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Voice 1: The day’s agenda for the Emirates. Are you ready? This is Daybreak with Vivek Sanil and Muriel D’Sa, brought to you by Dr. Rohit?? Kumar and Business Network International. This is Talk 100.3.
Vivek Sanil: Business with BNI. Season Two every Tuesday on Talk 100.3,Raj B, the interesting subject, beauty or wellness.
Muriel: Absolutely. And the first hour we are going to be focusing more on the transformative nature of beauty and wellness. And we’ve got a bunch of questions, but before that, we also have a guest in the studios now.
Vivek: Yes. ___ guests (not clear??). We have got Fariha Salahuddin with us with 20 years of global HR expertise at Fortune 100 companies. She’s a founder of farihas.com, focusing on empowering individuals and organizations for success. She’s a certified personal coach from IPEC globally. It’s ranked number one and an image consultant from UK and US.
Muriel: Right, next one on the list is Satya Narayan karan??. Now he’s an esteemed executive director of vivandi?? General Trading LLC and vivandigroup based in Fairmont Dubai. So we have him as well in the studio. And we are also joined by
Vivek: Angela Thomas, owner of Angel Success Consulting and a renowned author now. Angela Thomas has been in Dubai since November 2022. And she formed in the same month the Angel Success Consulting,28 years of entrepreneurial experience and 20 years in the beauty industry alone. She has many assets that she brings to help the new customers here in Dubai at a particularly high level. So, we’ll be engaging in a very interesting conversation about beauty and wellness with all of them.
Muriel: Absolutely, and let’s quickly get started with the conversation. But before that, a very good morning ladies and gentlemen.
Guests: Good morning.
Muriel: Good morning. Well, good morning to all of you. The first question I’d like to open up to everyone is asking you about how is beauty and wellness related over the past years? How have the two come together?
Guest 1: Oh, maybe I can start. Beauty and wellness. I think today, if you see, it’s all interconnected, right? It’s about why do we need to look beautiful and why do we need to feel good? It’s all about the confidence and I think (not clear??) is realization was so for me it’s all interconnected. One is more physical and one is more internal.

Vivek: And I wanted to know about your beauty goals. Should everyone have beauty goals as well, Angela?

Angela: Thank you. Actually first of all to have me here. Thank you very much. Yes, beauty goals, everybody actually having internal beauty goals.
Vivek: Like a secret machine everyone has.
Angela: Yes, everybody wish to feel well in their own skin and therefore everybody has own beauty goals. However, they define themselves could be all different. It is there of course, and everybody is having another way, a different way to go after it.

Muriel: Well, that’s beautiful. Now I’d like to ask you sir. So, we put so much of emphasis on beauty and especially for women, our hair is very important, although I have nothing, but still hair is very important.
Vivek: And what do you mean you have nothing, you have everything?
Muriel: No, it’s not as much as the problem is. I had beautiful hair when I was in Mumbai.The moment I came to Dubai I lost all my hair.
Vivek: So that’s the blame game happening.
Muriel: That’s been my concern throughout. Could you talk to me about hair loss in the UAE?
Narayan: Well, when people move to this region, a lot of things happen to them. There’s a climate change, they get to a hot weather, humid weather, the water, what they are not used to, which is desalinated, it impacts of course. And the lifestyle changes, the stress factors come in, the diet factor changes. Lifestyle is completely different over here. (Responsibility comes in everything.) So there are a lot of factors which put together causes something.(Vivek: It’s not only water.)It’s not water at all. Water does impact in a different way. But that’s the myth or misconception people carry that “When we come to Dubai, water is one thing which causes hair loss, but that’s not a fact. We can talk more about it, of course.

Muriel: But isn’t it harsh, the water over here?
Satya: It’s desalinated water. So, one of the cleaning agents is chlorine and chlorine free flows with the water to some extent and it settles down on the skin or scalp. If you swim and you come out, if you don’t rinse yourself, you can find your skin getting a bit whiter. You can see it a bit drier. That’s chlorine, which impacts us. So that’s one of the things which keep depositing on a scalp and that makes hair a little bit dry and frizzy. So, the routine should be to use proper moisturizer, to use proper products to keep it hydrated, to keep cleansing the scalp regularly. They should go to professionals like us and come and have a long periodical cleansing to keep healthy hair.
Vivek: Also, we keep blaming the water that we put on a lot of weight that we drink and we put on a lot of weight. Of course we have multiple reasons to blame other things, but it is our self-care, which is more important.
Muriel: That’s right. And we’ll move on to Fariha. I want to ask you this question. So as a transformational coach and personal branding expert, what are some common themes that you have observed that individuals need to help to achieve their wellness goals?
Fariha: So, typically when people come to me first, they start with career transition. As we know, career transition is quite common. But when you dig a little deeper though, what I find is a lot of insecurity, but we don’t have the confidence. And once that happens to me and then it connects to, okay, how good they feel about themselves, how good they feel about their looks, how confident they are. So both themes, go hand in hand to me, they’re connected to wellness. The minute people start taking care of themselves automatically you’ll see confidence level be then the decision clarity of making decisions into various live procession makes it easier, right?
Muriel: Wellness industry is huge, right? So I was doing a little bit of a dig-up and I just got to know that North America is one of the leading markets for wellness tourism industries. The US actually accounts for about one third of all global wellness tourism revenues and it’s by far the largest national market. Now, how has the transformation in the wellness industry worked out over the years? You being pioneers in your field, could you talk to me a little bit about the evolution of the wellness industry as per what your understanding is.

fariha: So let me just tell you, I mean we talk about wellness and that, but typically now if you look at the wellness industry, there are now six areas that are defined. And frankly you see this very commonly also evolving in UAE, which includes the physical part, which is the healthcare, fitness, sleep, nutrition, emotional health. And then, sorry, there’s a six one as well if you give me a second. And then appearance. If you ask my perception, this part of the world focuses a lot on appearance, appearance and fitness.
Muriel: TikTok has done all of it. TikTok and Instagram, they’ve done the magic. We agree a hundred percent, yes.
fariha: So I think, but over the period of time, what I’m seeing now that people are becoming more aware of their emotional health as well. (I think pandemic has taught us this, right?)Absolutely. But even I think the place is such that you get such nice shopping malls and the salon.
Vivek: The aesthetics are so beautiful.
fariha: Yes. That you sometimes tend to ignore, but for me that’s an important of course, the sleep and the nutrition. So in terms of the evolution, yes, it’s a big industry and it’s projected to grow five to 10% and you’ll know more about the industry growth, but that’s what my understanding tells me that it continues to grow the entire wellness portfolio, all six categories.

Vivek: Super. We will continue this conversation. Let us know.
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Muriel: Welcome to Daybreak with Vivek Sanil and myself, Muriel D’Sa. Yes, Business of BNI Season Two. And today we are going to be talking about beauty and wellness industry. This hour we are focusing especially on the transformative nature of beauty and
wellness. Now, right now, we got to get into a conversation with Angela Thomas. She’s the owner of Angel Success Consulting and a renowned author. I want to understand from you Angela, as somebody in the field who’s been there for so many years, what are the future trends in the online medical procedures market and what is your understanding of the way forward?

Angela: Okay, well, this is a big issue in this time where we have actually so many changes and especially after the development where everybody’s ordering online, everybody has the telephone in their hand, their little magic box. They search and order everything online. They actually look at everything online. And now here comes the big, big, huge transfer that the beauty industry basically has to face to actually get those persons connected through the phone into the offline world.
Again, those young generations, because you may find all information about having your fillers, having your treatments, having your whatever you want to have as far as a beauty treatment online. But can you do it by Google? This is not possible. So, that’s why it is very important that an entrepreneur has today the ability to actually do good online presence, outstanding with a little pinch of spice, of personal touch, of individual touch to get those little extra miles from the listeners, from the watchers online into their clinics, into their salons, into their beauty offices, whatever. So, it’s all about using all the technologies that you have nowadays to attract the persons online, but then it is an industry that you have to do offline. So, this is a big, huge transfer that the industry has to take.

Muriel: But when you’re talking about beauty industry and wellness industry and specifically you mentioned about social media and understanding, taking things from online, taking it offline and kind of turning them into profits for industries, this paradigm shift. Could you explain the paradigm shift of the industry to me and suddenly why such a need to push things more online than offline?

Angela: Well, at this point of time, it is very common to use filters, to have a very shiny and spotless kind of appearance out there. Even when you look at any commercial about all treatments, the outcome, but nobody is showing the reality behind. And if an entrepreneur in the beauty field is managing to have a very authentic kind of view inside the treatment, inside the procedures, then it is actually something that enable the persons to come from the online presence onto the offline point of sale, basically on a point of where the treatment has to be actually taken place. So that’s something, that’s something that you can actually offer to your clients. (Muriel: And that would be the way forward.) Yes.

Vivek: Superb. Now we move on to Satya Narayan Ji, very interesting. Do you have to lead by example as well in the market as well that when you’re promoting a particular beauty or a wellness product as well, how far does that, is it true for a person or an industry expert like you as well?

Narayan: Yeah, obviously. I mean we are in hair care and hair loss industry and all of us, we have to look good basically. That’s the kind of value you imbibe yourself. (Absolutely) If you look at my hair, that’s what I represent. Suppose if I am a hair loss consultant and if I don’t have hair myself, obviously the clients will say, “Okay, where we are?” Or if you’re into weight loss management and if you’re obese yourself, then it’s a challenge.
Vivek: So you have to lead by example, that’s why.

Narayan: Absolutely. It’s hundred percent correct.

Muriel: Right, absolutely. When you talk about the cosmetic industry, the beauty industry, the wellness industry, so I want to ask you this question, suddenly we also see the shift going to sustainability. Sustainable products are becoming the norm of the hour everybody’s been talking about, and Gen Zs are particularly more invested into sustainability products. Why is this need or why has the urge all of a sudden just cropped out of nowhere? I mean initially back in the days, people were doing fine with the normal products.
Narayan: This goes along with the generation change or you can say transcends into new generation and they are very much aware, they grew up knowing things around them. So they set kind of requirements in the market and the producers or the industry, they try to evolve around what new generations are thinking of and they evolve and they kind of put their strategies and put the products in a way that which suits their mind. There’s so much awareness available through the social media.
Muriel: Is this a good thing?
Narayan: It’s a good thing obviously because they understand the importance of environment and they kind of go towards that and they believe in sustainability. So that’s a new catchphrase and the producers are there to support and help them out.
Muriel: My problem is not with understanding the concepts. My problem is with advertisers and with brands kind of working this into their favor rather than this working into the consumer favor. So how do you see the two coming together?
Narayan: Well, the industry works around what consumers are looking for. So, every few decades you can see that there is change coming in. In our time, you go back to my time when I was younger, I wouldn’t care much about my self-care. I wouldn’t think “I’m losing hair”. I could just shave off my head and say, “Okay, I’m still looking like a macho.” But now even millennials or they are youngsters, teenagers, they want to look good and they want to feel good about themselves. And that portrays, they use so much of treatments, wellness products to look good. So they set the trend and obviously manufacturers, they have to follow the trend. Of course social media influencers, they all are there to that portray that what exactly should be good for them and that’s how they go about.
Vivek: And the challenge then comes, which product is actually right for us to maintain that or use it. (not clear) fariha, I was looking out, you are empowering individuals and organizations for success. If you could talk to us a little bit about that as well.
fariha: Thank you so much. So the concept is, as you know, I spent a lot of time in corporate or career transitions. (not clear) What do people need at that time? We all need somebody, a support. And that support cannot be your family because vulnerability is especially when you’re down in your career, especially when things are not working well. So, you need somebody who can understand, who can relate to your story, but can also be objective (not clear) Like I said, it is about what I call it, make you helping high potentials look and feel the best version of themselves.
Vivek: And it’s so important for hundred percent confidence.
fariha: Absolutely. It’s building the confidence from the inside out. And I’ve seen very senior leaders and including career confidence. How do you get back to the confidence? So the whole concept of careers.com or the transformation coaching is built around that. How are you comfortable in your own skin, but also at the same time you have the confidence because (not clear) and the natural ability showcase a lot of people, especially now again this part of the world, we are also very shy, frankly. (Vivek: We’re very shy?) Yes, so we don’t like to talk about ourselves because (not clear) humility is important.
Muriel: But is it just culture based? I feel that’s small ….
Vivek: But there are some who are really outspoken.
fariha: Okay, so I’ve worked both in developed and emerging markets.
My understanding of emerging markets and at least the countries we represent, we’re not, I mean yes, there’s always one or two percent now, but normally our upbringing is that we don’t want to talk about ourselves. (not clear) This is a very natural upbringing, which is very nice. But sometimes I feel it comes in the way; women more so because women, again, they grew up with certain values. So when I talk about transformation, building that confidence but building it authentically. People can figure it out in two minutes.

