Dr Amber Aplin // Dentist. Educator.Speaker
Changing dentistry from the inside
Teaching the clinical and structural foundations that make everything else possible.
Two formulas, one practice
Most dentists wait for teeth to break before they treat them. Amber Aplin teaches a different approach: identify the high-risk teeth before symptoms arrive, restore them so they last, and build a practice where every clinician works to the top of their scope.
The clinical formula is biomimetic dentistry. Restorations that mimic the mechanical and biological behaviour of natural tooth tissue, built to last decades rather than years.
The structural formula is therapist-led care. Dental therapists carrying out all preventive and scope-appropriate treatment, which frees the dentist for the complex restorative work they trained for and genuinely enjoy.
Neither works as well alone. Together they produce a different kind of practice, and a different kind of working life.
The Gentle Touch in Kelso is where both were built and where both are proved. It is the world’s largest fully biomimetic dental practice and the UK’s only fully private therapist-led practice. Since converting fully to therapist-led care in January 2025, income per clinical day has risen across every clinician in the building, and more than 1,700 dentist check-up appointments a year have moved to the therapy team.
Amber is not interested in doing dentistry faster. She is interested in doing it better, and in showing others what better looks like.
// Pathways
Two ways to learn and grow
Amber Aplin offers training in biomimetic dentistry and therapist-led care, with levels suitable for practice owners, dentists and dental therapists.
// Training
Biomimetic Restorative Care
For dentists and dental therapists who want to restore teeth predictably, preserve tooth structure, and stop the cycle of repair and replacement. Level 1 is accredited by the BSDHT. Button: Explore programme
// Training
Therapist-Led Care
For practice owners and their dental therapists. A one day implementation course taught from twelve months of real financial and clinical data, not theory. Button: Explore programme
Speaking & Media
Are you organising a conference, study day or industry event and looking for a speaker who brings both clinical credibility and the real-world experience of practice transformation? Amber has done it, measured it, and is ready to show others how.
// Amber’s Story
A Career built on conviction
Amber qualified at Newcastle in 1998 and spent sixteen years as an officer in the Royal Army Dental Corps, with postings in Germany, Northern Ireland and Canada. In 2017 she bought a small private practice in Kelso and set about rebuilding it around two convictions: that dentistry must move away from techniques that damage teeth, and that every clinician should work to their full scope.
Today The Gentle Touch runs with four dentists and four dental therapists, a visiting specialist endodontist and an implant surgeon. It holds more than 170 Google reviews, every one of them five star, and 97% of its members receive their care from dental therapists working to their full clinical scope.
// Thought Leadership
The ideas behind the practice
Biomimetic Dentistry
Most dentists were trained to wait for teeth to fail before restoring them. Biomimetic dentistry starts from a completely different position: identify the high-risk teeth, restore them in a way that mimics the natural tooth structure, and make the cycle of repeat treatment unnecessary. It is precise, evidence-based, and it changes what patients experience.
Preventive Dentistry and Therapist-Led Care
Preventive dentistry is at the heart of everything Amber does. Dental therapists are the most underutilised resource in the profession. When they work to their full scope, patients get better care, dentists get to do the work they trained for, and practices thrive.
Sharing Knowledge
The knowledge that transforms a practice should not stay inside one practice. That is why Amber trains, speaks and writes, because she has seen what practice transformation looks like, and she wants others to see it too.
// Industry Partners
// Credentials
Awards & Recognition
Industry-leading Private Dentistry Awards
Winner // Practice of the Year, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Winner // Patient Care, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Highly Commended // Team of the Year
2025 Private Dentistry Awards
World’s largest fully biomimetic practice
UK’s only fully therapist-led private practice
Latest News
The tooth I used to monitor
This is the kind of tooth I was leaving every single day. A narrow occlusal amalgam. No symptoms. No signs on the radiograph. The patient had no idea anything was…
The four red flags: how we decide which teeth are at high risk of fracture and caries
Every practice has a set of teeth nobody is treating. A wide amalgam, twenty years old. No pain, no obvious caries, a bitewing that looks acceptable. You tell your patient…
The Dentistry Show
Thank you for finding me If you’re reading this, you scanned a QR code at the end of my presentation at The Dentistry Show, and I’m really glad you did.…