Dr. Dimple Desai and Her Career in Cosmetic Dentistry

The following podcast has been lightly edited for flow. To enjoy the audio conversation, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pxopvZ9Fq2Tk2OrGS96Ttyo7XfndvHC/view?usp=sharing

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I’m your host, Carrie Webber, and we are back recording live episodes at the AACD annual meeting in Grapevine in Texas. I am so thrilled to have with us today our Jameson marketing client, Dr. Dimple Desai from Newport Beach, California. Dr. Desai, thank you so much for joining me. 

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Thank you for having me. 

Carrie Webber:

Now, I can’t wait for this conversation because we have just met. You’ve been working with my team, but I haven’t had the privilege of getting to know you, so this is going to be my opportunity to learn just as much about your story as everybody else. 

Dr. Desai’s Beginnings in Dentistry

Dr. Desai practices extraordinary aesthetic dentistry in Newport Beach, California. When you’re walking around the AACD meeting, she’s on videos, she’s in the magazines. Your work is incredible. I would love to know how this all started for you. Tell me a little bit about your story in dentistry. What led you to dentistry, and especially what led you to this specific focus in dentistry?

Dr. Dimple Desai:

So when I was, I believe 13 or 14, my mom’s local dentist needed an assistant. So my mom said, “Hey, Dimple, do you want to go help out?” I said, “Sure.” So that was my first real exposure. Thereafter, I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare. At 17, I started school at USC, and I didn’t know what to do. I was like a lost puppy. Mind you, I’m also the first female who ever went to college in my family. So I didn’t really have any guidance or support. I just had to figure it out and take it from there. So I went to the counselor and I said, “I need help. What do I do? This is where I want to be, but I just don’t know which avenue to take.” So she said, “Well, why don’t you look into dentistry? The dental school is on campus. Go on over there.”

So next thing you know, I was there every single week, and they would hear my footsteps and the admissions director’s name was Mark Mitchell. He would hear me, “Is it Dimple? Is that you again? Oh my God, You’re too much.”  I said, “Mark, you know, I’m 17. I don’t know what to do. I need help. I think I’m going to be a dentist.” He said, “Okay, so let’s help you out here.” 

So they had a program where you can go through dental hygiene school and then move on to dental school so you can shave off a year from dental school. At that time, that’s what sounded good. And he said the same. You can learn great chairside manners, practice dental hygiene, which is a great career in itself, and build your skills to that level.

So I did everything he told me to and started dental hygiene school at USC my third and fourth year. I did all the prerequisites and so forth. Thereafter I finished, and I decided to work six days a week and make a little bit of money. So I practiced dental hygiene for two years and then went back to dental school and the rest is history. Then obviously I got married, I had my children, and so I was just an associate, but I would always go to continuing education courses. I never stopped and I’d come back Monday morning super hyped like everybody else from learning and ready to implement. However, it’s different when you’re an associate and you’re not able to implement right away because you have an employer who’s not always on board.

Desai Opens Luminous Smiles and Focuses in on Cosmetic Dentistry

So finally I decided that I need to practice dentistry the way I want to, and I opened Luminous Smiles.  I call it my third child. It’s five years old now, and I can’t tell you how much joy it’s brought me. It’s not easy, it’s not an easy path, but at the same time I’m able to practice dentistry the way I want to. 

Thereafter I finished my Kois education and I got into AACD.  I remember my first meeting was in 2018 and I saw what it was doing for people and the high end aesthetics. So that put me on another mission of getting accredited. Now you have five years to complete accreditation, but I felt as though I needed to catch up because I lost so many years from being an associate. So I finished accreditation in one year. I just put my head down and went to work. I can’t tell you the journey, the people I’ve met, the mentors, the friends–  you’re surrounded by like-minded individuals to practice this quality of cosmetic care and deliver the best to your patients. I’m forever grateful. And now I’m onto the next pursuit.

Carrie Webber:

When you started honing by obviously getting some extraordinary advanced clinical training, how were you able to start to establish yourself in your area, in your community, as offering that type of dental care that patients might be seeking out? What were your starting points there? 

Dr. Dimple Desai:

That’s a great question. So in Newport Beach, everybody’s a cosmetic dentist; however, there isn’t really accredited cosmetic dentistry and it really distinguishes you from the rest. In addition to just the label, it’s the way you perceive dentistry, how you practice it. So for me, I had to build my reputation, and at the same time I would publish articles. I would get myself out there and just work with individuals who can hone in on my skills and help me improve. For me, it wasn’t a mission to be known. It’s just as long as you provide quality and do the right thing, you will get the referrals you need and get to be known out there.