Vivek: But the first step is to harness (Not clear). What is that point or that potential you have that has to be explored first? That has to be explored. So we’ll discuss. We’ve got fariha, we’ve also got Satya Narayan, we’ve got Angela with us. You can send you our questions on 0586861003.

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Muriel: Welcome back to Daybreak. Yes, we are in conversation with fariha. Then we also are in conversation with Satya Narayan and Angela Thomas. Now Angela, before we could go on a break, we wanted to know your understanding of the business, especially where beauty premiers (not clear) are concerned.

Angela: Yes. It is actually a modern world, always the challenge to connect the offline and the online world with each other. So we are again, our customers online as everybody is looking down and has this magical box, I see them everywhere walking around doing breakfast with this box, doing work with this box. So they’re everywhere having this. Vivek: Yes, it automatically looks good the moment we put the camera on, right?
fariha: Exactly. I think sometimes. So this is the way what we gain customers, but to get them inside the clinics, the salons, this is the big challenge. So that is actually somebody has to face this generation that is looking after so much authenticity to find and I think my solution is for being authentic. And that’s what you actually also talked about with the different generations. So this latest themselves actually. And this is all what the entrepreneur has to be putting forward and sending outside to basically connect the inner beauty with the outside. And that is actually what the customers are looking for. And so yeah, there are always ways that help; the technology helps with it. And we have to actually find them in the salons and the clinics, well promoted and yeah, there are some processes in the beauty field, in the clinics, in the salons that has to be well done. So, we don’t waste those gained customers and we don’t have actually our so-called lead wasted or not treated. So that is something actually that we have also to look after the first impression when somebody comes into salon and therefore a lot of people are missing out on a very good process on their front desk. And that’s what I’m coming in for. I’m actually telling the entrepreneurs to have a very good process, to have the gained customer that they sometimes also for much money bought into generating the leads.
It’s actually well done and well preserved in the point of sale and in their clinics or salons.
Muriel: The beauty industry has seen such a huge shift, beauty and wellness industry that everything that you see on your social media, and again taking things online from online to offline is not really needed to be in your salons. It’s not really needed. Its place is meant for. I mean something that you see on social media doesn’t really have to transcend into a cult of sort and be put into a salon. So how do you dissect that or how do you bridge that gap with the owners into their understanding of what beauty actually is.
fariha: So basically again, it’s all about authenticity in these nowadays. And to have actually authentically lead ads or any campaign out there that is not far away from what has actually happened inside the salon, inside the beauty office, inside the clinic, the salon, anything what your own hair salon, anything like that. So it is very important to stay authentic so that the customer understands there is somebody who helps me to actually shift my inner beauty and be having it supported through my outside appearance, but I cannot do it alone. There is some help for my inner beauty to have it actually supported outside, but I cannot do it alone because actually we can find everything on Google on ChatGPT and we have all the answers.
But can we do lip filler as they always want to have it. Now can we do it alone? Can we do it alone to have a laser treatment maybe for hair removers? So this is what the entrepreneur has to really take in consideration nowadays to actually get the shift from catching the interest of the customer in order to make sure that they understand the solution is inside their salon or clinic.

Vivek: Now Angela, as we speak, we got a question from Marcus and we will answer that question after the news and sports. The question is how do you see the sustainability hype in the color cosmetic market? We’ll get to the answer, do let us know. 0586861003.
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Vivek: Now before going on a break, we had a question from Marcus and he asked this question to Angela, how do you see the sustainability hype in the color cosmetic market? Angela, would you like to answer this?

Angela: Of course, and thank you Marcus for this interesting question because it is a question that actually could come exactly from young generation that we are dealing with now. It is the upcoming generation that is into the beauty field very much and takes care of it. So all of them, they are looking for sustainability and look out for products that are cruel-free and they are actually vegan and all these sort of things is actually looked up by this generation. And if you have basically this hype, it is supposed to be in the industry recognized and a lot of product developers should look after such things because I think always the fish has to actually like the kind of food that you put in the water as we say (Vivek: In the hook). It doesn’t have to actually be liked by the fishermen, it has to be liked by the fish. And this is something that you can actually look after with the generation that we are having on now. They’re looking so much into sustainability and vegan, cruel-free cosmetics and brands that all those brands will have much success in the market because they’re recognized, because they’re liked by the fish basically. (Vivek: Super)
Muriel: Amazing. Sir, I’ll move on to you now. So the beauty and personal care industry grew by about 36 billion USD in 2021, registering some good amount of profits out there. So the biggest categories were skincare, hair care industries. Could you give us your thoughts on this as to how the shift in change and understanding has taken place?
Narayan: As you put the numbers across, that itself is a testament that how people are taking care of themselves. They’re investing their resources to look good, to feel good and feel well. So that’s the basically shift we can see happening. Prominence is put on hair care and skincare, the largest categories, these areas consumers are willing to invest in. And that’s the number what we see, which is coming on board.

Vivek: But there was a time when we wouldn’t pay a lot of attention. As you had mentioned a little while earlier, we wouldn’t pay all that attention. But that attention is suddenly, is it because of the treatments? That is a little scary for people, that preventive is better than actually the cure.

Narayan: That’s always the case. Prevention is better than going into the mode where you have to go for a treatment. However, I think it’s the influence of a digital world which has created so much of an awareness of the people, which has basically forced people to think and think of their wellbeing more closely than what we used to experience in our time.
Muriel: So, when you talk about wellbeing and you talk about beauty and hair products, we, I think, exclude one of the most important factors, nutrition. We never pay attention to it. And especially women during pregnancy, they have amazing hair growth because of the kind of supplements and everything that they eat. And the moment you have the child, it all goes away. So talk to me and talk to the other women who are listening in right now about the importance of having a nutritious diet.
Narayan: One of the factors what women face in their hair loss is nutrition because that’s something that happens from within. Unlike men who face or who experience genetic conditions in hair loss, we call it male pattern baldness. So women, due to their hormonal changes due to their monthly cycles, they lose a lot of iron. And iron is one of the factors, one of the nutrients which is required to be replaced. So specifically women who don’t consume red meat, which carries iron, they have to resort to proper supplements to fill in the deficiency what they have. Apart from that, there are several which means which we don’t get through our regular eating habits. So a supplement is important. And for that I would advise to all the women to refer to your professionals, to your doctors, to your consultants before consuming on your own.
Vivek: And influencers, don’t refer to influencers.
Narayan: Influencers, basically they create content, they bring it to you. So it’s a good reference point I would say. But yeah, ultimately they should go to their professionals to seek help.
Vivek: And for men, quickly, I want to ask you. My dad started dyeing his hair at the age of 60 or 62 and I was very proud of him that he never did it before that. But is there an age limit for that as well when you dye your hair?
Narayan: No, it is a purely a hormonal change, which comes in, we can see people getting gray hair at age of 20, 25 also. I had full gray hair when I was 29 before I got married. So it is all genetic.
Muriel: But everyone loves the salt and pepper look, right?
Narayan: I recall there was an ad in our outlet when I was back in Mumbai working there and then the producers and directors when they came in, they saw my hair and I had kind of a tinge of salt and pepper and they said, ”We are dying to have this kind of hair.” I was very happy about it. But, I mean, gray hairs are not something which was kind of a fashion at that point of time.
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Vivek: Business with BNI, fariha (not clear), founder of farha.com. Wanted to ask you which practical strategies and tips which can help individuals to align their personal values with the brand image to attract the target audience.

fariha: Yeah, sure. So the way I would say, there are four buckets. If you are to create your brand or think about yourself in terms of an image, the first thing is always the self-awareness. Know yourself, right? A child psychometric testing (Not clear) your husband got feedback, your parents got feedback. But that is important when people talk about your strengths and weaknesses, pay attention to it, self-awareness. Number two, know your values, personal values. And that’s actually quite important because sometimes when we are not fully aware of the values, we tend to portray like somebody else. So understand your values, (not clear), which is your sense of style, okay, how do you want to show up? What kind of image do you want to portray to the other person? And also the colors you wear, the sense of style I would say. Finally, your body language, how you carry yourself. And again, you see, we are not talking about perfection here. We are all human beings. So I think the charming thing about every human is that makes it unique. It’s not about copying the next Insta story or TikTok story on the glass, glowing skin. What is it that makes you special? (not clear) What makes you unique?
Vivek: Amazing. (Muriel: Which is amazing, right?) I mean is there a schedule, a kind of way where we could probably get hold of this on farha.com?
fariha: You can contact me.
Muriel: Well, I would want to know a little bit more about your company, but before that, I’d also like to ask you this question. And you’re talking about coaching industries as well. So in 2022 you had the focus on millennials and Gen Zs, right? Fast forward now to 2030, who are going to be your eventual consumers? Are they Gen Zs and Gen Alpha? You see the shift in trend happening and how do you coach industries now into transcending their information to the future consumers per se?
fariha: So from a coaching element, and I know Gen Z, Gen Alpha, they are very, this is the next generation, but often what we don’t talk about is the senior citizen. Remember people are living longer, people are working longer, and there are cases again, discrimination against them. Also against, I know you mentioned salt and pepper, gray hair, lovely and very sexy. But also, also sometimes there’s discrimination against them. So I think when we talk about coaching and life transitions, because people are living longer, there’ll be more transitions in their life. So yes, being prepared, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, yes, how are they evolving? But I think it’s also not to forget the other generations and how can you create power teams, whether you’re setting up your own business or you’re working in a corporate where these generations can relate to each other and talk to each other. So to me it’s just not Gen Z alone or Gen Alpha alone.
Muriel: How can people get in touch with you?
fariha: So farha.com has all the information, but it’s fariha@farihas.com.
Vivek: Beautiful farha.com, that’s the website. (Website details are not very clear).
Satya Narayan is also with us and he’s an executive director of Avani? General Trading LLC. If you could tell us a little bit about your company.
Narayan: We are primarily into two businesses. One is a B2C business. We have a center that is called Vivandi Trichology Center. The website is vivanditrichology.com. Trichology is a scientific word, it means signs of hair. It comes under dermatology. But in dermatology they pay more attention to aesthetics, more on skin side, hair, of course they do handle. But trichology is a very specialized subject, which we focus specifically on scalp and hair conditions. So we have on a board a trichologist, she’s one of the trichologists only in UAE. There are two or three of them and we are one of them. So that’s where it brings a lot of caliber, a lot of professionalism in what we do. So apart from that, we carry over 12 different brands. We represent them in this market and those brands we distribute through pharmacies, through salons, and through e-commerce platforms.
Vivek: Brilliant
Muriel: Right. And we are also joined by Angela Thomas, and she’s an owner of Angel Success Consulting and a renowned author. So could you talk to us as to how can we get in touch with you?
Angela: Okay, you can actually find my book on Amazon, BeautyBizz. And also you of course, can go on beautybizz.de and you find everything about that there and here in the UAE, of course after such a short time there’s not such a big infrastructure. So yeah, you just WhatsApp me basically.
Vivek: And what’s your number?
Angela: I’m allowed to say?
Vivek: Yes, you are, you are.
Angela: Okay, well I have to find out that I don’t mix this up.
Vivek: It’s so difficult when you’re new in Dubai to remember your Dubai number. It’s not easy.
Angela: Let me just check this as of case. Of course it is 0503670592. Of course I know. (Vivek: Perfect)
Muriel: For a minute, I got scared. I thought you were asking her WhatsApp number for yourself. I thought, “What is wrong with you?” (It was a trick question.) Anyways, thank you so very much. The three of you have been so kind enough and coming to our studios and being this candid with us, talking to us at length about the wellness and the beauty industry. Thank you once again
Guests: Thank you so much and thank you for having us here. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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(Business with BNI on Talk 100.3.)

