IF Marcos White is all smiles, it’s hardly surprising.

The proprietor of The Courtyard Dental Practice is on the threshold of expanding further the business he runs with cheerful efficiency in stylishly converted cottages at Huddersfield’s historic Wormalds Yard.

And its all getting very busy.

The practice is finalising a calls management system to cope with an ever-increasing number of enquiries and bookings from its growing customer base.

And Marcos freely admits the time is fast approaching to consider opening another centre to meet burgeoning demand for cosmetic dental treatment.

“Right now the phones are in meltdown,” he says. “We need more people to answer the phones.

“It isn’t feasible to have 15 people doing that here, so we are setting up a call centre.

“However, it is always about the personal touch, so the intention is to give people the same service they have always received.

“All our clients already have the personal mobile phone of their dentist. Whenever we have gone in for awards, the judges have said: ‘What! Don’t you get calls from people with toothache at two in the morning?’ We say: ‘No, because our dentists are good!’ Instead, we tend to get thank-you calls, which is a nice thing.”

Marcos believes people should have the telephone number of their dentist just as they might for the family doctor – or the vet. It’s all about personal service, he says.

The team of five cosmetic dentists at The Courtyard build “free time” into their diaries to enable people to make emergency appointments.

“Someone with toothache or a need for cosmetic surgery need it now,” he says. “They don’t want to have to book days or weeks in advance.”

Marcos is doing what he always wanted to do. “As a child, I used to tell my dad that I wanted to be a dentist,” he recalls. “When it came to taking my A-levels, he reminded me of that!

“I got my A-levels and went to Leeds University dental school, which has an excellent reputation.

“My first experience as a dentist was fitting silver fillings into the heads of people who did not want to be there.

“I wanted to work in dentistry where people wanted to have it done and were glad to see me.

“People think about extractions and silver fillings, but dentistry is about helping people look and feel good.”

Marcos arrived in Huddersfield having already practised cosmetic dentistry in Australia. “I needed a job and I interviewed for a number of practices in West Yorkshire,” he says. “The owner of this practice offered me a post. He was a nice fellow and I felt I could learn a lot from him.

“Less than two years later he decided to emigrate to New Zealand and I had the opportunity to buy the business.”

The Courtyard was based in one of two converted cottages in Wormalds Yard. When the neighbouring business moved out, The Courtyard expanded. “It was just a single practice surgery, says Marcos. “Then, we expanded to two and then three.

“For the first few years, the private practice was all on my shoulders because the other dentists were in NHS.

“ Now we have five dentists working wholly in cosmetic dentistry and each with their own area of expertise.”

The premises also got a stylish new look – based on the best of contemporary design already in evidence in Leeds and London.

It was as far removed from the traditional antiseptic-smelling dental surgery as possible – with a decor and ambience made more relaxing with aromatic candles and comfy sofas.

“I’ve never known why dentist and GP surgeries have to have posters stuck to the wall with Blu-TacK,” says Marcos.

“Private surgeries will invest thousands of pounds in equipment, but they don’t spend a few hundred pounds on flowers and candles. However, that’s what the clients notice.”

The surgery day starts at 8am, although Marcos is usually in an hour earlier to deal with management matters before seeing patients.

He lives in Leeds with his wife Anna, a teacher, and their young son Ben. Because Anna needs the car for work, Marcos commutes by train – giving him chance to sort out emails and giving him “an extra hour” to get some paperwork done.

Most of The Courtyard’s clientele has been built up through referrals. “Often, when I have a new consultation, it is with a friend or family member of an existing client,” he says.

“We get clients from all over the country – and obviously from Huddersfield, Leeds, Manchester and York.

“But we can have clients visit us from much further afield. One client comes over from France for their six-month check-up and another from Zimbabwe.

“These clients come to us through recommendation – and where it is a matter of trust, people will travel.

“Some clients can need hours of treatment. A few weeks ago, we had one client who was here all day.”

Marcos is in no doubt about the importance of cosmetic dentistry – and insists people who want to improve their smile are not simply being vain.

Looking good – and feeling confident as a result – can also boost general health and well-being, he says.

“We made the biggest change to our business just as the UK went into recession – we went private.

“But we are booming now. A lot of our clients are what you might term ‘recession-proof’ but in some cases people are spending some of their savings – and whether there is a recession or not, people find money to spend on themselves.”

Marcos is passionate about changing the image of dentistry – where people associate the dentist surgery with pain.

“Often, our clients are people in their 50s or older who have had 30 years of bad dentistry, he says. “They come in feeling anxious, but they go out thanking you. You wear your smile everyday of your life, so why wouldn’t you want to look good?”