Many may still remember Pharmador Kft., which had a showroom on Gyömrői Road in Budapest. The origins of ContoDent Bt. trace back to this company. In 1993, the Austrian company Pharmador, in cooperation with the Sztrilich family, established a joint venture in Hungary. I became the managing director of this company, holding a degree in tax consultancy as well.

This company specialized in selling dental treatment units, dental equipment, and materials, which were imported from its Austrian parent company.

In the spring of 1995, due to the Bokros package, customs duties increased significantly. As a result, many dentists began to consider purchasing equipment only if there was a legal way to reduce the extra financial burden—through VAT refunds, accelerated depreciation, or other fiscal strategies. They started asking: "Can my accountant manage this? How can these be accounted for properly?"

From that point on, in addition to sales, tax and financial consulting for dental businesses became a regular part of our activities.

It was then suggested that this new line of services should be officially added to Pharmador Kft.’s business scope. However, the Austrian owner strongly opposed this idea.
As a result, it became clear that starting an independent business was the right path forward.

Due to the proximity of the Theoretical Block (Elméleti Tömb), Mária Street, the Clinics, and excellent public transportation, we chose Kisfaludy Street in Józsefváros as our location. This part of the city is also well known to our clients coming from outside Budapest.

Lacking initial capital, we rented an apartment and opened our accounting office as a family business in 1995. Over the decades, we’ve developed close, almost friendly relationships with many of our first clients.

In the beginning, it was just the two of us, without colleagues—handling the accounting, client meetings, visits to government offices, making bank transfers on behalf of clients, and even mailing their post.

Soon, our number of clients grew to the point where we had to switch to a computerized accounting system and gradually expand our team.

One year later, the apartment across from our rented office became available. We purchased it and continued our work there under much better conditions.

ContoDent Bt. was founded by my wife and me in 1995 and registered by the Company Court. The chosen company name was meant to reflect that our activities cover the tax, financial, and legal affairs of dental businesses.

A breakthrough in our growth came when, in 1995, during one of Budapest’s earliest dental functional privatizations at Madách Square, my father, Dr. Péter Sztrilich, became involved. Together with his colleagues, they frequently sought my advice on contract drafts, interpreting legislation, and selecting business forms.

Here, alongside theoretical knowledge, I gained practical experience related to dental privatization. In 2001, I passed the bar exam and opened my law practice—naturally at the same location on Kisfaludy Street—based on the idea that this would allow us to provide additional valuable services to the clients who entrusted us with their accounting.

Our concept proved successful: from then on, our clients could indeed access a broad range of services beyond accounting, including tax consulting, drafting and reviewing practice transfer contracts, representing dentists in litigation, preparing out-of-court settlements, and providing legal representation in privatization processes.

The timing was fortunate, as that same year, dental practice rights became freely transferable. I continuously worked on drafting practice sale contracts. Moreover, many of our clients requested assistance with health administrative authorities (formerly known as ÁNTSZ) and other licensing procedures, which we also undertook. I accepted numerous invitations to give lectures nationwide on how dentists can adapt to the changing legal environment.

Since 1998, my professional articles have appeared monthly in the Dentál Expressz magazine. I am the legal chapter author of the handbook “The Dental Privatization Handbook,” supported by the Soros Foundation and published in 1999. The contract templates provided therein helped initiate many privatization processes.

In 2003, I became a lecturer at Semmelweis University, where my responsibilities include teaching and examining courses on healthcare law, labor law, and patient rights.

By the end of 2003, the number of our regular clients operating healthcare businesses and using our accounting services had grown to over 100, while the number of our colleagues handling accounting and payroll had increased to seven.

Since legal support is closely connected with tax consulting, combined with in-depth economic and professional knowledge of dental businesses and decades of experience in navigating healthcare administrative systems, more and more clients have approached our office with ad hoc requests. These include company formation from a dental perspective, drafting practice transfer contracts, labor litigation, and business consulting—usually aimed at resolving current, difficult issues.

Due to the significantly increased client traffic, our single meeting room proved insufficient.
Therefore, we carried out a renovation, resulting in two meeting rooms, allowing our clients to handle their affairs with greater comfort.

Our office’s development has been continuous: when we started, accounting was done on paper using cash books, and invoices were manually recorded from paper pads. Today, we employ artificial intelligence for tax planning and tax optimization, helping our clients decide which tax structure best suits their needs.

In addition to accounting and payroll services, we also offer registered office services, where we receive postal mail on behalf of our clients. Among our clients, an increasing number are foreign dentists working in Hungary who request their accounting and payroll services in English.