Vivek: Business with BNI Season Two with Vivek and Muriel, interesting conversation about beauty and wellness industry, a technological (not clear). You can always send us a WhatsApp 0586861003. (not clear) We’ve got Leena Thawrani with us. We also have Dr. Shweta Prabhu with us, and we also have Genevieve Korkmaz with us right now on Talk 100.3.

Muriel: Absolutely. Thank you for switching my mi on. But now we are going to be focusing on technology in beauty and the wellness industry. And like Vivek said, we are joined by three beautiful women in our studio talking to us about technology and its core relation with the wellness and the beauty industry. Firstly, hi Leena, very good morning. (Happy morning) Happy morning. Yes, she’s here. Talk to me a little bit about your company Artzen now.
Leena: Artzen is a company which helps you express your emotions through art. So art therapy is actually a form of therapy which involves, it’s a non-verbal communication therapy wherein you get in
touch with your inner self, express your emotions on the canvas.
Muriel: Which is beautiful. I love how you put that across. And we also have Dr. Shweta Prabhu. She is an accomplished specialist, periodontist and dental implant. Welcome to the show, Shweta.

Dr. Shweta: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Vivek: So we would love to know about the importance of oral health for beauty and wellness. Oral health, it does contribute to a person’s overall wellbeing and appearance for sure. Your thoughts on that?
Dr. Shweta: Absolutely. So the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and one smile is what I believe in. And the first impression that you have of most people you’ll meet is the way they smile at you. If it’s a real smile, if it’s a fake smile, it starts from that. And also our confidence stems from that. So mental and physical health, a lot of it depends on your oral health. That’s what I strongly believe and I practice. Thank you.
Muriel: Which is beautiful. And we are also joined by Genevieve Korkmaz.
Vivek: Are we pronouncing your name right? Genevieve?
Genevieve: Genevieve, you got it right. It’s totally fine.
Muriel: So you are a manager at one of the most prestigious salons in the UAE. It’s called Jean Paul Salon. Is that how you pronounce the salon as well?
Genevieve: Yes. Yes, that’s right.
Muriel: While we passed our theory exams —, well talk to me about the importance of beauty and especially when you’re leading it from the forefront. When you are beauty salon and when you get in customers into your salon, what is the first thing that you focus on? Do you talk to them about things that they need or do you give them a list of packages to choose from and say, whatever you want is that’s okay?

Genevieve: Yes. So first of all, when the customer comes, most important is how she feels. So this is what we really focus on. We don’t really go into trying to sell her things or trying to transform her completely. We really try to focus on her wellbeing and how we can make her feel better. How can we make her look better with small things starting from a simple haircut, starting from a simple head massage to another transformation. But it can be as simple as a head massage, as simple as a haircut. We don’t need to go into so many things to look beautiful. You don’t need to transform yourself completely to be beautiful. And that is what we focus on.
Muriel: But this is completely different from what is happening right now. (Exactly) Technology has taken the world by storm and your social media and the digital world is taking beauty onto another level. So as experts in your industry, talk to me about, and each of you can take your turn into answering; how is technology adding value or taking away the value from the beauty industry? We’ll start with you, Leena. Leena: Okay, so technology, as for art therapy is concerned, it’s played a huge part because people can connect from all over the world. You can do a virtual workshop, help people connect with their inner selves. We have apps for art therapy, which helps clients connect to their inner selves. It’s like an own exercise, just do it on your own. The digital world, if it was not available at this point, we wouldn’t be able to reach out to people in remote places who want to understand what their deepest emotions are and want to get connected with themselves.
Vivek: So technology being a part of wellness, Dr. Shweta, your thoughts on that?
Dr. Shweta: For us, obviously, because we are a subset of medicine and there’s a lot of technology that has come into dentistry and it has really revolutionized how we practice it. (Vivek: Right, got it) That’s for sure. But there is also a small part of technology that is not doing us any favors because of all the 500 filters available on social media, which give people unrealistic expectations of what they could or would want to look like, which may not be really feasible. So technology also helps us make people understand, like from a basic screening to in fact planning their entire smiles, I can do everything using technology.
Muriel: And this is something I want to also ask you, Dr. Shweta, the force of having a perfect smile, it has to be a Hollywood smile, otherwise it’s not good enough. (Vivek: It does exist though.) It does exist, yeah, does exist. (And we are selling it.) So can you put into fact as to and I’m sure a lot of people are also moving away from the Hollywood smile into having natural smiles and that is something that people come to you with?

Dr. Shweta: Absolutely. So we strongly believe in telling the patients what they need, but giving them what they want because beauty, again is very subjective. What I might find beautiful for my patient, my patient may not agree with that. There’s also a lot of cultural differences in terms of the Indian subcontinent. In general, what I have seen is, we tend to prefer very subtle changes. We want to do a lot of things, but nobody should come to know that we’ve got them. (Vivek: True) whereas there are many cultures where they have the feeling that I’ve got something done, I want it to be shown. So obviously it has to be tailor-made. That’s one thing. Second thing, we don’t prefer to do very aggressive treatments because you also have to think five years, 10 years down the line, if you are in your twenties, early twenties and you come and tell me I want to trim all my teeth to have a beautiful smile, I need to also ensure that you understand what the consequences of that would be.

Muriel: Right. And Genevieve, now I’ll ask you this question. I’m talking about technology and the integration of that into the beauty industry. What is your understanding of the same?
Genevieve: Okay, so as we are mainly a hair salon, we are mostly using hands or it’s a handmade work. But in terms of however, the technology, yes, in the business part, this is where it takes a big role and it’s really very popular.
Vivek: Absolutely right. From booking appointments, right from scheduling everything. Everything has become more easier. Very easy. For a business. And then of course, the social media marketing that comes into place.
Genevieve: Exactly, and very easy for the customer as well. So he doesn’t need to call, if he wants to book directly, he can book directly. (Absolutely) So this is where technology has really helped in this stance.
Vivek: But the skill of a hairdresser or artist, who is over there, in terms of training, has that helped? Technology has helped them in terms of their training? Because you don’t need to go to France probably to learn some new skill.
Genevieve: True. Actually, actually Jean Paul, the owner, he went, he left his home country and went to Paris actually to learn. It was like a dream to go there back in the sixties. (Vivek: Have you been to Paris?) Yes, I have. Yes, but it wasn’t in the same area as he speaks about. So yes, now it’s much easier. You can just open the YouTube and you have hairdressers telling you exactly how to do the models, how to do, and this helps a lot. And it’s really good for hairdressers who really want to learn, who really want to study. It’s an amazing platform.
Vivek: It is so important to have such a skilled person in your team as well. We’ll talk about that as well. WhatsApp 0586861003.

News – (* Sinead O’Connor’s family is asking people to line the sea front ahead of her funeral in County Wicklow later. The Irish singer was best known for her Nothing compares to you track, but she had criticized the Catholic Church and spoken about mental health issues. Paul Nolan from Hot Press Magazine says she won’t just be remembered for her songs. “And she kind of became venerated for a new generation for having had the courage to speak out on those subjects long before it ever really became fashionable or it was part of the mainstream. So she always took a stand for the underdog that all fed into what Irish people loved and love about her.”

* In sport, it’s understood Tottenham have rejected bio Munich so-called final offer for Harry Cain with talks ongoing. The German giants recently bid 86 million pounds for him.

* And foxes in urban areas may be bolder than their rural counterparts, but aren’t cleverer. Experts set puzzles in 104 locations to better understand their behavior. And that’s the latest on Rachel Huston.)

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Vivek: (not clear) industry experts about different subjects about beauty and wellness. We are also talking about art therapy.

Muriel: Absolutely. We’re talking about art therapy. Firstly, Leena, what is art therapy all about? If you could explain a little bit of that to us. It’s a new subject, so we have absolutely no idea.
Leena: So art therapy is a type of therapy where you use art as a means of communication and expression. I help my clients go deeper inside their subconscious mind because that’s where all our emotions and thoughts are stored. We have so many memories, traumas, and past experiences stuck in our subconscious mind, which we don’t want to explore anymore. There are some emotions we don’t want to face anymore. So I help my clients get in touch with their inner selves through some breath work, meditation and allow them to express and embrace those emotions on the canvas.
Vivek: So I have no clue about art probably. Will I be eligible for art therapy?
Leena: Absolutely. So this is the beauty of art therapy. You don’t need to know how to draw or paint. So my clients are very skeptical to actually come and try art therapy because they say, “I can’t even draw a stick, man. How am I going to do this?” And I tell them, “This is not what art therapy is about. It’s not about the product you create, it’s about the process. It’s about how you get in touch with yourself and get in touch with those emotions that you don’t want to get in touch with.” Basically, you don’t want to face your emotions that you have, just tuck them away, get in touch with yourself, understand what you’re feeling, why you’re feeling and then paint those emotions. That painting is just for you to look at. It’s not for the world to see or it’s not going to go for sale. It’s just expressing yourself on the canvas and it’s a feel good emotion after all. (Vivek: Super)
Muriel: There is a saying what a human can do, even technology cannot and what technology can bring forward even a human mind cannot transcend that into words or into emotions. So could you put this into perspective and talk to me about the integration of technology into your field?
Leena: So without technology, I feel it’s a little difficult for art therapy to go. So if I were to create an app for people, I would create a personalized app, art therapy app for people to explore themselves. It could be personalized according to your emotions, according to how you’ve been feeling, and what exercises you should be doing to take care of your emotional and mental health.

Vivek: Dr. Shweta Prabhu, we would love to know about so many things that come into our mind when we talk about dentistry, about implants and about so many things. The beauty in terms of dentistry, how has it evolved so far and where do you see it going?
Dr. Shweta: I’m glad you asked me this question because we are sitting as we talk in a region where smiles are of huge industry. (Vivek: There’s an app also) And many such apps and cosmetic dentistry takes a big part of the pie. So I was trying to do some research before I came here just on statistics. So what I found interesting was there has been a 300% increase since 1996 just in teeth whitening procedures from 1996. So it’s not even a very long time. So, of course, it has grown by leaps and bounds the kind of work that we can do. So if you want to start from prehistoric times when I was, I didn’t finish industry, (not clear) but when I was studying (Muriel: You got me a little worried.) So we started learning with silver fillings, right? Now we don’t do silver fillings anymore because they’re completely unaesthetic and with all that mercury toxicity thing coming into the picture. So we’ve gone from tooth-colored fillings, which is the most basic form of aesthetic dentistry to complete overhauls of smiles. And what is also very interesting to see is that the age profile of the patients is changing. My oldest patient today who’s had a Smile Design just last week is 72 years old. (Wow. Nice.) And she has undergone braces to be able to get that smile because it was her 50th anniversary, wedding anniversary, and that was something that she __. So, the way we look at ourselves and the way we want to live fuller lives, that’s what I think shines from this. It’s not only about, because we all know dentistry is not, if you have bad teeth, you won’t die, but you may not live a full life because you eat and a lot of us live to eat.
Muriel: So if you could also help me in understanding how can brands build perfect beauty technical experiences because the integration of the two, when you look at the larger picture is a lot more. In fact, I will back this up by stats. If you could just give me an answer on this, then I will take you forward with the next question.
Dr. Shweta: So when you’re saying how we can integrate beauty and technology, (Muriel: that’s what the question, the experience) the experience. So the more advanced the technology is, the more possibilities of customizing it better become higher. So currently we use something called Invisalign, which a lot of people have heard of, which are these removable aligners to straighten your teeth. That is a fully customizable experience. So my patient can actually see what their smile is going to look like even before they’ve got their first aligner, they know exactly what they’re getting into. So, I think that is the beauty of how technology can help us. Because when a person is investing a lot of time, energy, and money in doing something, they want predictable outcomes. I can’t promise them the moon and then not even take them to the top of the mountain. So I think that’s where, if I got your question right.

