// Therapist-Led Care Programme
Something significant is coming
The Therapist-Led Care Programme. Launching autumn 2026.
Practice transformations
Therapist-led care is not a trend. It is a fundamental shift in how excellent dental practices operate, and the profession is beginning to realise it.
At The Gentle Touch in Kelso, dental therapists lead the care of 90% of private patients. The results are extraordinary: income per working day increased for every single clinician following TLC adoption, across all four dentists. Practice-wide onlay income grew by 66.7%. Over 1,400 check-up appointments per year transferred to the therapy team, releasing nearly 467 hours of dentist chair time, the equivalent of twelve full working weeks, returned to complex restorative care. And across the practice, total income rose by 25% while total procedures fell. Fewer procedures. More complex care. Higher income. A better working life.
This is not a pilot. It is a fully operational, privately run dental practice, and these results came from the first year of transition alone, following conversion to the TLC model in January 2025.
Now, for the first time, Amber Aplin and Cat Edney are bringing this model to you.
The collaboration
This programme has been developed by two clinicians who have lived therapist-led care from opposite sides of the chair.
Dr Amber Aplin
Founder and principal dentist of The Gentle Touch, the UK’s only fully therapist-led private dental practice and the largest fully biomimetic dental practice in the world. She has spent years building, refining and evidencing a model that works clinically, commercially and culturally.
Cat Edney
One of the UK’s most respected voices in dental therapy. She brings the therapist’s perspective and a deep commitment to professional advocacy, ensuring this programme speaks honestly and powerfully to the people at the heart of the model.
Together, they are creating something the profession has not had before: a rigorous, evidence-based programme for everyone who wants to understand, implement or thrive within a therapist-led model of care.
Who This Programme Is For
Practice owners and principal dentists
You can see the direction the profession is moving. You want to know whether therapist-led care is right for your practice, what it actually takes to implement it, and what the numbers look like on the other side. This programme will show you, with real data from four clinicians at different stages of their TLC journey. Income per working day up by between 15% and 35%. Onlay income up by between 10% and 107%. Nearly twelve full working weeks of dentist chair time released every year. And a principal who now works one day less per week than she did before, and earns more per day than she ever has.
Dental corporates and group practice managers
You are responsible for productivity, patient outcomes and team performance across multiple sites. Therapist-led care offers a scalable solution to some of the most pressing challenges in group practice. This programme will give you the evidence, the governance framework and the implementation tools to explore it seriously.
Dental therapists
This model is built around you. Therapist-led care is not just good for practices and patients: it is transformative for therapists who want to work to the full scope of their training, be genuinely valued within their team, and build a career they are proud of. This programme will help you understand what is possible, and how to make the case for it in your own workplace.
What the Programme Will Cover
Full course details will be confirmed ahead of the autumn 2026 launch. The programme will address the clinical, commercial, cultural and practical dimensions of implementing and thriving within a therapist-led model, drawing on the real-world evidence from The Gentle Touch and the professional expertise of both course leads.
Register Your Interest
The Therapist-Led Care Programme launches in autumn 2026. Places will be limited. If you would like to be among the first to hear when booking opens, including early access and full programme details, please register your interest below.
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