Meet the team

Chris Lucas is our Lead Clinician at Lavender Dental and a Senior Lecturer at the Portman Academy. Chris is nationally respected as a surgeon and has become renowned for his experience and high success rate in complex implant cases and ‘All-on-Four’ treatment.

Dr Lucas qualified at Liverpool University in 1984. During the first ten years Dr Lucas worked in general practice as well as a part time clinical assistant at Glenfield hospital. Dr Lucas has a special interest in oral surgery, particularly dental implants. He has been providing dental implant treatment for patients since 1990, during which time he has progressed his knowledge alongside the advancements made in dental implantology.

Dr Lucas and the team run training courses for dentists who wish to gain or further their knowledge in the dental implant field. Mr Lucas continues to develop and improve the practice.

In his spare time Chris loves to travel and spend time with his lovely family.

Elizabeth Lucas qualified at Liverpool University in 1984. She initially worked for the Community Dental Service and joined Lavender Dental & Implant Clinic in 2000. Mrs Lucas works part time, combining work with caring for her family. She especially enjoys treating children and cares mainly for orthodontic patients and anxious patients who require sedation.

Liz is also very experienced when treating nervous patients and provides inhalation sedation to both adults and children. Liz continues to develop her knowledge and skills and has attended many conferences around the globe including Chicago, Las Vegas and Washington.

In her spare time Liz loves to spend time with her family and enjoys going dancing.

Sonal joined the practice in 2009, having qualified from Guys, Kings and St Thomas School of Dentistry in 2006 and completed her Vocational Training in London. She was awarded the prestigious Ruby Austin Prize for restorative dental treatment for complex care and case management during this time.

With over 15 years’ experience in a wide range of treatments from General Dentistry, Orthodontics and Dental Implants, to treating anxious adults and children with Inhalation and Intravenous Sedation Sonal can personalise treatments to suit her patients’ expectations and needs. These days, more and more patients require multi-disciplinary treatments e.g., combinations of restorative treatment with periodontal care/orthodontics/implants and due to the scope of her experience and versatility, she can manage these cases comfortably.

Sonal was first mentored by Chris Lucas in Dental Implants 13 years ago and continues to work closely with him on complex implant cases and helps with implant training within the Practice. She can treat single tooth cases to full arch cases and also dentures that are supported by implants.

Sonal has a special interest in restorative and cosmetic dentistry, especially minimally invasive techniques, composite bonding and smile design. In 2019 she completed an Advanced Restorative Training Programme with the ADS academy dedicated to furthering these techniques to build on her skills and knowledge. In 2020, Sonal attended the Mini Smile Makeover course which is focuses on whitening and composite bonding.

Having a keen eye for detail, she has also completed extensive training in Facial Rejuvenation (2018 - ongoing) at an award-winning Aesthetics Academy on Harley Street, London. Treatments include upper and lower face/neck botulinum toxin (including treatment for excessive sweating and treatments to help with tooth grinding), facial dermal fillers (lips/cheeks/nose/chin and jawline/tear trough/nose to mouth lines and marionette lines) and skin boosters (face, neck, décolletage and hands) and can offer these treatments as part of her repertoire.

She has had a fantastic opportunity to give back to the community by visiting schools to educate and advise children on dental health and thoroughly enjoys this.
In her spare time, Sonal enjoys reading, travelling and making memories with her husband and two children.

Nick graduated from Charles University in Prague in 2007 and has been a part of the Lavender team since 2016.

He is experienced in all aspects of general dentistry and has a special interest in Endodontics.

He is always looking to improve his knowledge and skill set and is currently being mentored by Chris Lucas, learning about Implantology.

Nick puts his patients at ease with his calm and caring attitude, providing quality treatment and putting the patients interest first.

Outside of dentistry Nick enjoys travelling, football and spending time with his family.

Nahul Patel is a specialist orthodontist at Lavender Dental & Implant Clinic and a Consultant Orthodontist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.

Nahul graduated from Bart’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. After graduation, he obtained training posts in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He was also a Senior House Officer post in Paediatric Dentistry at the Birmingham Dental Hospital prior to undertaking specialist training in Orthodontics.

He successfully completed a Masters in Philosophy at the University of Birmingham during his orthodontic studies. In addition, he has various publications and has an interest in audits, research and post-graduate teaching.

His hobbies include martial arts, reading and flying.

Prita qualified from the University of Leeds in 2008. Following a year in general practice she worked as a senior house officer in oral and maxillofacial unit at the Royal Shrewsbury hospital. During this time, she successfully completed a diploma and gained membership to the Royal College of Surgeons in England. Throughout her career Prita aims to provide high quality dental treatment in a relaxed and comfortable environment. Her approachable and caring nature helps her deal with particularly anxious patients.

Prita enjoys continuing her education keeping up to date with new materials and techniques. She has a keen interest in cosmetic and restorative dentistry.

In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her 3 young children and going to the gym.

Dhvani qualified as a dentist in 2002 at the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi University in India .

She prides herself on giving the best quality of care to her patients in a very gentle and friendly manner.

She has completed a yearlong Certificate training in Advanced Aesthetic Dentistry at the UCL Eastman college, London and is also trained in facial aesthetics, rejuvenation therapies and dermal fillers. With a wealth of experience in general dentistry, Dhvani has a particular interest in root canal treatment and is currently on the specialist training pathway with the renowned University of Chester. She currently accepts referrals from other dentists for Root canal treatments and Invisalign treatment. Dhvani holds genuine care for her patient’s dental health and is popular with anxious patients due to her relaxed and cheerful approach.

She has also been practising short-term/ cosmetic adult orthodontics (Invisalign, 6-month smiles, C-thru aligners) for many years.

She has been a mentor for trainee dentists and has been on corporate clinical panels.

Outside of dentistry, Dhvani is busy spending time with her children and socialising with friends. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, yoga, and Indian Classical dance.

Sumit has a passion to care for people and aims to be a professional that makes a difference and provide a high level of care to all his patients. His non judgemental, empathetic and calm nature allows him to build special relationships with his patients and allows him to keep nervous patients at ease. He puts the patient’s best interests first and treats people the way that he would expect to be treated himself.

He endeavours to find solutions to dental problems, treat patients, relieve pain and contribute to making an improvement for patients. Sumit gets great satisfaction out of treating patients and restoring their confidence in Dentistry. His pride in his workmanship means he takes care in his attention to detail, to provide good results.

He has a keen interest in restorative, oral surgery, prosthetic and cosmetic dentistry. Working in the Restorative Dentistry department at Glenfield Hospital has allowed him to gain invaluable experience, develop advanced clinical skills, knowledge and treatment planning of simple and complex situations.

Outside of work he is married to Deya and has two boys called Trishen and Darien. He enjoys travelling abroad and visiting different countries, cultures and trying all different types of cuisine. He also enjoys sport, mainly football and is a supporter of Leicester City Football club.