Awards and accreditation

Best Family Dental Clinic 2020 — South-East Melbourne

Victorian Dental Group was named Best Family Dental Clinic 2020, South-East Melbourne by the Oral Health & Dentistry Awards, run by GHP.

We mention it, and then we would rather talk about something more useful.

Accreditation matters more than awards

We would rather point you at something more meaningful than an award, because industry awards vary enormously in how they are judged and are not a measure of clinical safety.

Victorian Dental Group is an accredited dental practice, assessed against the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards through Quality Innovation Performance (QIP).

Accreditation is not a marketing exercise. It means an independent assessor has examined how the practice actually operates — infection prevention and control, sterilisation processes and record-keeping, patient identification, consent procedures, clinical governance, incident management, and how the practice handles complaints and open disclosure when something goes wrong. It is reassessed periodically, not awarded once and kept.

Accreditation is voluntary for private dental practices in Australia. A practice that has been through it has chosen to have its systems examined by someone with no commercial interest in the result.

Read more about our accreditation.

The difference, plainly

Neither tells you whether a particular practitioner will suit you. Only one of them tells you anything about how the practice is run.

Questions worth asking about any award

Including ours. If the answers are not easy to find, weigh the award accordingly.

• Who ran it, and what do they do the rest of the year?
• Were the criteria published, and were they clinical?
• Was it judged, voted on, or awarded on a submission?
• Was there an entry fee, or a fee to use the logo?
• How many practices were considered, and in what area?
• Is the category narrow enough that it selects for anything?

How to read dental advertising

A short decoder, because the same phrases turn up everywhere and most of them mean less than they appear to.

None of this makes a practice bad. It makes the advertising uninformative, which is a different problem.

How to check a practitioner yourself

You do not have to take any clinic's word for its credentials, including ours.

Every dentist, oral health therapist, dental hygienist and dental prosthetist practising in Australia must be registered with the Dental Board of Australia and is listed on the public AHPRA register. You can search any practitioner by name at ahpra.gov.au and see their registration type, qualifications, whether any conditions apply to their practice, and whether they hold a recognised specialist registration.

That register is the authoritative source. "Specialist" is a protected title in Australia — a general dentist with a special interest in an area is not the same as a registered specialist, and the register is where you can tell the difference.

If a clinic's website claims something you cannot verify there, ask about it.

What the register will and will not tell you

It will tell you: whether registration is current, what category it is in, the year of first registration, qualifications, any conditions or undertakings, and whether the practitioner holds specialist registration and in which field.

It will not tell you: how good they are, how much they charge, how long they take, or whether you will get on with them. No public register does that, and no award does either.

For those, the things worth weighing are whether you get options and costs in writing, whether the least invasive choice is offered first, whether alternatives including doing nothing are explained, and whether referral happens when a case calls for it.

What the advertising rules actually require

The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law governs how any regulated health service may be advertised in Australia. In summary, advertising must not:

• be false, misleading or deceptive, including by omission
• offer a gift, discount or inducement without stating its terms and conditions
• use testimonials about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service
• create an unreasonable expectation of benefit
• encourage indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services

These rules apply to everyone: practices, practitioners, and anyone advertising on their behalf. Ahpra publishes guidance on them and accepts reports about advertising that breaches them, from patients as well as from other practitioners.

It is worth knowing the rules exist, because they explain why a careful dental website reads differently from an ordinary business one — and why a dental website that reads like an ordinary business one may be worth a second look.

What we do not claim

Under the National Law, advertising a regulated health service must not be false or misleading, must not create unreasonable expectations of benefit, and must not use testimonials. We try to keep to the spirit of that and not only the letter, which means no promises about outcomes and no claims to be the best at anything.

In practice, that means you will not find on this site:

• Patient testimonials or reviews. They are prohibited in advertising a regulated health service — see testimonials
• "Painless" or "pain-free" descriptions of procedures. Comfort varies between people, and we will not promise yours
• Superlatives. No "Melbourne's best", no "leading", no "number one"
• Guaranteed outcomes. Individual results vary, and anyone promising otherwise is telling you something they cannot know
• "Specialist" used loosely. We are a general dental practice and hold no specialist registration
• Before-and-after galleries used as advertising for cosmetic procedures

What we will say is what our team is, what we are accredited for, and what our fees are — and let you make the comparison yourself.

What actually predicts good dental care

None of it is on a trophy.

• You are given the findings, with the images, in terms you can follow
• You get the options in writing, with costs, before anything begins
• "Do nothing for now" is offered where it is genuinely reasonable
• The least invasive option that solves the problem is offered first
• Referral happens when a case needs a specialist, rather than being stretched
• Nobody is offended when you ask for a second opinion
• Your medical history is asked about every time, not once
• The practice tells you plainly what it cannot do

Questions we are asked

Does an award mean the dentists are better? No. It means a submission was judged favourably by the organiser against their own criteria. It says nothing about clinical safety, and we would not want it read that way.

Should I choose a practice by its awards? We would not. Registration, accreditation, whether you get written options and costs, and whether the practice refers appropriately are more informative.

How can I tell if someone is a real specialist? The AHPRA register lists specialist registration explicitly. If it is not there, they are not one, whatever a website says.

Where can I complain about a practice? To the practice first, ideally. Independently, to the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria (hcc.vic.gov.au), or to AHPRA (ahpra.gov.au) for concerns about a registered practitioner's conduct.

Why do you keep the award on the site if you rate it so lightly? Because removing it and saying nothing would be its own kind of spin. It is on the record, with an honest account of what it is worth.

Can I report misleading dental advertising? Yes. Ahpra accepts advertising complaints from the public, and it does not have to be about your own practitioner.

Read more about our team, our clinic or payment options.

Victorian Dental Group — 291 Wattletree Road, Malvern East VIC 3145 · (03) 9088 5808 · Monday to Friday, 8:00am–5:00pm · book online

This page is general information and does not replace advice from a registered dental practitioner about your own circumstances. Please see our Disclaimer.