Soothing chic

After a thousand TV shows, who could doubt the power and pizzazz of a design makeover? We've all witnessed architects and designers working small miracles on the most hideous of homes and gardens. But there are still challenges that remain daunting. What, for example, would it take to create a dental practice that you'd really want to visit? Happily, the capital now boasts two new-look practices, one in the City and one in the West End, where ingenious design has gone a long way towards creating a soothing and fear-free environment.

Dentist Ed Bonner has long held an ambition to take the dread out of dentistry. Working with architecture and design outfit Fern Green he has now opened his prototype practice Dentistry 100, operating in association with the Holmes Place gym at the Barbican. While plenty of health clubs offer beauty therapy, hairdressing and massage, adding a clinical treatment into the mix is an interesting new departure. "Growing numbers of people now see that as well as having healthy teeth, they can improve the way they look," says Dr Bonner. He operates a holistic type of dentistry which, along with teeth and gums, looks at diet, general wellbeing and even posture. Dentistry 100 also offers aesthetic treatments such as teeth whitening.

The practice occupies what was once a dank underground hole used for storage. The transformation of the space has been spectacular. "Because there is almost no natural light, the aim was to keep everything sheer and pale," says designer David Fern. "And to underline the practice's philosophy of openness and demystification, we've maintained the long view right through the space, and made small glass consulting rooms outside the surgeries."

The interior is pale and shimmering, with smooth, glossy ice-white walls and floor, huge pivoting glass doors, partitions of translucent polycarbonate sheeting, and an impressive lighting scheme which zaps a "ring-of-confidence" halo round the top of the entire space.

In the West End, Europe's first in-store dentist has opened at Selfridges. Part of the Ora Dental chain, this new outlet specialises in cosmetic treatments including teeth whitening, veneers, crowns and dental jewellery. "Our brief was straightforward," says Ibrahim Ibrahim of interior design company Portland, "it was to change the perception of dentistry." To prevent setting our teeth on edge patients become customers, the waiting room becomes the lounge and surgeries are suites. To soothe jagged nerves, circles are a main feature of the design.

From the aubergine-coloured lounge and its deep-pile circular rug the journey continues through to the circular suites where the curved walls work on the subliminal, making a womb-like cocoon. Most of the equipment is stored in a separate room, out of sight. And to make sure there's no danger of remembering that you are in a dentist's chair, there's plenty of distraction offered by the screen above your head, which shows a stream of TV programmes and comedy clips. Just lie back and smile.

Dentistry 100: 020 7638 7100 or visit www.dentistry100; interior design by Fern Green: 020 7490 7911.

Ora: 020 7318 3056; interior design by Portland Design: 020 7288 6160.