Why this ex-Raaf couple is all smiles after career change

Married couple Ben and Teagan Cosson know the toll that starting all over again can take on defence families.

Husband and wife opening a family dental practice in Yamanto, called Serenity Dentistry. Teagan and Ben Cosson. Picture: Cordell Richardson

MARRIED couple Ben and Teagan Cosson know the toll that starting all over again can take on defence families.

The pair aim to make that transition easier with the opening of their new dental practice at Yamanto.

The Cosson's spent several years serving in the RAAF and met on a humanitarian mission in Timor five years ago.

The two have settled in Ipswich with their two daughters and Serenity Dentistry will open its doors on August 10.

Teagan is from Walloon and Ben, who trained as a dentist while sponsored by the RAAF, fell in love with the area while deployed here.

"We really wanted to make sure we had good support for the defence families," Ben said.

"It's also a big growth area and so we thought we'd get in here and set something up. Hopefully we'll be here for the long term. We're Ipswich locals, (I'm a) local dentist, all that good stuff."

"Being ex-members as well we understand the process of their husbands or wives that might be deploying and how difficult it might be to get into appointments with their kids," Teagan said.

In their time in the military, both knew how difficult it was to pick up their lives just like that and sympathised with those going through the same at the nearby RAAF Base Amberley up the road from the practice.

"There's a lot of people that come in and come out," Ben said.

"The hardest part when you post is setting your life up. You've got to find school for the kids, you've got to find doctors and dentists, you've got to get everything sorted. It's difficult (to know who to trust)."

Work on the fit-out on the practice in the shopping complex on Warwick Rd is still going on and the first-time business owners are focussed on the "little details".

"It's designed to make it more relaxing," Ben said.

"A little bit more money is going into it but we want to make sure everyone has a good experience so that's going to come out. We want to give people something they know is going to be really quality but personable and take away a lot of that anxiety and fear.

"I want to see this region have this really big improvement in dental health. If they come in and they have a good relationship with me then I can help them get everything under control from an early age, that's the key."

Both have been busy leading up to the opening and Teagan is studying nursing full time before taking on the role of accounts manager.

"It's stressful. But we do well with stress."

There are plans to add another dentist to the team next year and three staff are already on board.

An opening event will be held on August 10 from 10am-2pm at Shop 7/428 Warwick Rd, Yamanto.

Originally published as Why this ex-Raaf couple is all smiles after career change