Muriel: You did. And we see this kind of shift happening as well, Genevieve? Now if you could talk to me about consumers, right? So 80%,according to research,80% of consumers are likely to go and buy a product or opt for a service if they get to virtually experience this. And we are seeing that shift in trend happening a lot. We have already seen the retail industry moving that way. So talk to me about the beauty industry and the wellness industry moving that front.
Genevieve: Yes, I think it moves really fast in beauty industry because when you see a product and when it’s advertised online, you automatically want to get it. (You’re tempted.) You’re tempted to get it. I know it for myself. So yeah, it’s crazy how it’s moving on.
Vivek: So does it get challenging? For example, someone comes with a trend that this is the trend going on, this is the color, I’ve tried it on a filter, and actually to execute that kind of, is it a challenge?
Genevieve: Actually it’s good in a way because you can see what they want, what we are looking for. (Vivek: So the clarity is there.) Yes, the clarity is there. However, yes, it’s a challenge to make it the same execute and it won’t really be always the same because the pictures, the lighting differs, the filters differ. Even the person’s face color, skin color. So there are many factors that differ. So we always inform the client before that it won’t look exactly similar or it’ll be something similar.
Vivek: So the disclaimer comes in, that not hundred percent. So that is where you are safe.
Genevieve: Also, you have to put your opinion over there, to see if it’ll really suit her. Because if you’re going to go from, for example, very dark hair too, very blonde. She has to be ready for this transformation. She has to be ready for this move. And if she is not ready, if she’s scared of a little bit of lighter hair, then it can also put you in trouble.
Vivek: When we talk about beauty, we emphasize so much on inner beauty as well, of course. So if there was a hierarchy of it, for example, the first is inner, then comes your outer beauty. Where would you place salons? Would it be the first thing that you should go for or would it be the inner beauty that you should go for the first? A tricky situation? We’ll come to that answer right after this, 0586861003.

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Vivek: We are talking about beauty and wellness and we’ve been talking to three wonderful ladies in the studio.
Muriel: Absolutely. We are quite fortunate that we have three beautiful women in our studios talking to us as at length about the beauty industry. Now you were having a conversation with Genevieve. Vivek: So Genevieve, are you ready with the answer? I know it is a tricky one.
Genevieve: Actually, salon is not very far from art therapy or from therapy. The ladies, they come to feel better when they are down. They come to look better, to feel better. So, even their husbands, when they see their wives that they feel down, they tell them, “You know what, just go to Jean Paul”. So when you go to the salon, it’s not only about outer beauty. You feel the confidence, confidence, the confidence. You feel good by arranging yourself from outside, you would feel better from the inside or beautiful.

Muriel: When you talk to four women, you’ve got to be ready for four answers now, alright? So Leena, you’re next. I have a question for you. When you’re talking about therapy, right? There’s so much available online, there’s so much available. Talk to me about why did you decide to pick up a stream that was not very regular – art therapy? Talk to me a bit about that.
Leena: So this comes from a very personal experience. I was always working in the fast-paced corporate world where I had deadlines, I had a stressful job and I forgot to balance my personal life and my work life, which affected my health. And in 2018, I fell severely ill and my body collapsed. It basically shut down and that’s when I realized that I need to do something about it. I quit my job and I found solace in art, where I started painting just as a hobby and to find my inner peace. And during this time, something magical happened. I found that art healed me in different ways. My mental health became better and I thought why not take this therapeutic power of art to the world and heal the world in different ways?
Muriel: But we’ve seen art in its physical form, I mean people physically sitting and doing art and we’ve also seen the digital side of it. Now talk to me about what is your understanding of the augmented reality or the AI coming into the picture and how is this going to change the narratives for you?
Leena: So if you ask me, nothing comes close to what a human being can do, right? No technology can come close to what our minds can do and what you feel, what your subconscious holds is very difficult for an AI to generate. What AI can do in the future, I’m assuming, is create apps or create a virtual program for clients to experience art therapy in a totally different way. I mean they can create your personalized experience, but I would still prefer the traditional way of art therapy wherein I have my clients and I help them explore their emotions, go deeper within their bodies and understand what they’re feeling.
Vivek: Can you share some of those stories if it is okay with you? Any success story that happened with any of the clients?
Leena: Yes. So as an art coach, my job is to help my clients provide a supportive environment wherein there is no judgment and they can express themselves freely. In one of my corporate settings, after the workshop, so I do corporate workshops as well wherein I help the staff de-stress through this activity. And after the workshop, this gentleman comes to me and he asked for another workshop and after that private workshop, he told me why. So he was always stressed and couldn’t cope out with his work-life balance and he didn’t know why. After three art therapy sessions, he was able to understand what was the core cause behind it. He had a special child in his life and because of his stress at home, he was bringing that to work which (Vivek: Unknowingly he was getting) unknowingly. So his subconscious made him reveal the true essence of what was really happening in his mind.
Vivek: Amazing.
Muriel: Which is amazing, right, Dr. Shweta? Now moving on to you, talk to me a little bit about teeth whitening procedures and we see a lot of these DIY methods online, which are horrible, but if you could stress the fact and talk to our Gen Z listeners and talk to our millennials and probably knock some sense into them, into talking them out of the DIY products and why they should approach professionals like yourself?
Dr. Shweta: So the DIY products, a lot of them, what happens with DIY products is that they don’t have FDA approval. So the concentration of the chemical that’s being used A. Is not safe, B. Is unsupervised. Also the fact that not everybody is the right candidate for whitening. Okay? So if you don’t have healthy teeth, you don’t have healthy gums, you’re not actually an ideal candidate and you can actually cause more damage than good, you may get a temporary (Muriel: Cleanup or something like that, right?) So it always starts with cleaning. For a lot of our patients, when they come in for whitening also we tell them that just get a cleaning done first and then you see how you feel because sometimes it is just that teeth are so not been clean for a while professionally, that itself can make a lot of difference. But DIY we highly discourage, but the problem is that there’s such a price disparity that everybody wants a whiter smile, but it’s not the best way to get it. There are safer ways to do it. Like there are home whitening techniques which are dentist approved or products that are approved by the FDA. If you do a little bit more research, we can get those. I would suggest that people get OTC (over the counter) these whitening strips or something like that because the concentration of the drug in that is very minimal. So your chances of causing damage are very less.
Muriel: Right. Do you think technology has done its bit to help your industry, particularly your industry, to kind of push it forward or has it kind of gotten so aggressive that it has taken us a million steps backward?
Dr. Shweta: No, I think it’s definitely pushed us forward. There is so much we can do because of dentistry and there is so much we can do so much faster because of dentistry. So earlier, if I had to give my patient a cap for his tooth, I would have to probably go wait for four or five days for the stuff to come back. I would have to use this very Play-Doh like material in his mouth, make him gag. Now we have internal digital scanners that we use. Patient doesn’t feed anything, the cap comes back in literally in about three or four hours the same day. So that’s why the reason why we can practice same day dentistry is because of technology. So I think we have a lot more to be thankful for rather than, but with every boon comes a bane. So there is a little bit of that, but I think we should count our blessings.
Muriel: In understanding the digital aspect of things, the digital world, in the beauty industry, in any industry for that matter, creativity and authenticity are two things that go hand in hand, correct? When you’re talking about this, you also have 93% of Gen Zs that are ardent believers and ardent followers of TikTok, of Instagram and apps like Instagram Face and so on and so forth. How would you talk them through into understanding the inner beauty or in understanding the mechanics and the signs behind your industry, for example, for the beauty industry not everything that you see is worth a million dollars. I mean everything on Instagram and TikTok, and I’m talking about Gen Zs, they are so consumed by it. How would you talk them through?

Dr. Shweta: So, too much of a good thing is also a bad thing. So that is the first step to start from any of these things. You don’t want to overpower your life or anything with so much of outer influence. One thing is you need to work from inside out, is what I believe. So you need to work on yourself, get your thoughts in order. That’s one thing. Second thing is not everything you see is possible to attain. That is very important because there are a lot of filters that show you. We have patients who say that they will bring pictures of other people, and say that I want this smile or I want this level of whiteness. (Muriel: But it’s not wrong, right?)It’s not wrong, but is it possible for you, because there’s only so much that can happen with what nature has given you. I have to work with what you have. And at the same time, I also have to work with what is possible. I don’t want to prep my teeth, I don’t want to do anything, but I want a smile that looks like somebody who has full mouth crowns. So I cannot give you that with a whitening. So education is where it all starts, because you have to educate your patient about what is wrong and what is right and what is right for them according to us, based on science, not based on my whims and fancies or a service that I want to sell.
Muriel: Is this a constant argument that you get, that you have with your patients? I mean because talking technology to the millennials would still be possible. We are not right there. I mean we understand a bit of it, but we are not that tech savvy in comparison to your Gen Zs and your Alphas because they know exactly what they want, what shade of teeth they want, what kind of whitening they want, which diamond they want installed, and what part of the tooth, everything. I mean I’ve always been in awe of all of that.

Vivek: (not clear) But right after this break, Talk 100.3. Chapters worldwide. BNI provides a global business network that is unmatched. This is business with BNI Talk 100.3.

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Business with BNI on Talk 100.3)

Muriel: Welcome to Daybreak with Vivek Sanil and myself, Muriel D’Sa. Yes, we are in conversation with three beautiful women in our studios talking to us at length. (Vivek: Four beautiful women) Oh, thank you. (Vivek: Five) talking to us about a technology and its integration in the world of beauty.
Before we move on to Leena, I think we were in conversation with Dr. Shweta. Dr. Shweta, I had asked you a question about millennials understanding where technology is concerned and how Gen Zs and Gen Alpha are so particular and they’re quite precise with what they need. And do you think that’s come in place because of a technology, and how do we kind of bridge this gap?
Dr. Shweta: So that’s a very interesting question actually. So you are right, they are a lot more particular and a lot more precise with what they want, but it also helps in bringing us clarity about what are the deliverables. And they do not only have clarity in terms of what they are looking for, but they also do a lot of research on who they’re going to. So they will not just walk into the first dental clinic that they find. (Muriel: Not like us.) No. So they will have done their research. So when a lot of the patients are coming to a particular practice, they’ve already done their background research. So they also, they are coming to me because of my authority on a particular subject, right? , if I tell you them, “Listen, this is not going to work for you,” they also take it with full belief. (Vivek: Pinch of salt?)Not pinch of salt, but full belief. And they usually will agree to what you’re saying. There’s always a small percentage that just wants to do what they want, but then those are not the people we can cater to, right? Because you have to match expectation with outcome.
Vivek: Yeah. We were talking about the evolution, but also the evolution for doctors as well. How has that been, the problems that were at one point in time and now with different innovations in food as well, how has that impacted in terms of your skill and learning as well? For example, the problems that were happening probably long back, and now when you see the Gen Zs and Gen Alphas consuming different kinds of things or products, how has that evolved? What skill and learning have you learned?
Dr. Shweta: So there’s a lot learning because as we have evolved,
even as a species from the fact that our ancestors had 32 teeth to most of us not even having space for all wisdom teeth to erupt. So that is also a sign of evolution, because we are eating a lot more processed foods, we are eating a lot more soft foods and with the advent of all sorts of energy drinks, especially in the region where we live, there’s a lot of energy drink consumption. There’s a lot of aerated drink consumption, which is not the best thing for your teeth. So we see very typical characteristics on teeth and I’m telling you confidently that looking at your mouth, I will be able to tell you what is your diet. So it makes a lot of sense.
Muriel: Please don’t mention that on the radio, we’ll talk about this. Vivek: I’m not going to open my mouth any.
Muriel: But right now we want to move on to you, Leena. Now before we get into, or rather you transport us into another world, I want to understand from you the misconceptions around art therapy. If you could just debunk a few.
Leena: So one of them being that I can’t draw or paint and art therapy is not for me, which is the biggest misconception because it’s not about drawing or painting, it’s about your emotions getting in touch with your inner self. Yeah, that’s what it’s about.
Vivek: And you also have a beautiful hand pan with you. Is this a part of art therapy?
Leena: So this is something that I have developed. Art therapy is getting in touch with our emotions as you know, but I involve the benefits of sound healing in it because this instrument is known to have the vibrations very close to the universal vibrations and it helps you connect deeper within yourself and helps you anchor with your meditation.
Vivek: Beautiful. So can we listen to it if it’s okay for you to play for us?
Leena: Absolutely. So while we are at it, can I please ask you all to close your eyes and imagine opening the door to your childhood room and seeing your little self.
Vivek: So if you’re driving, don’t close your eyes please. But we are in the studio, so we will close our eyes. Please go ahead.
Muriel: Beautiful, really beautiful, extremely beautiful.
Vivek: I think sometimes therapy, it’s not something that you need to put words into and talk about. It’s something you need to feel.
Leena: Absolutely.
Vivek: You’ve made us so calm right now, Leena. (Leena: I’m glad.) Genevieve, how do you feel right now?
Genevieve: Actually, it would be good to go back to sleep.
Leena: I’m glad to hear that.
Vivek: And Dr. Shweta, if you could put some words to it. I know I just said that.
Dr. Shweta: I’m already asleep, but it is beautiful. The power of what you do, art therapy and everything that you bring on, I’m sure touches so many lives that technology and no matter how much it thrives, no matter how much it moves, leaps and bounds, I think it won’t ever be able to touch a soul. (Leena: Absolutely.)
Vivek: Quickly. A tip for everyone, how they can integrate art therapy into their daily life for their wellbeing.
Leena: Yes, absolutely. So one thing you can do daily is get in touch with yourself. Firstly, meditate, even if it’s for two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes: Just what is meditation? It is not something that we have to do. It is the undoing. Just sit with yourself, your silent self and get in touch with yourself. And if possible, just draw something. Indulge yourself in some painting, drawing, even a stickman is fine. Doodling and yeah. (Vivek: That’s it.) That’s it. Simple.
Muriel: We will continue this conversation a little longer. We have them in our studios for 10 odd minutes more, but after the break.

