AR First is a new business, founded by Ahmed Abdou and Riyad Rawashdeh. The partners have more than four decades of dental experience between them and have worked in practices across the UK, from Edinburgh to Fort William.

Last year, the pair decided to make a long-standing ambition to own their own business a reality, and recently finalised the purchase of Forde Dental Practice, an existing two-surgery dental practice in Dunbar.

AR First approached Bank of Scotland and secured a six-figure funding package. This supported the takeover of the existing practice while allowing operations to continue as normal for the practice’s 3,500 patients.

Now, AR First is working to develop and grow the business. The practice has already started accepting new patients and the range of services offered has been expanded beyond general dentistry to now include orthodontics, dental hygiene and facial aesthetic treatments.

AR First has recruited a new practice manager and a new trainee dental nurse to help manage the uptick in demand and plans to further increase staff levels as patient numbers continue to grow.

Riyad Rawashdeh, co-manager at AR First, said: “We’ve worked in the dentistry and dental hygiene sector for a long time. With all this experience under our belts, we decided that now was the perfect time to press ahead with our long-standing ambitions to acquire our own dental practice.

“We had identified Forde Dental Practice earlier this year because of its location, reputation and patient quality, and thanks to the support from Bank of Scotland, we were able to buy what we hope is the first of many practices.”

Ahmed Abdou, co-manager at AR First, added: “Despite only just recently opening our doors, we’re already exploring the idea of buying a second premises. Having both studied in Edinburgh we have our sights set on finding a place in the city that we can eventually acquire as we look to expand AR First further.”

Scott Beaton, relationship manager at Bank of Scotland, said: “AR First’s acquisition of the new two-surgery practice comes at a time when general dentistry demand is surging, following the serious disruption experienced throughout the pandemic.

“It’s a timely move and we’re proud to have supported Ahmed and Riyad with this new venture and look forward to seeing them achieve their growth ambitions over the coming years.

“At Bank of Scotland, we’ll continue to remain by the side of businesses like AR First as they look to realise their ambitions and kickstart their business journey.”