Dental Practice Design: Essential Room Types and Layout Tips

What Makes Dental Design Different

Dental practices have some of the most demanding fitout requirements of any healthcare facility. Between chair plumbing, compressed air, suction systems, sterilisation workflows, and x-ray shielding, the infrastructure layer is complex and costly. Good design addresses these requirements while creating a space that's efficient for staff and comfortable for patients.

Essential Room Types

Dental Surgeries

Each dental surgery (treatment room) needs 12–15 sqm to accommodate the dental chair, cabinetry, operator and assistant positioning, and patient access. Plumbing for water, suction, and compressed air must be roughed in at the correct positions. Consider natural light where possible — it improves clinical accuracy and patient comfort.

Sterilisation Room

A dedicated sterilisation room is essential. It should have clear separation between dirty (receiving) and clean (dispatch) sides. Include space for an autoclave, ultrasonic cleaner, instrument storage, and packaging. Adequate ventilation is required. Typically 8–12 sqm depending on practice size.

X-Ray / OPG Room

If you're installing an OPG or CBCT unit, you'll need a dedicated room with lead-lined walls (or equivalent shielding as determined by a radiation physicist). Room size varies by equipment, but allow 6–10 sqm minimum. Intraoral x-ray can often be taken in the surgery with appropriate portable shielding.

Recovery / Post-Operative Area

For practices offering sedation or surgical procedures, a recovery area with monitoring capability is needed. This can be a dedicated room (10–15 sqm) or a screened section of the waiting area for minor procedures.

Layout and Workflow

Dental practice design should optimise three main workflows:

1. Patient flow: From arrival → reception → waiting → surgery → payment → exit. Minimise backtracking and maintain privacy.
2. Instrument flow: Dirty instruments → sterilisation dirty side → processing → clean side → storage → surgery. This must be a one-way circuit.
3. Staff flow: Staff should be able to move between surgeries, sterilisation, and the lab without crossing patient circulation paths.

Common Design Mistakes

• Undersized sterilisation: Often the most squeezed room in the practice, but one of the most important for compliance and efficiency.
• Insufficient plumbing rough-ins: Retrofitting dental plumbing is extremely expensive. Plan for your full growth from the outset.
• Poor natural light: Dental work demands accurate colour perception. Natural light and high-CRI artificial lighting improve clinical outcomes.
• Ignoring acoustic separation: Dental drills and suction are noisy. Acoustic treatment between surgeries and especially toward the waiting area improves patient experience.

Planning Your Dental Practice

Use our space planner to configure your dental practice room by room. Select "Dental" as your facility type and add surgeries, sterilisation, OPG, and support areas to get a total area recommendation with compliance guidance and cost estimates.