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News – (Sinead O’Connor’s family is asking people to line the sea front ahead of her funeral in County Wicklow later. The Irish singer was best known for her Nothing compares to you track, but she had criticized the Catholic Church and spoken about mental health issues. Paul Nolan from Hot Press Magazine says, “She won’t just be remembered for her songs. And she kind of became venerated for a new generation for having had the courage to speak out on those subjects long before it ever really became fashionable or it was part of the mainstream. So she always took a stand for the underdog that all fed into what Irish people loved and love about her.”
(In sport, it’s understood Tottenham have rejected Bio Munich’s so-called final offer for Harry Cain with talks ongoing. The German giants recently bid 86 million pounds for him.
(And foxes in urban areas may be bolder than their rural counterparts, but aren’t cleverer. Experts set puzzles in 104 locations to better understand their behavior and that’s the latest time Rachel Huston.
Talk 100.3 Sport. In football, co-hosts Australia reached the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals with a clinical win over Denmark in the last 16 at a packed stadium in Australia. Caitlyn Foord put the Matildas ahead in the 29th minute, finishing from a tight angle following a great pass from Mary Fowler. Haley Raso added a second in the 70th minute with a driven finish after good work from Emily Van Egmond. Australia will face either France or Morocco in the last eight. On Saturday, Australia had only ever reached the last eight at the World Cup once before in 2015, losing their four other knockout matches across the years. They started slowly against Denmark, but Stadium Australia in Sydney erupted after Fowler’s great turn and past set up Foord’s opener on the break. Encouraged by their goal, the Matildas dominated the rest of the half with another Foord effort deflecting off Denmark Defender que se (not clear) and dropping narrowly.

(While in tennis, Britain’s Dan Evans won the first ATP 500 title of his career by beating Tallon Griekspoor in the city Open final in Washington DC. Evans, now the world number 21 triumphed 7-5 6-3 against the Dutchman after a 90-minute rain stoppage.
Cocoa Gauf Res (not clear) Maria Sakari 6-2 6-3 to take the women’s title. British number two, Evans required four break points to take the opening set before play was suspended at 2-2 in the second because of rain and lightning after the restart. Evans cruised through his remaining service games until he saved four break points in the penultimate game of the match. He’s the first Britain to win the tournament since Tim Henman in 2003.
(In cycling, Kieran Reilly won the men’s elite BMX Freestyle Park to get Great Britain’s gold medal of day five and claim his first world title. He beat former champion Rimu Nakamura of Japan and Olympic champion Logan Martin of Australia who was second. Newcastle Bond Reilley displayed a super performance, scoring 95.8 compared to Martin’s 95.3. The women’s BMX Freestyle Park event is underway this evening following a rain delay. There are also a number of British track riders hoping to win more medals in this evening’s session in Glasgow. Chris Hoy Velodrome. not clear), Neil Fasci and Matthew Robertson are guaranteed a medal as they go against German duo Thomas Ulrich and Robert Forman for gold in the men’s B sprint.
(In cricket, Pat Cummins will be sidelined for six weeks because of a wrist injury sustained in the Ashes but should return for Australia’s 50 over World Cup campaign in October and November. Cummins fractured his wrist in the final test at the Oval when England won by 49 runs. Australia retained the urn after drawing the series 2-2. Cummins was named Australia’s One Day International captain in 2022 and has skippered the national side in two 50 over games so far. He sustained the wrist injury while diving in the field on day one of the fifth test, but played through the following four days. Australia played three T20 Is and five OdIs against South Africa between 30th of August and 17th September. And they have three ODIs lined up against India between 22nd to 27th September. And that’s all from the Sports Desk on Talk 100.3.)

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Vivek: Business with BNI Season Two. Yes, Muriel, good morning.
Muriel: A very good morning. We just have five odd minutes with our wonderful guests in the studios. So we’ll start with you Genevieve. How can people get in touch with your Beautifuls salon?
Genevieve: You can get in touch with me through phone or through the website that we are actually currently building or through the Fresha app as well.
Vivek: Okay. Which app? You said Fresha.
Genevieve: Fresha, yes, that’s for salons.
Vivek: And a quick advice, a beauty advice to everyone, be it men or women, anyone.
Genevieve: Be yourself.
Muriel: That’s beautiful. And what about you Dr. Shweta? How can people get in touch with you?
Dr. Shweta: So there are many ways to get in touch with us. The easiest way is to WhatsApp the clinic or to get onto our website, which is www.precisiondental.ae and chatbot, like you said, since the whole conversation has been about technology. Our chatbot will assist them to get an appointment with a practice.
Muriel: But can you believe it? I dislike chatbots. I don’t like calling up places and chatbots coming in and saying, “What do you require?” Especially banks. This is something I can’t understand.
Dr. Shweta: No, no. Chatbots will not talk to you very much. Humans only will talk to you, but they’ll initiate the process of my staff calling you. Let’s put it that way. (Vivek: And a quick advice for oral health for everyone?)So, this is something I would want to put in my BNI tagline, which is what I say in every weekly meeting, which is brush, floss, rinse, repeat. (Vivek: Nice, very important)
Muriel: And what about you Leena? How can people get in touch with you?
Leena: So they can get in touch with me through my website: That’s www.leesgallery.com. (Vivek: Lee’s Gallery?) That’s right, on my Instagram handle at Lee’s Gallery.
Vivek: Superb. And a quick word about the future of art therapy and the impact that will have on mental wellbeing as well. The future of art therapy, you think, how is it going to evolve or the impact that art therapy has on mental wellbeing?
Leena: It has a huge impact. It helps you de-stress, understand your feelings and balances your mental health.
Muriel: Taking a leaf out of what our conversation has been Leena,
we’ve got a message in here for you. “Good morning, Vivek and Muriel. I got an interesting thing to share. So, when I feel stressed out in the office, while I am in a meeting especially or I’m on a call, I start doodling. It’s continuously like infinity loops and it kind of helps me. Now I know there is such a thing called art therapy and what I do is also called.” Well he’s saying it in the art therapy.
Leena: So wonderful to hear from the listener. Thank you so much for bringing that in. But yes, that is what art therapy is. It is just something that you do when you’re stressed to de-stress yourself. It could be any activity, right? People go for swimming, they play tennis, but this is something you do with your paints and colors or doodling, which is amazing.
Vivek: We also got a question from Ajas and he’s asking whether the music that you just played on the hand pan, is it available online?
Leena: It is. You can actually just go online and look for sound healing or the music of the hand pan. (Vivek: Really?) Yeah.
Vivek: So you can actually listen to this and stay calm?
Leena: Absolutely. Even on Apple Music you can find it. It’s called the Turtle Music.
Vivek: But there is a difference, a vibration when actually you’re sitting close to the instrument and actually listening to it digitally, there is a huge difference, right? Or is it the same?
Leena: It is the same. Obviously, when you’re listening to it so closely, it does make a difference.
Vivek: For example, I’m listening to it on YouTube and I’m listening to you when you are playing it. There is a difference right?
Leena: Here, you are forced to stay focused, you’re forced to stay in the moment. Online, it is a little tough. We have so many distractions these days. (Vivek: Nice)
Muriel: Which is beautiful. Thank you so very much to all three of you for taking time out and coming to our studios. Genevieve, Dr. Shweta, Leena, thank you. It has been a pleasure to have you in our studios. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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It’s time we take a closer look at the US stock markets. At close, Dow Jones up 1.16% trading at 35,004 73.13 S&P 500 seeing an upward gain at 0.9%. Trading at 4518.44. Nasdaq seeing an upward graph of 0.61% trading at 13994.40. Russell is trading at 0.075%. Trading at 1009 58.94. VIX is trading at 15.77.

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Muriel: Welcome back to Business with BNI Season Two and for the last two hours we’re talking really heavily about the beauty industry. We’re talking about transformation, we were talking about technology. We’ll move on now to someone’s special story.
Vivek: Absolutely. So we’ve got, as with us Asif the c Ccha Cafeteria and Restaurant owner, Asif, a pleasure to speak to you and Bob, thank you very much. Thank you.
Asif: Good morning to all who are listening to Talk 100.3. Basically, I’m here to introduce my restaurant (Not clear) and most of the people they’re asking about Nam, The Nam, Yes Na Dei. It means like the baby chicken, this word literally actually word is like a Punjabi in Hindi we can call Chua in Hindi and du Chua. But in here, it means like baby chicken. So most of the people they’re asking about that there is one character over there you can took over there Chu many baby chicken AKA right fu but it’s a China to be honestly that’s not a true. So APNA joined Kaki, joined KeHE 2022.
Muriel: And how has it been for you when you look at it from the business standpoint? How has BNI helped you?
Asif: Really BNI helped me a lot. I started my business in 2019 and that time there is Covid and most of the people were shutting down their businesses. But I’m the one person who’s opening the restaurant over there. So the story is that I’m struggling for that. And my brother, elder brother, he’s part of the BNI and he pushed me to go there in BNI. I just joined the BNI and really BNI helped me a lot and increased my networking. I meet different people and we do the catering as well. And BNI members introduced their family member as well. So I have a lot of networking where we have to do the catering stuff.

Muriel: Very nice. So what is the kind of cuisine that you serve?
Asif: If you eat something because the biryani, the Chicken curry, roll … (Not clear)
Muriel: It doesn’t matter. It’s going to be stuck in my head until I go to Dei Chua. So if for people listening in right now and everybody’s mouth is watering, how can they get in touch with you and how can they head to Dei Chua? Where is Dei Chua?
Asif: Dei Chu is in rbo. There is Alfa Road and near the bus stop right towards to go to Sheik side. So you just see the bus stop back there is DEI there I’m sure Specialty both VA and we have a Bani D pan. So ota this is the one you can eat. (not clear)

Muriel: My mouth is watering. If you could just talk to me a little bit about BNI, your journey with BNI. How has this really helped you and three ways that it has helped you professionally? If you could list them.
Asif: (not clear)
Muriel: Right. So we will talk to you a little bit more about this, how this kind of changed things for you. What was your initial understanding of BNI and then when you went into BNI, how things changed for you, we’ll talk about this, but after the break.

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This is Daybreak with Vivek Samuel and Muriel D’Sa on Talk 100.3.
Vivek: Business with BNI Season Two every Tuesday. We have an interesting guest, Asif, he’s the owner of the Ccha Cafeteria. Both interesting but talking about the qz, talking about the chef, talking about the business of a restaurant because of the population, because of the footfall, mechanisms. (not clear)
Asif: The business of restaurant background here. So when I was in UK. I worked at McDonalds, I worked at KFC, worked in Starbucks. So at that time I’m thinking about coming here. So why should I do for a restaurant? Experience. Experience living.
Muriel: And a concept right? When it comes to an entrepreneur, that bank balance, I can open a restaurant. Did you have certain figures in mind? I can open a lavish restaurant or how did you restaurant. change things for you and what is the struggles behind opening the restaurant?
Asif: First of all, I can get very good deal for that then (not clear)
Muriel: But innovation, you don’t know how the food is tasting, correct? Everything. Now we’ve understood to take things from Instagram in terms of food or food creativity or food relatability to Instagram or social media, right? (not clear)
Wow. It’s like picture is awesome. So up first tries definitely. Then again directly called next online website. We have Facebook. Recently he just came to pass and stopped the car. And then you have a, what is that? It’s like what is that? So try then you can decide, right?

