Bentleigh East Dental Fitout: The Dental Gallery

The Dental Gallery

QTC Build delivered the design and construction of The Dental Gallery in Bentleigh East, converting an older residential-to-commercial building into a purpose-built two-surgery dental clinic. The project included:

• Two fully equipped dental surgeries
• Sterilisation room
• CBCT room provision
• Reception and waiting area
• Custom dental cabinetry
• External plant room
• Building permit and compliance works
• Coordination with specialist dental equipment suppliers

The Brief

The Dental Gallery had identified an existing commercial premises in Bentleigh East for its new practice. The two-storey building had originally been residential and was converted for commercial use around 20 years earlier, with the new dental clinic to occupy the ground floor while leaving the upper level untouched.

The original brief was for a single surgery practice.

During the design process, QTC Build worked through the available space with the client and identified an opportunity to accommodate a second surgery without unnecessarily expanding the scope into the upper level.

The brief developed into a two-surgery clinic incorporating sterilisation, CBCT provision, reception and waiting areas and the supporting facilities required for the practice.

The Challenge

The age and history of the building created some challenges before the new fitout could begin.

Documentation from the original residential-to-commercial conversion was incomplete, so we couldn’t simply rely on the existing drawings to establish the building’s structure or compliance.

QTC Build worked with the building surveyor and access consultant to assess the existing premises and determine what was required for the new Class 5 use. Preliminary structural investigations were also undertaken to identify load-bearing walls and confirm what could and couldn’t be altered before the layout was finalised.

Rather than forcing the design and dealing with structural issues during construction, we designed the clinic around the building that was actually there.

Another challenge was the relationship between surgery two and the sterilisation room. The existing staircase sat directly between them, which would ordinarily require staff to leave the clinical area and travel past the amenities, reception and waiting area each time instruments needed to move between the rooms.

Instead, we used the space beneath the staircase to create a direct pass-through between surgery two and sterilisation, providing a simple connection between the two spaces without changing the existing structure.

The Approach

QTC Build managed the project as a complete design and construct, bringing the building surveyor, access consultant and dental equipment suppliers into the process early so the building, compliance and equipment requirements could be resolved before construction.

Each surgery was designed around the way the practitioner intended to work rather than applying a standard dental room layout.

Custom cabinetry was designed specifically for the equipment and workflow within each surgery, including the positioning of the suction cart on the assistant side and a pull-out cart for water and chairside instruments on the dentist side.

We coordinated directly with Henry Schein and Borg Dental to incorporate equipment locations, services, power and connection requirements into the design and construction documentation.

An external plant room was also designed and constructed to house the dental plant without taking valuable space away from the clinical areas.

The CBCT room provision was coordinated around the proposed equipment and radiation shielding requirements, allowing the necessary wall construction and services to be incorporated as part of the fitout rather than retrofitted later.

The Result

The Dental Gallery opened with a purpose-built two-surgery clinic in Bentleigh East, complete with sterilisation, CBCT provision, reception and waiting areas, custom dental joinery and dedicated external plant.

What began as a brief for a single surgery became a two-surgery practice through careful planning of the existing building and available floor area, giving the client greater clinical capacity from the outset without needing to extend the fitout into the upper level.

Just as importantly, the complexities of an older converted building were resolved during design rather than being left to become problems during construction.

The result is a clinic that makes better use of the building the client already had and gives The Dental Gallery room to grow.