Carrie Webber:

I love that point. It wasn’t your mission to be known, and yet here you are, you are known, because you committed very early on, from actually the very beginning, to whatever you were going to do, you were going to do it really well. 

Tell me what that continuous development looks like for you now. You’ve reached so many great way points in terms of becoming accredited and starting to be known for those types of patients that are looking for that type of care– that advanced level of care. But for you, what does that 

continuous development look like?

Dr. Dimple Desai:

So for the next chapter of my life, I want to provide education, and help those who want to learn these skills, and start lecturing, and doing some hands-on training. I have some gigs set up already. Dentistry’s so amazing; there’s so many avenues you can take, and if a person wants to take a different avenue or pursue, say, cosmetic dentistry, you have to improve your skills. It takes practice, it takes repetition, and I would love to help somebody. Even while I was here, I’ve had a few individuals come up to me who’ve seen my Instagram, seen my work, and comment that they’ve read my journal. I can’t tell you how humbled I am just for them to say that to me. So my next step is just providing education and helping those who want to be helped.

How Quality Marketing has Helped Desai Become Known in Cosmetic Dentistry

Carrie Webber:

I love that you want to help others and that you’re now in a phase of mentorship, but I also keep thinking about the “being known” aspect. I keep going back to that because I think you do put forth effort. You see the value. You’re a marketing client of ours, and so you see the value of the message. And you’ve mentioned your Instagram and putting really quality content out for people to find that reflects who you are and your practice as a brand. There are a lot of practices that are basically checking boxes. They have a website done, but they’re not really and truly invested in making sure that everything that is out there represents who they want to be. Why do you see the value in that? You’ve seen it from the beginning. You can tell by the way your

messages are, and how you are found, your social media, and everything. Why do you think that that resonated with you and you saw that important so early on?

Dr. Dimple Desai:

I’m just very detail oriented. Every little bit matters. And it’s exactly what you said. It’s just representing you. So how do you want to be represented out there? I want to show you what I can do and what I can provide. At the same time, my pictures have to be perfect. The alignment has to be perfect. How much should I drive you guys crazy with the website and with the development?  I still look at it and I’ll say, “Hey, we need to change this, or let’s fix this.”

Carrie Webber:

But that’s also what makes you such a tremendous clinician– that attention to detail.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

I have been super detail oriented from day one. I can do the same procedure every single day, but yet to me it’s a different procedure. And I’ll check and triple check just to make sure everything’s perfect before we move on. And my team or whoever works with me, they know too.

How to Find a Focus for Your Dental Practice 

Carrie Webber:

They know. For those that are at this meeting for the first time, or are exploring and wanting to pursue a specific area of focus, or bring new services or procedures into their practice, how would you prepare them for that? What advice would you give or are you giving to these people that want to be doing more or want to be doing things at your level?

Dr. Dimple Desai:

I would say invest in continuing education. Nobody can take away what you’ve learned. Practice. For instance, I love doing composite bonding, and that is not an easy procedure, especially aesthetic composite bonding. During Covid, obviously we were all shut down. I set up my entire dining room table into a laboratory and all I did was bonding on my table. I bought my hearing light home. I bought a waxing unit off eBay and, I think, an electric motor from eBay also. And that’s all I did. I’d wake up, I had a purpose. I had models and so I would just practice on these models day in and day out. My neighbors were all hanging out outside, “Dimple, where are you?” I’m like, “I’ve got something to do.”

Carrie Webber:

Doing work.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

I’m doing work, and then I’m going to do my Peloton and then I’ll meet you guys. 

Carrie Webber:

I’m working on my mind. I’m working on my body, and then I’ll go to my social life. I love it. We were talking with other doctors, and the ongoing theme is that you’re never done.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

You’re never done.

How Focus Prevents Burnout in Your Dental Practice

Carrie Webber:

You’re never done, and that’s a great thing. A lot of doctors are struggling with burnout right now. There’s so many doctors that are stressed and tired and burned out. Either the owning of a practice, or the leading of a team, or the patients, or the dentistry or whatever it is, has led them to a place where they’re just right on the edge of burnout. And in trying to figure out a reason, it helps to go back to the start of the story. If you’re feeling burnout, what led you here in the first place? Tap into that again and go seek out that which excites you again. And because that’s what’s going to make this the long-run career that you hoped for when you were walking the halls at 17. So seek it out. 

