainee nurses
3 Receptionists
(as of September 2017)

40,000+ patients

Locations in:
Ashford
Canterbury
Sittingbourne
Wanscombe

Opening hours:
Vary from location to location, but typically
Mon-Fri, 9:00am-1:00pm / 2:00pm-5:30pm

Pearl user since 2007
www.chopradental.com

More information

For more information, please call 0116 275 9995 or go to our ‘Contact Us’ page.