Vivek: Technology support for a business, especially a restaurant. I think this is the best time to actually get into business because technology can support. (Asif: Correct) Technology definitely can support.
Muriel: Talk to me about your business, definitely it is a hit for you. How would you encourage entrepreneurs to come and join this amazing BNI platform?
Asif: Encourage Kara to come and join this amazing BNI network platform. After one year, do not go. This is my personal opinion, do not go. Go for second year because one year you have to build up your name, right? Stay at least one, two years, right?
BNI helped me a lot. They will contact me for social party, birthday party. Party food, we can give it.
Muriel: Amazing, right? I mean your story is so inspirational. Thank you. Congratulations to you and may you grow a million-fold more. Thank you. Your BNI story is definitely touching. Thank you once again for taking time out and coming to our studios.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Host: So a huge welcome to Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit a huge welcome from entrepreneur sparkplug hub – we are super truly excited to bring to all our viewers a play book series of doctors chat with doctors and this is our fourth edition we have had a general practitioner, we have had an ophthalmologist, we have had a home care doctor, we have had a working professional and today we have 2 dental doctors who have made it a great success in their careers, so today I would rely like to welcome Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit as orthodontists and who are a periodontist, who run their successful business . Welcome to you – a huge welcome to you Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit.

Dr. Shweta: Thank you so much Priscilla, thank you

Dr. Punit: Thanks for having us!

Host: So before we start and go ahead with the series I just want to tell all our viewers what it is that we are going to discuss today. First I am going to be introducing what actually Dr. Shweta and Dr Punit have done up until now and how they have made it as a successful career for them. The second – I will ask them a bunch of interesting questions by which is going to be a lot of value addition to doctors here if you are a practicing doctor, if you are a useful entrepreneur you have got to be – and you are still waiting for medical student and are waiting to get ignited on an entrepreneurship level, this is what I would suggest, that you stay right up until the end because this is one session that is going to give you a lot of real time free flowing  honest answers coming from doctors which we have had up to now, and second is I am also going to be giving you towards the end a battle tested, time tested system invitation for a webinar which is going to be exclusively for doctors, and how they can scale up their practice, so going forward with that, Dr. Shweta who has been a specialist periodontist which is a gum specialist which I didn’t know up until now, but she has been a successful gum specialist for the last 14 years in her career and she is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow UK, and her passion or her true purpose in life is to safeguard her patients from losing their teeth. We have Dr. Punit who has had a successful orthodontist career right up since 2005 and he is also a member of the faculty of Orthodontics – Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburg UK and his passion for orthodontics has started right from ever since he had a life changing experience as a child, and he also kept on upgrading his learning and skill set – he is an in cognitive provider, he is a certified Invisalign provider, he has also completed his phase clinical program in Occlusion and so many other things. Both Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit have great medical knowledge and information which is so important to be in the game today, so they are right on top of everything and when it comes to their knowledge and their logical thinking. So Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit have also been invited as guest speakers to rally good expert discussions and medical practitioners communities. So we are very honored to have such great doctors here today, so Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit once again a huge welcome today from us to you.

Dr. Shweta: thank you, thank you so much.

Dr. Punit: thank you, thank you!

Host: So now their clinic – Precision Dental which is there since 2016 has been a great clinic with now they have expanded it with the right solid team, which has the right team culture which is only focusing on giving excellent dental care through empathy, through listening to their patients goals and all the time up-skilling and excelling customer service at their clinic, so now we are going to look at one important question that I would really like to ask Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit are – do you think that- are doctors ready for entrepreneurship?

Dr. Punit: well if you look at it, doctors have been entrepreneurs for quite some time, if you try to think back to – you know long time ago, we have always had doctors in their individual clinics who have had their own practice and you always hear about people talking to doctors about starting a practice and having their own practice, so doctors have been entrepreneurs for a long time. I think the only difference is now because of all – or maybe it is because of the way things are things are that the landscape is changing a lot, and the demand from the patients are – I don’t want to say consumers but yes, consumers or patients however you want to say is also changing so with that, we as doctors need to upgrade ourselves in our entrepreneur skill s as well. So it is not enough to start a practice but how to take it forward, how to continue sustaining it over time – these are things that we need to learn and we need to incorporate.

Dr. Shweta: Right, so also another angle to that is the doctor to population ration right, that has also changed. That makes a lot of difference in the choice availed to the patients. earlier I had a local GP in my area to see another GP I would have to maybe travel to another suburb you know, but now so imagine if he was not very kind or he was not very great I would still go to him because I had no choice. Now my choices have increased tremendously – so if I don’t like you or the way that you treat me, or I don’t like the way that your staff treats me, I am going to get up and I am never going to see your face again right. So that is an important shift. And also the awareness with the Google Babar not the picture you know

Host: yeah

Dr. Shweta: A lot of people have made (laughs)

Host: Yeah people tend to do self-treatment ahead of time without knowing the consequences later date right?

Dr. Shweta: yeah

Host: so that is so important, and I think form what you said Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit, I think that doctors have got a good chance of entrepreneurship as long as they are upgraded, and upgraded to the needs of the patients and also if the ration to population to doctors is increasing then you have got to be present everywhere in the face of the patient os that they come to see you, I mean that is what I would take as a conclusion form these two questions right? Am I right on those parts?

Dr. Shweta: Right, that is right, there is another – a flip side to it right. We have always been entrepreneurs but have we been trained to be entrepreneurs? That is a whole different question.

Host: beautiful thing you have said Dr. Shweta, really.

Dr. Shweta: yeah so there are many angles to that also so.

Host: yeah and what do you mean when you say that – ‘are we being trained to be doctors’

Dr. Shweta: because we study a lot right, learn – especially even to get my general, the bachelor degree I have to study 5 years vs. a regular bachelors which would be 3 years. then if I am doing my masters which I have, then I study another 3 years additionally and the studying really never stops, but there is no subject where they even teach us patient skills, or you know communication skills with patients.

Host: Oh my god

Dr. Shweta: forget the business aspect of it and the finance aspect of it, you can just forget but they don’t even teach us how to talk you know, it is just like looking at the mouth and you know – for dental support.

Dr. Punit: it is very focused on education for dentistry. You study dentistry, you study dentistry but when you get out into the world when you are practicing and when you get into business there is so many other things to look at! So let’s look at for example – a doctor who is working for someone else. Ok, not an entrepreneur in the true sense, but a doctor who is working for someone else – he still has to deal with patients, he still has his team around him, who he has to deal with, he still has to sell okay because you can have the best training in the world but if a patient is not willing to get that treatment from you, all that training is useless.

Dr. Shweta: yeah

Dr. Punit: and these are things that we are not taught in traditional dental college and dental universities, these are essentially things that you need to come out and learn on your own, and apart from learning the technical side of being a dentist, these are other things that you have to learn – now this is if you are working for someone else. Now if you are working for yourself and if you have your own business, then you also have to think about how you get people to walk through the door and come into your clinic  okay – there are different ways of doing that, that is something we all learn, and then also the regularity aspects of it, in terms of what are your local laws and the regulations of the medical authority that you need to follow and there are HR issues, building g a team and hiring people – how do you select people, how do you get them to stay long term, how do you get them to perform while they are staying in a way that they are happy and you now they don’t run to the next clinic which is offering them a marginally higher salary – so there is I mean it is like a whole can of worms that we can open up regarding what else we need to learn after we finish studying dentistry so to speak.

Host:  Oh my God I really think it is a big – I mean you just sounded like a beauty salon as well.  There is no comparison whether it is a clinic or a salon, or a restraint or anything it is still the same challenge and you have not been taught how to do it. And you skills have absolutely gone, because all that you are doing for 9 years or 10 years is only studying! And I think when I was taking another interview one of the doctors said that ‘of me coming into this country, I didn’t know the loop holes of insurance companies I mean I had to learn and bend down or sometimes understand that not today but at that point in time, I didn’t know that insurance companies were thriving and they were sometimes let’s use the word corrupt and sometimes they wanted to tell us what I should charge and how much I should charge you know, so those aspects also have been far away from learning other than the people aspects and finance and all that – so it is a different ball game for doctors right.

Dr. Shweta: Very different, plus we come with the-

Dr. Punit: Let’s not forget that after all of this, we are still doctors – we still need to be up to date with our skills and with our profession as well.

Host: Having that mental balance basically.

Dr. Punit: We can’t forget that either.

Host: because the minute you forget that you become a business man and people will move away from you also (laughs)

Dr. Shweta: actually that was exactly what I was going to say – we come in with that already inbuilt guilt that you know this whole nobility angle of the profession of health care – is it a boon or is it a bane? Because we still – we have studies a lot and Indians, our parents have invested a lot in our education, so you know at some point they want to see us doing well, and well settled or whatever also ourselves – for our own selves when we work so hard and we do well in college we come out thinking you know you are going not do really well and anybody does. After that there is the angle of, should I really be selling? It comes from within because it is so ingrained in our society and our culture everywhere not only from an Indian background but anywhere in the world doctors are supposed to be very noble, so health care is not really looked at as a business industry.

Host: Yeah and today if it is looked at as a business industry it is driven by non-medical practitioners so who are actually getting the profits more because they have the money and they can have doctors played so my point is – how should really doctors think of, you know – scaling up? I mean I am not saying whether you have done it, or whether it is right or wrong but in the back of your mind you must be thinking that – what are the 5 ways if I have to ask you that doctors can really scale their business like something for a practice as already mentioned or maybe using a system or advertising – what do you think should be 5 things for scaling up?

Dr. Punit: So I would say number 1 – is it learn ethical sales, ok, because when I say ethical sales what I mean is to educate people about what is required and why it is required, and in a way that is balanced now when I say balanced it is means it should not be pushy because we don’t want to push things on people especially if they don’t need it ok, so that is out of the question, but in a way that is not pushy but is more informative and more sort of – let’s say encouraging the patient to do what is best for them – so that is what ethical sales is, and if you do ethical sales well, number 1 – you understand what a patient really wants and why a patient has come to you. They come for a reasons and it is not because you know that they jut are shopping around or, they have come to you for a particular reason so why are they there and how can you best help them – what is in their best interest, so that is ethical sales. Once you are able to understand that and once you are able to practice that and I say practice because you can constantly always keep it moving, but once you are able to practice that – you will have more people agreeing to get treatment and they will refer other people to get treatment – so that is one way of growing your practice wherever you are, even if you don’t have your own business if you are working for someone else – that is one way of scaling or increasing the number of patients that you have. Another thing that we have found very helpful is networking. It could be business networking what we do is, we are both part of a business networking group called BNI and we found that to be very helpful for us, it could be networking within social groups, it could be networking within even hobby groups I mean we just go out there and meet you, let people know, let people know that you are a genuinely nice person and you know the more people know you they would like you and then they will start trusting you and then they would like to buy from you or get treated. So these are a couple of things – building relationships that is of course an extension of networking to build relationships with people – build better relationships with your patients, get to know them better, get to know their – where they are working their family, their family background and then slowly that builds trust and they would be happy to refer people to you.

Dr. Shweta: Also personal branding and the brand of – if you own a practice these 2 are tied up right, so this is something very interesting because like you said in the beginning the patients may come to me and I want them to come to me also. It is not only that patients will come to me, I want them also to come, I want them to ask for Dr. Shweta and come – correct? So that gives me also a sort fo – you know as I am digressing a little bit but I think it is important to talk about because a lot of doctors in this which is the imposter syndrome, like a lot of us feel this – like really is this all happening to me? Am I good enough? Because you always know practitioner you keep reading research and you see somebody is doing some great surgery and somebody has done something you are always feeling short you know, so when good things re happening or when patients come asking to you itself sort of confidence booster for yourself, but at the same time that person brand infact we were discussing this, can be a bottle neck for scaling up, because as a person I have only so many hours in a day because I also have a life outside work – I cannot go on working 24 hours.

