Dr Etienne Potgieter

After graduating with a degree in dentistry from the University of Pretoria in 1984, Dr Etienne Potgieter spent two years doing compulsory military training as a dental surgeon in various rural areas of South Africa and Namibia. He then joined a practice in Pretoria, which specialised in fixed crown, bridgework and removable dentures. Offering various sedation techniques for nervous patients, the clinic had a very practical approach with laboratory technicians’ onsite. In 1990 Etienne started working as a dentist in Putney, London, and later that year a practice in Hastings, South Coast of England. Both surgeries performed all general dental services but specialised in conscious sedation for nervous patients and cosmetic work such as tooth whitening and veneers as well as crown and bridgework. After several Implant Courses under the guidance of the General Dental Council of England, Etienne started placing Southern Implants in 1995 in Putney, London. Completed Misch Implant Training with the late Professor Carl Misch at Pittsburgh University, Pennsylvania, USA in 1996. Completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Surgical Implantology at University of the Western Cape in 1998. Whilst continuing working in London, the family moved and worked in Enschede, Netherlands in 2012 but returned to Cape Town in 2014 where the family, wife Adré and three children, still work, school and study in Strand and Stellenbosch. Etienne obtained a Mastership in Lasers with the late, much loved, Prof. Dr. Norbert Gutknecht at Aachen University, Germany in 2020. The introduction of Lasers in his practice, Paardevlei Smiledental at Paardevlei Specialist Medical Centre in Somerset West, opened a whole new world in treatment modalities and technique in all facets of Dentistry, especially in soft tissue manipulation, bone stimulation and treatment of peri-implantitis in Implantology. Recently joined the International Team of Implantology.