I really love what you said earlier about finding your niche, whatever it is for you. For you it’s obviously this extraordinary focus in dentistry that you are just continuing to grow and develop within. For somebody else, it could be a different type of dentistry or a different type

of focused-in skill. But if you find that and you can tap into that passion again, that keeps you going. Even when it’s difficult.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Dentistry’s changing so much right now. There is so much more to learn that it keeps you on your toes. Digital dentistry is unbelievable. I was taught to pour up models, and I’d be in the lab all day. I even casted my own gold crowns. You wax up the tooth, you spin this machine, and you shoot the wax out, and you just pray to God, “Please God, let the wax just melt and all the gold crowns be perfect because you have to start all over again.” That’s where I came from. So I had to learn all of the scanning digitally. It’s  great. I love it. I feel like it’s getting better and better.

Carrie Webber:

It’s so incredible. If you go and do the research, and see what’s out there, and get your hands on it, you’ll wonder why would we ever go back? 

Dr. Dimple Desai:

I went into dentistry to work with my hands. So I’m still a little old school in a sense where I still wax up some teeth and I’ll do stuff like that. This is why I went into it.

Carrie Webber:

I love that. That’s kind of fun, though.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

It’s so much fun.

How to Best Present Dental Treatment Choices to Your Patient

Carrie Webber:

Also from the patient perspective, people process, and learn, and need to experience whatever you’re recommending based upon how they learn and process things best. Most of us are visual, so all of these great technologies, and tools, and scans, and photography, all of this is extraordinary for someone learning and processing and making the right decision. But some people are kinesthetic; they like to touch things. They need to see it, they need to feel it. And so as a dentist educating patients on what’s possible for them, all of those pieces– what we hear, what we see, and what we feel– is important. A marriage of both is actually probably a very special way to make those connections and connect the dots with your patients.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

And I think what you said about being able to give options to your patient– the more you learn, the greater the options. You’re not in a tunnel vision. So if I have a patient who comes to me for aesthetics, I lay everything out on the table. This is what I can do for you. Now I can give you pros and cons of each. It’s up to you to choose your path.

So again, continue your education. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. 

Carrie Webber:

The more you know, the more you don’t know.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Exactly.

Carrie Webber:

I love exactly what you said, especially for anyone that is trying to incorporate more aesthetic dentistry or whatever the case may be. Those verbal skills in the way that you presented to the patient was so beautiful. Here’s what’s possible, now let’s partner together to figure out what is right for you.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Wouldn’t you want options? I always say that I treat the patient in the chair as if it was me. I want to know everything. Show me everything.

Carrie Webber:

My dad– he’s a retired dentist now– but when he was practicing, one of the ways he started almost every consultation with a patient was by letting them know that he’d prepared treatment recommendations for them just as if it were himself or a member of his family. This is the kind of treatment he would want for them. Then exactly like you did, he’d say you have permission to move forward with all of this, some of it, none of it, you’re in control, but this is what I’d like to recommend to you that would be ideal in my mind’s eye. Then he gets permission for that. And no patient would say,  “I don’t want to see what you have. I don’t want to see it.” Especially if they’re coming to you for that specific type of consultation. They want to see what’s possible, but they also want to feel like they have control of their environment. I love your approach. I think it’s just great. 

Final Advice from Desai on Finding Your Vision

So, what’s next for you? If those young dentists that are wanting advice from you were here, what would be the final little piece? Where do they start? How do they find the CE? How do they find the right track for them? Where do they begin? 

Dr. Dimple Desai:

I would say find something that you’re interested in. There are so many aspects of dentistry. There’s surgical, there’s cosmetics, there’s digital. Then tap into that niche and find out who the best educator is. Where can I go? Where can I learn more about it? 

Carrie Webber:

And within those niches are incredible little communities.

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Incredible. I mean, look at this community.

Carrie Webber:

…like-minded dentists that are pursuing and studying those same areas of focus. I’m sure probably the power of an organization like this for you is the connections you make with the other dentists that are definitely practicing like you do. 

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Definitely. Just like you said, like-minded individuals. 

Carrie Webber:

Well, Dr. Desai, thank you so much for being with us. 

Dr. Dimple Desai:

Thank you for having me. 

Carrie Webber:

So you should go find Luminous Smiles on Instagram. Go see the amazing work that this phenomenal doctor is doing in California. And thanks to all of you for being with us. Have a great rest of your meeting and you all “be well” and we’ll see you next time.

Carrie Webber:Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Jameson Files. Visit us online. You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify. See you next time.