Host: absolutely

Dr. Shweta: if you are seriously looking at scaling up we have to sort of allow that personal brand to diffuse into the team and build a team that helps you scale up and you need to have a  vision which is very clear to your team, like this is what we are aiming for we are not into pushy sales you don’t want anybody on the team – you know constantly operations, you know why don’t you come, why don’t you come – you don’t want that because that is not the image you want to put out. So the practice brand and the doctors brand has to align and then grow together. I don’t want a particular practitioner to become a bottle neck, even myself to become a bottle neck in my practice, like everyone is coming only to me and if I am not there they don’t want to come to this clinic right.

Host: beautifully said – to conclude or the answer to this question for the benefit of our viewers the number 1 thing that you can scale up is to look at personal branding and that is to create an awareness  and educating your patients without really looking sales-y and second is to go towards ethical sales – ethical sales is really understanding the real thing what they have come of rather than putting them into different other tests which are not needed and so the patients really know what it is for them, and they keep coming back and third is to look at networking, networking is such an important aspect for doctors to build business which each other. So networking with other doctors through different networking solutions, 4^th is to build relationships with your patients so that you keep them coming back to you – so it is a repeat order kind of a business. They are long term patients and clients for you and 5^th is I would just like to say build a system of all this so that it gets automated. So having and also what Dr. Shweta said – 5^th is not just having a block with only one person but you need to have a team, a team of dentists putting a brand where our services are like that – so that is scaling up, so maybe scaling up through a team of doctors or scaling up by having setting up clinics of your own they could be two levels of scaling up – so these are the points. So really that is a really god answer that we have given to the viewer’s here. The next one I really like to ask you is Dr. Shweta and Dr. Punit, when we spoke of systems do you think like these medical industries or the one medical doctors who really made it good in the UAE? I am not sure who has but how have they made it good – did they have a follower system of how people came to them, naturally or did they have these prompters, sms to people saying did they have their EHR technology there or did they have a- your last checkup was this now your check up is here – did they use certain things, what do you think? What was the system that they used to really scale it up? Because I am sorry, there is a reasons, you cannot grow unless you are aggressive in some way or the other at the initial period, so you have got to do something beyond what others are doing so what are your opinions on the system that you are using, I am not talking about software but a system in general for scaling up.

Dr. Punit: ok so yeah I was going to mention that – if you are talking about software or an overall way of doing things that they use to scale up, so obviously they have the bigger hospitals or the multiple medical centers they have obviously got  certain marketing system in place which helps in getting there, you know getting their name out – we all know that most businesses are depending heavily on online marketing now, and the reason is it is more targeted and can be more measured so they can generally measure the effectiveness of online marketing more than if you just put a pic holding up there and how many people have actually seen that. The bigger the center is, the more funds they have at their disposal – everybody does online, some of them do go into offline marketing like holdings and do spend on things like that, apart from that – there is a lot of them have this whole system of the customer journey or the customer experience, as in how to first acquire a patient. I am using customer and patient interchangeably when talking about the health care industry so how do you acquire a patient? How does that patient contact you? How is the contact treated? How are they sent reminders, confirmations of their appointments – how are they presented to a panel of doctors, how can they choose the doctors? So this whole thing is systemized in the bigger practices having it more and more systemized. The small practices have it best and you know the more efficient your systems work, obviously the faster you can grow so you can see this happening in a lot more successful practices, their patient acquisitions systems and the communication with their patients are very clear, the treatments that they offer, the choice of doctors that they offer that they have a panel of doctors that they have, then the journey of the patient within of the practice, going to the reception, going from point A to point B to point C – how are they guided along with you know is there a  nurse with them, are they just directed by the reception – please turn right, please turn left, or is there someone escorting the patient to the relevant department – so these are all things that need to be thought of. Then of course when the doctor sees them, are they you know – and they prescribe certain tests and they prescribe certain investigations  – are they availed in house or the patients need to go somewhere  else, how is the insurance approval you know obviously for medical that is dependent on insurance, so how is the insurance approval done, and the more organized these steps are – the more confident a patient gets in getting treated over there, and also yeah then of course comes the follow up systems which are them keeping in constant contact with the patient in terms of information educational, information newsletters etc. messages that go out once every year or 6 months taking that into consideration – those who have not had a checkup it is time for a checkup that is due, so what I was saying is the more organized the more clear cut and the more organized these are the more effective and the faster the better that these organizations can scale.

Dr. Shweta: right but some of them have also been stated long item back to they already have that advantage in this region I am saying of having been around for a long time and then that just builds right, there is a – it’s like that story, once you hit that mark you are growing exponentially because then you are an – but systemization obviously and as they grow bigger they are also more aggressive because they have a team dedicated to reaching out to people and you know if you go to the bigger hospitals, you will get calls after three months saying that we have this offer in the other department so you want to come, just introduce this laser thing – so do you  want to, you know we can give you 40% off or whatever. So there is a lot of I wouldn’t want to say cross selling but cross treating and up treating, that happens you know. It should happen also as long as it is needed and required. It is not that you are cooking things up just so you can treat them.

Host: Absolutely, and with the health industry today being at 97 billion dollars and reaching to 550 billion dollars by 2030 I think people have a lot of money and corporates have a lot of money to invest in people’s health because heath has become so imprint than ever before whether this for cosmetic purpose of for any ailments, so yes it has to be there – a system is needed, and now coming back to conclusion – the answers are that a system is needed and from what I have heard from Dr. Punit and Dr. Shweta is that first system you need is to have a system of digitalization in terms of online marketing or any kind of online stuff, awareness or education that you do to get a real time answer of how your prospects really react to whatever you are saying and the second is when they get converted and they come to you as a patient, how to get treated that is another system of a different level like doctor said whether you take the patient via nurse or you are treating them in-house in a different customer service care and then after they go – what else as a system is to be put as you said, so there are 3 phases of systems that are definitely needed for you to scale and I after having spoken to doctors I have realized that they all really are longing to see a system like that which is going to give them a flood of leads and then just getting the leads is not important because they would just slip too if you have so many leads, so a system to really get those needs to convention in a way that is automated which would really help and that is what I am going to be discussing in the webinar but I just thought of this, that this really helps and if that helps the doctors to scale up then that is what they should look at, how other businesses are automating their ways and so doctors can do that as well. Now the next one I want to say is for your precision dental clinic what is your vision really, what do you really want to do as a sense of purpose to impact more lives if it was – as your dream, or as your final destination, what is your vision for Precision Dental clinic?

Dr. Punit: So obviously we want to have a positive impact on people right, so we want people who come to our clinic who come and visit us they leave us better than when they came. I personally work with a lot of young people a lot of teenagers, a lot of young adults, and as an orthodontist we straighten their teeth and give them a good smile and if, and I feel if I can help them to develop their self-confidence, and being less conscious about the way they look and more confident and I think that has I would be able to help them in a positive way and that is what I have seen happening over the years and that is what I really enjoy doing.

Host: Nice

Dr. Shweta: but that is also something briefly that Priscilla mentioned in the beginning, that is the reason why Punit became an orthodontist acutely!

Host: Yeah we want to hear that, what happened! (Laughs)

Dr. Punit: Honestly I had braces myself as a kid and my teeth were quite protruding and crowded and it didn’t look very nice, and I had orthodontics and I had my teeth corrected and my smile improved and this was a long, long time back more than 25 years back and I still feel that it was a great decision that obviously at that time, my parents had taken to get it done, and I feel I really befitted from it, and I still benefit from it!

Host: See and smile is such an import thing!

Dr. Shweta: specially in today’s generation if you see the whole selfies phenomenon, children also are so conscious – my 8 year old is sometimes about the way she looks, even though it is such a neutral household or whatever in terms of vanity but still she feels it sometimes, so there is a lot of peer pressure on the way you look and every interview you go for, so many decisions of a life could change if you thought, and we know so many patients we can see the difference, you know we take pre-op photos and we take post op photos right, the smile – eyes are completely differently when they smile. It is beautiful actually.

Host: I can very well imagine, you are talking about children, as parents we are conscious. When my son was playing football this part of the tooth just chipped off and I went on to put on that cap, the permanent cap and all that stuff, so I am thinking ayah it is not just children but parents are also so conscious about how the children look and they are rooting for dental health.

Dr. Shweta: yeah a lot more

Dr. Punit: a lot more, and what you are saying is right, it is not just children it goes into young adults you know and adults of all ages that we are seeing a lot of patients in their 50s, 60s and recently even 70s who are coming in to get their smile improved – so it is not really something that is age specific, it is something that spreads to everyone.

Host: oh my God I am so excited to know that people are so – feeling to have their smile in a nice way it is so important. You know I have my business half a year here and half a year in the US so I was in the US and when I went there one of the coaches she said, my natural colour of my teeth or most Indians have got is as opaque and dull, not bright white teeth then she said, it is very important you have a bright white here it is – she gave me the trips and I was supposed to do that my teeth were glittering. So it is such a social thing as well, to have our teeth polished and looks so great and actually in the super markets I don’t know if we get it here but in there they do that but it’s so important, this part of dental hygiene and dental cosmetics experience is such an import thing, so I would like to ask you just that you have had – even during our discussions when we had our informal he’s and all I remember we found some of my friends who are long term coming back to US as patients, I want to know what is the real secret behind you guys that is so many people are – patients they come back as repeat patients for so many years, what I your secret why do they come to you what is ti that you are specializing in and what is it that they love auto you?

Dr. Shweta: I want to take this one!

Dr. Punit: yeah go ahead!

Dr. Shweta: so I always say this even to my team and this is what I believe in – you come in as a patient to Precision Dental you go out as a friend, you don’t go out as a patient, you know that is the key – most of my team is friendly most of us are friendly so you don’t feel that daunting, because it is already overwhelming and daunting to sit on the chair when you are – and you know the mouth is such a sensitive part of the body. Somebody peering in and using all these tools, of course every technology is improving tremendously – it is still not a pleasant feeling so the least we can look for our patients is make the rest of it, as comfortable and as comforting as possible – so that is what we focus on, and I think also we don’t focus on short term goals, so we don’t want anybody we don’t want a quick turnaround where we want to see 60 patients a day or 70 patients a day – so you are doing quick something and… So we spend time with the patients, we spend time and so I mean it is funny to say but I actually have my team sending out messages to my patients to remind them to floss. There are some patients every Monday, there is a message that goes out to my patients – because as a gum specialist it is very important for me for my patients that they maintain what they have gone through, because I do surgical procedures and honestly it is not fun for them, it is fun for me, but it is not fun for them – so I don’t want them to have to go through it again and again. So I always tell them that the treatment is like a partnership – so very informal but educational, like that is imrpaotn because knowledge is power and when you educate your patient and then they realize that you are educating them from a place of just sharing knowledge the that they will benefit from not with some ulterior motive that I will tell you this and then I will tell you auto 5 more treatments that you need, so and we tell our patients sometimes that I just need you to come in 4 moths I will not do anything if it’s not needed, but just come and show me your face and your mouth let me see if everything is fine, and when they have that security that you know she is not call-in me back or he is not calling me back just to get something out of me  and there have been times where they have said come I have done a checkup and you just say you are good, and you come in as a patient and you leave as a friend. We don’t have to look at patients only as a – you know don’t look at them as a dollar sign, and the other key thing that I think – we do a lot of also reading about the business aspect of dentistry now after we started, actually we were forced to do that after we started our practice we started reading about it – we were forced to do it! So the key thing to remember is that you are treating a patient not a mouth so you know that is implant!

Host: so well said

Dr. Shweta: and like you said, automation it helps – you have reminders going on as many things are not people depend and system depend it helps because when you have a – the minute I book the appointment for my appoint immediately he gets a SMS – and he’s like array doctor this is so great yar, and I just got a reminder and the get a reminder 3 days before and then they get you know – so little things that you can do.

Host: ok superb, so that is the reason that patients keep coming to you because of the friendly approach to them and not having a dollar sign in your eyeballs towards the patients so that is so nice to see that Precision Dental clinic has long standing patients and I am sure the team is trained really well and the follow ups that you do with your customers and yore patients and the treatment that you give them, has got a lot of human aspect to it and that is what people come for and really if you guys want to really go for any or your kids especially because that is their niche, their niche is treating young kids and diabetic patients and stuff like that.

