Are teeth different in the Middle East than in America?I see a lot of fillings in every single tooth, here. I don’t know if they grew up with fluorinated water in the region- but that’s a real thing. In New York we have a high level of fluoride in the water and it really makes a difference, especially in the developmental years.
You come to Dubai every two weeks. Are you constantly jet lagged?
I don’t feel jetlagged. A lot of that has to do with Emirates. I’m iO (a secret, by invitation-only status that’s higher that Platinum) on Emirates, so they make my commute very seamless. And I’ve been doing this since 2008 so I have a great system with the flights I choose. I sleep like a baby- it’s the best sleep that I get. Plus, as soon as I land, I work out, which resets my clock.
People worry about wrinkles and skin sagging. Should they also worry about their teeth aging? What happens to them and how can we stop it from happening?
Yes- your teeth are the foundation for the rest of your face. What’s happening is your teeth are getting worn down, they’re shifting and it’s collapsing the rest of your face, which your skin rests on. It happens in conjunction with loosing elastin and collagen, and the collapse contributes to your skin falling. If you think of someone who doesn’t have any teeth, or have dentures, when they take them out, their whole mouth caves in.
That’s happening slowly over time. So if you are grinding your teeth, a mouthgard will act as a retainer and protect your teeth from wearing down. And you should practice good oral hygiene. The worst thing is to get to a point when you need to go and fix your entire mouth.
What’s been the biggest driver behind your success, which is bigger than most of your peers?
A lot of it has to do with how much work I’ve done and seen. I know what patients like, what I like and how to get around all the little intricacies and problems that come up. I hand create the temporary teeth in the patient’s mouth, make a mold and give it to the lab to copy. There are things like shadowing from heavy lips, or where the lip line falls when they smile or talk- it all requires a hyper level of communication, so that’s why I need my own team of ceramists. Plus, we are working with some of the most talented ceramists in the world, these aren’t just guys we picked up off the street.
You do a lot of revision cases, where you basically fix someone else’s botched work. Is there a lot of that here?
What happens in the dental world is that big companies market their products as the next best thing and sell it to the dentists. Lumineer is a company that marketed very well in the region, they are based in the Midwest of the US. I don’t think they knew what the problems were going to be, but a lot of people in the region had them, and taking them all off to fix them was a problem, because they were jammed up underneath the gums, patients would talk about bad breath, swollen gums, purple lines around there teeth and obviously the aesthetics were not good. Every time I come, 20 to 30% is taking off other people’s work.
Has social media worked differently for your practice here vs. the one you have in NYC with Dr. Larry Rosenthal? When we opened here in 2015, I had a following of very in-the-know, very elite people, but not a mass number. And they would come and they would pay for quality. That’s how I’ve always run my business. But with social media in the Middle East, I started to get involved with influencers and we did a You Tube series where we did a different blogger every episode that showed the procedure, and they talked about it, which created more of a mass following. But there’s a lot of sifting through to know which of those will even be able to afford the treatment. It didn’t work like that in NYC- where it still hasn’t been as affected by social media as the Middle East has been. But New York is definitely getting there.
How much do you charge?
Services can go from 30,000 to 100,000 USD, depending on what needs to be done.
People in Dubai are known for having a taste for the finer things in life. What do you say to someone wearing an 80,000 USD watch who thinks your prices are high?
It’s funny. You have women with 100,000 USD Birkin bags who drive up in Bentleys who ask for payment plans for 40,000$ worth of dentistry. It’s frustrating, but it’ s also changing. Dentists in the region don’t value their services and no one’s charging this. Patients go down the street where they’re getting charged 10,000 USD for the exact same service I’m charging 60,000 USD for. And you wouldn’t know what the difference is unless you really do the research. But I think that since I’ve come to this region, dentists have started to charge more money.
In your professional opinion, who has the world’s perfect teeth?
Jessica Alba is one of my favorites. She has her own teeth.
How can you tell?
I can tell, good dentists can tell, but I don’t think regular people can. There are just tiny little things- Jessica’s teeth are not perfectly straight, even though they look that way to everyone else. There are imperfections in her smile that most patients wouldn’t allow for.
Do you create small imperfection with veneers?
I do, all the time. There are patients I’ve done where I put teeth that are crooked or a front tooth sticking out- I’ve done a lot of different things, but it’s a numbers game as to how many people actually let you do that when they’re paying that amount of money. In a lot of people’s minds, they’re paying for perfect teeth, and to them that means perfectly straight. So when you try to give them those little imperfections, they fight you until you give them what they think they want.