General, specialist and orthodontic practices, built around the chair, the services under it and a sterilisation room that will pass an audit.
The most services-dense fitout of the three sectors, and the least forgiving of a layout locked in before the equipment was chosen.
Start a projectA dental surgery is a small room with an extraordinary amount going on beneath it. Suction, compressed air, water, waste, power and data all have to arrive at a chair position that is fixed the day the slab is cut.
That single fact drives the sequence of a dental fitout. The equipment schedule comes first, the services set-out follows it, and the finishes come last, not the other way round. Practices that choose a chair after documentation is complete pay for the change twice, once in variation and once in program.
Around the surgeries sit the parts that get least attention and cause the most trouble later: a sterilisation room whose layout has to satisfy a one-way flow, a plant room big enough to service the compressor and suction unit without dismantling it, and an imaging alcove with shielding designed for the specific unit going into it.
Set out around the chair and the delivery system, with services brought to the chair position through the slab. Clearances for the assistant, the operator and a parent or carer, plus wall and floor finishes that clean properly at the junctions.
The room that decides your audit. A one-way flow from dirty receiving through ultrasonic and manual cleaning, inspection, packaging, autoclave and finally sterile storage, with no point where clean and dirty cross.
OPG or CBCT in a shielded alcove or room, designed by a radiation consultant for the specific unit and its workload, with a licence for the premises from the state regulator.
Compressor, suction unit and often a water treatment plant. Needs ventilation, acoustic treatment so the noise doesn’t carry into surgeries, drainage, and enough room to service the equipment in place.
Where a practice does its own milling, models or appliance work: benching, dust and plaster traps, extraction, compressed air and enough power for a mill and a furnace.
Reception, waiting and a consult room where treatment plans and costs are discussed privately. In cosmetic and orthodontic practices this is where the fitout budget earns its return.
The wider set applying to any healthcare fitout is here; these are the ones specific to dental.
Indicative planning ranges, exclusive of GST and dental equipment.
Partitioning, services to the chair positions, sterilisation room, joinery, finishes and lighting. The lower end is laminate and simple lighting; the upper end is premium finishes and extensive joinery.
This is the figure most often quoted in the market, and it excludes chairs.
Open bays for orthodontics, higher front-of-house expectation, additional imaging and often a lab or milling area.
Front of house carries more of the budget in referral-driven practices.
Chairs and delivery systems, OPG or CBCT, compressor, suction and sterilisers are bought directly from your supplier and are not inside the rates above.
Select before documentation. Services follow the equipment, never the reverse.
The full dental fitout cost guide covers the four things that move the number, or compare all four sectors. For the room itself, read dental surgery design.
The build is the same everywhere. The approvals pathway and the tenancy stock aren’t.
A general practice, an orthodontic clinic and an oral surgery suite look similar on a floor plan and are not the same build.
General and family dentistry runs on enclosed surgeries of broadly equal size, with the flexibility to add a chair as the practice grows. Rough in the services for that chair now.
Orthodontics often runs open bays rather than enclosed rooms, with a treatment coordinator area, a records and imaging room, and a waiting area sized for parents and siblings rather than single patients.
Endodontics, periodontics and prosthodontics bring microscopes, dedicated imaging and longer appointment times, which changes room sizes, lighting and the ratio of surgeries to waiting seats.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery adds a procedure room, recovery, and in many cases a different building classification and ventilation requirement, which puts it closer to a day procedure fitout than a dental one.
As an indicative planning range, allow roughly $1,200 to $1,800 per square metre for the base build excluding dental equipment and GST. The lower end reflects laminate surfaces, limited joinery and simple lighting; the upper end reflects premium finishes, extensive joinery and feature lighting. Chairs, imaging, compressors and suction plant sit on top of that figure, not inside it.
Everything under the floor and above the ceiling. Each surgery needs suction, compressed air, water, waste and data brought to the chair position, which usually means core-drilling or trenching the slab. Add a plant room for the compressor and suction unit, a sterilisation room laid out to the reprocessing standards, and shielding wherever imaging happens.
Build the surgeries you need now and rough in the services for the ones you’ll need later. Bringing suction, air, water and waste to a fourth chair position while the slab is already open costs a fraction of returning to cut it two years on, and the room can be used for storage or consults in the meantime.
Yes. Radiation shielding is designed by a radiation consultant based on the specific unit, its workload and what sits on the other side of each wall, and the premises need a licence from the state radiation regulator. Both the shielding design and the licence should be underway well before practical completion.
Often, by staging the work surgery by surgery behind temporary dust and acoustic partitions with noisy work done out of hours. It costs more than a single continuous program, and it is usually still cheaper than closing. Worth pricing both ways before deciding.
GP clinics, specialist consulting suites, multidisciplinary centres and day surgeries.
Read onConsult rooms, prep and surgery, isolation wards, kennels and cattery.
Read onRefraction and pre-test rooms, dispensary and frame display. Retail front, clinical back.
Read onA site assessment tells you what the tenancy can take and what it will cost to get there, ideally before you have signed for it.
