AMONG the diversity of small companies beating a path to Britain's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) comes the Whitecross Group which runs six dental practices in the inner London area.

The company announced this week that it hopes to extract a good financial return from investors when it becomes the first dentist to float on the London stock market, filling a gap, dare one say, between the large molars of investment institutions and the milk teeth of small scale service businesses crying out, if not actually screaming, for investment cash.

The market is reassured that its requirement for a modest £1.5 million will really not hurt a bit and that the potential return will bring wide pearly smiles to venture capitalists prepared to open their cheque books just a little wider. The cash will be used to finance 10 new surgeries planned over the next three years, any surplus hopefully going to revitalise the noble tradition of waiting room magazines. Dog eared copies of Hello and Home and Garden, circa 1975, being replaced by more up to date, Prozac like publications such as the Investors' Chronicle and the Financial Times a valuable mental anaesthetic for clients nervously awaiting their turn for root canal work. Next please!