The Parkside Dental Clinic has a long history dating back to 1921 when Dr Arthur Moore was one of the first group of six Dental Graduates of the newly established Dental Faculty of the University of Adelaide. He was appointed the first School Dentist in South Australia, serving children in many parts of the state.
In 1926 he commenced private practice in North Terrace, Adelaide and was awarded his Doctorate of Dental Surgery in 1927. He then set up practice in the newly built Goldsborough House (now part of the Myer Complex).
Arthur's son Kevin, graduated from the Dental School in 1951 and after working with Malcolm Bills in Whyalla, spent two and a half years living in England, twelve months of which was spent gaining postgraduate experience in Oral Surgery at the Westminster Hospital. On returning to Adelaide in 1956 he found his father had paid a deposit on a property at 63 Unley Road, Parkside which had previously been a dental practice operated by Darryl Barrett.
Kevin setup practice there and slowly but surely, working day and night, gradually began to build up the practice. In keeping with a general move of professionals from the city to the inner suburbs, Arthur in 1962 moved into the Unley Road practice top join his son Kevin. By this time Kevin was receiving many referrals for oral surgery much of which he carried out at Ashford Hospital with a specialist anesthetist.
Barry Kidd joined the practice on his return from England in 1964 and joined as an associate when Arthur retired in 1965. Kevin and Barry enjoyed twenty years of a very harmonious and successful associateship, punctuated by the odd practical joke to the degree that eventually a truce was called.
The practice became so busy that it employed various assistant dentists, usually new graduates, to help out to the degree the practice was labeled the "Moore - Kidd Finishing School" by the assistants.
In 1985, Steve Oppes took over Kevin's practice, although Kevin continued to perform denture work and oral surgery for another ten years or so as well as having a part time appointment at the Dental School. The practice continued to employ new graduates as it became busier. Many of these graduates became specialists in their chosen fields and speak fondly of their earlier days at the "PDC".
In 1993 Richard Salter, who had been practicing in Ceduna and the Seacliff, joined the practice and became an associate. Richard graduated with Steve Oppes.
As the PDC outgrew 63 Unley Road, the big move was inevitable and this occurred in 1996 when we transferred to the Unley Medical Centre (where we are today) at 160 Unley Road. Here we were given the opportunity to design our own surgeries and other facilities. We are very proud of our premises reflecting a modern design but at the same time exhibiting a rather warm, welcoming atmosphere.
At the end of 2000, Roshanak Amrien joined the practice as a fourth dentist due to increasing demand. Roshanak contiued with us until early 2003 wnen she decided to try her luck working in the UK. Ross Napoli initially replaced her as an assistant dentist and after the retirement of Barry Kidd joined Steve and Richard in becoming a the third associate of the PDC.
Following this, Dr Joshua Tirrell joined our practice in late 2003 as the assistant dentist for the Clinic until his timely departure in 2005 where Phil Allen joined us and has continued on until today. That’s 85 years of proud tradition and professionalism that we at he PDC are privileged to have preceeding us and are striving to take into the next generation.
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