Dr. Shweta: and older kids! I think older kids who are adults!

Host: young kids and older! Yeah so I mean yeah but that is their niche and you want to really look at it and we are going to add their contact details at the end of this video do not hesitate to call them even if it is – I have personally, I know them personally and they are a good set of doctors you must go and visit them so that is one of the things, and if you want to still get the learning on how to automate your leads or how to automate yoru conversion, how to automate your team functions or anything for medical practitioners, join in for my business builders masterclass webinar which is happening in the month of November the first week and you have the link below give us your description if you are a doctor, if you are a working professional as doctor, if you have your own private practice, we would be happy and delighted to see you there – with that note I really must say a good thank you, and before I say thank you I just want to ask both of you for a final message that you have for our doctor entrepreneurs who are budding to be entrepreneurs – what is the final message you want to give them so that they can take it with them?

Dr. Punit: well, to put it bluntly it I not for everyone, there are a lot of things that you have to deal with as an entrepreneur which you don’t have to deal with as an associate doctor in a clink, and it is not for everyone and if it’s not for you don’t push yourself into doing it but if you are interested in dogging it, try to start where you are right now, start learning about all the things that are involved, be it regulation be it HR, be it the communication I think of sales and also finance things like that, a lot of things that are involved in running a business, but yeah start where you are see if you can start practicing in improving your communication with your patients, because that communication skill will move on to your team and to everyone else involved in the business as well, also if you have an option of taking up a leadership role in anyway – try to do that, because again that experience will help you even if you are leading a small team of three people that experience is going to help you later on when you are going to start off your bigger team of yore practice, yeah I mean these are something’s that you can start with now, and just keep trying to learn keep an open mind. There are a lot of things to learn I know we are all geared to learning more about our industry about our specialty there is always new things coming up there are always conferences to go to there is also another side of it, the human side of it that we need to keep learning as well, whether it is communication, sales finance, just look at getting some idea about that as well, of course once you start there will be a whole lot of stuff that you didn’t even know that you didn’t know, that is going to come up but at least start getting some idea of it so that you are not completely bowled over when you start.

Host: beautiful I think that is the most important thing and that is what we are going to do in our webinar or even in our system just to make doctors aware that they need to learn even if you are a student because you very rightly said, because handling a team is a differently ball game and you sometimes get so angry for your team not coming on tie, someone just giving a last minute I am not coming today, or someone who is not pushing the patients who likely you could just loose it with but you have to learn that emotional intelligence to manage the team and building the leadership qualities – well said doctor really a big thank you to vision Dr. Punit and Dr. Shweta – I mean it has been fun and I hope you enjoyed it today we really enjoy and hope you guys enjoyed it!

Dr. Punit: Thank you so much yeah we really enjoyed it, looking forward to your doctor series webinar.

Dr. Shweta: Absolutely

Dr. Punit: Really interesting

Host: That’s really good! So thank you very much and see you again

Male voice: This is the Dubai Eye 103.8 podcast. This is Afternoons with Helen Farmer …

Female voice: … on the UAE’s number one talk radio station, Dubai Eye 103.8.

Helen: I’m Helen Farmer. It’s fantastic to have you with us on the Afternoons with Helen Farmer podcast and a real focus on health today with some incredible experts from here in Dubai and beyond as well. Dr. Harald Stossier was live in the studio. He is the man that A-listers go to, from pop stars to politicians for digestive reset, in conversation with Dr. Gavin Spence, pediatric orthopedic surgeon answering all of your questions. We are finding out how to prevent and treat gum disease with Dr. Shweta Prabhu. And I found out if yoga poses can really help with hair growth.

Male voice: Healthy Habits

Female voice: On Afternoons with Helen Farmer

Helen: This is your free clinic. Right now, it is all about your gums. Dr. Shweta is with us. She is a specialist periodontist from Precision Dental Clinic. We’re talking gum disease, what happens as we age, gum disease during pregnancy, and the doctor is very much here to help. Dr. Shweta, I was not shy, just got you to examine my wisdom tooth extraction.

Dr. Shweta: That was fun. I didn’t feel out of place at all.

Helen: Like, “Welcome to my office, if you could just do your normal job.” I’m healing well though?

Dr. Shweta: Yes, you are.

Helen: Thank you very much. I’d never heard the term dry socket until a week ago. And now it’s just hanging over me as the source of Tourette and pain, but no, pulled some teeth out last week, not too hamster like and seems to be doing all right. So thank you. Now we’re talking gum disease, but what exactly is it? What comes under that umbrella, and do we have any numbers on who it affects and how many people?

Dr. Shweta: Yeah, that’s a very interesting question because gum disease is the most prevalent oral disease that is present today in the world. Yes, it is even more than cavities. (Helen: Really?) Yes, it is. So, gum disease, you can broadly put it into two categories: One would be when it’s very superficial and it’s only sort of affecting your gums, which is the pink part. As we, you know, keep ignoring it because it’s painless unfortunately, I say unfortunate because that’s the reason why most people ignore it.

Helen: I’m presuming by the time it gets to be painful, things have developed and it can be, it’s gone.

Dr. Shweta: Exactly, so it goes into the supporting structure of your tooth, or not of your tooth. but of your jawbone, which is really the foundation of why your tooth is in the jaw in the first place, right? So that starts getting wobbly and most of my patients come around that time.

Helen: By then, presumably, it’s hard to reverse any damage the disease has done.

Dr. Shweta: We can, but it’s more difficult. So gingivitis would be the more superficial one and periodontitis, so ‘peri’ means around and ‘odont’ means tooth. So, that’s why the periodontist and the periodontitis

Helen: So, tell us, what are some of the things you should be looking out for, signs and symptoms of gum disease, Doctor.

Dr. Shweta: So, the simplest and the most common sign or symptom that a patient would feel would be bleeding gums, okay? I want to really stress on this because, just imagine if you are washing your hands and if you saw blood, wouldn’t that freak you out?

Helen: You wouldn’t ignore it.

Dr. Shweta: You wouldn’t ignore it. You’d go first thing, you know, you’d probably get into emergency. But when the same thing happens when we are brushing our teeth, 90 percent of us ignore it.

Helen: … which is gonna go. Okay. I was just a bit rough there, yeah.

Dr. Shweta: Exactly. So, it’s not normal for your gums to bleed when you brush or otherwise. That is the most common thing. You could have swelling in your gums, you know, and as the disease keeps progressing, of course bad breath is out there, but bad breath again can be caused by many other things. But it is one of the most important signs the patient could feel is also bad breath, but you could have then at the advanced stage, maybe loose teeth, or, you know, you had a very nice smile earlier, but now suddenly, your teeth have moved and there are spaces. So, these are all the complaints that I hear from my patients, so, yeah.

Helen: Doctor, I’m reading an awful lot at the moment about vaping and the negative impact it has on gum health. What do we need to know about this relationship?

Dr. Shweta: This is, I’m so glad you asked me this because, let’s go a little bit into the background of the disease, yeah? So periodontitis or gum disease is caused by plaque, which is the responsible criminal for all, almost all dental diseases commonly. So, now plaque has certain bacteria. And of course, there are certain things that put you at more risk to develop more dangerous plaque. If you want to put it very, you know, loosely now, smoking and diabetes. These are the two most established risk factors for developing gum disease. Now vaping is like the new solution where, you know, people think that they are cutting back and so they say, “You know what Doctor, now I started vaping, I am not smoking anymore.” So I’m like, yeah, but it has the exact same effect. In fact, there are a lot of studies now that are coming up, not long-term though because vaping is itself very new, but which are saying that vaping because of the liquid that they use, actually might be slightly more harmful than your regular cigarettes. This is, of course, for gum disease.

Helen: Yeah, it’s interesting about vaping as well, because when we think about, you know, I guess traditional smoking. It’s kind of, you know, going outside having a cigarette outside, whereas vaping, I mean, I’ve got friends who, it’s like they’ve got a dummy you just, you know, it’s at the desk, it’s in the mall, it’s you know, at the restaurant table and I guess it’s that frequency of all those contacting consumption, far more often than perhaps you would be going out for a cigarette. Does that make sense?

Dr. Shweta: Yeah, it does, that is one more contributing factor because if because you’re, it’s so much easy access to it, you know, plus the constituents that give you a little bit of a high that nicotine is still very much there, which is what causes the problem anyway.

Helen: So, when I asked you about my wisdom teeth, you said you don’t really need to worry about dry sockets unless you are a smoker because that can really increase the chance of infection and poor healing (Dr. Shweta: Yes) considerably. So what is it? Is it to do with blood vessels? (Dr. Shweta: Yes) What is it?

Dr. Shweta: Is this a smart teller? you are. So, blood flow is essentially, when we are a chronic smoker or a long-term smoker, what happens is the size of your blood vessels gradually goes on reducing. So when it, what is called scientifically as vasoconstriction, which means that the blood vessels get constricted, simple. Now when that happens, the flow of fresh blood is reducing, right? So the stuff that is going to carry your healing mediators are reaching at a much lower and a sluggish speed. So, it’s going to take that much longer for it to heal plus the negative pressure that it creates if it dislodges the clot because when I smoke, I need to purse my lips.

Helen: Yeah, you are kind of creating the vacuum in the mouth as well.

Dr. Shweta: Exactly. So, all of that.  

(break in program)

Male voice: Healthy Habits

Female voice: On Afternoons with Helen Farmer

Helen: Doctors in the house, Dr. Shweta Prabhu is with us, a specialist periodontist from Precision Dental Clinic and a specialist in gum disease and gum care. What are the stats around gum disease? Because it sounds like, I mean in judging by messages as well, this is something that seems to be affecting a lot of people in various ways.

Dr. Shweta: Yeah, so the stats actually are pretty startling. Although we have very limited stats for our country currently, but the CDC which is the most, you know, well-known authority, in 2021 released some very interesting facts. So five out of 10 adults in the age group between 30 to 60 years will have at least some form of gum disease that is one in every …So, if you know two people, one of them has gum disease.

Helen: And they will have it in that moment. They won’t just suffer from something at some time.

Dr. Shweta: No, they will have it. And by the time we turn 60, seven out of 10 will have established gum disease.

Helen: Can I ask you, because I haven’t talked about Covid for about an hour and a half, which is which is rough me, what impact has Covid had? Have you seen anything when it comes to people getting into the chair with long Covid, any impact on gun health, mouth health?

Dr. Shweta: That’s a very relevant question, and yes, Covid has taken a toll because I think it’s a pretty strong viral disease. So what any viral disease does is, it takes a toll on your immune system, you know. So, if you had a sort of maybe low-grade infection in the gum, which your body was able to sort of take care of it on its own, it’s now gone full-blown because the body had more important things to take care of, right? (Helen: Interesting) So, a lot of patients have come and they’ll be like, “I just, you know, one month back I finished, I had Covid or whatever and now I’ve got so much of bleeding, Doctor. I don’t know, I’ve never had bleeding in my life and suddenly now, I’m like just bleeding even without brushing kind of thing.” So, I have seen that, but this is of course anecdotal.

Helen: And in terms of recommending treatment plans in those situations, obviously you do on a case-by-case basis and depending on what you’re seeing. But what can generally be helpful?

Dr. Shweta: So, the general basic treatment for gum disease is always taking care of the gums by what you do at home, which is a very, very important part of gum health. And what we do on the chair, which is essentially professional cleaning as you call it, as patients call it, you know, “I had a clean and a check.” So a good cleaning regularly is a good thing to start with. This is a like sort of baseline treatment. Then anything, if you see and identify more problems, then there are treatments ranging from something, what I routinely call deep cleaning, which is where we go section by section and you know, we of course have to numb that area because we have to go slightly more inside and there are some cases unfortunately, where we have to open the gums and clean it, but essentially it is cleaning. But, you know, because the plaque and the bacteria have got access to much deeper areas, I need to access that area. So, that’s what it is. We have fantastic technology, you know, science has progressed so much. So we have many ways now that we can regrow the bone that you’ve lost. So, you have bone grafting and then many procedures that we do. We get, in fact, in a lot of the cases, even get back lost gums.

Helen: Well, that brings me to yes’s message 4001 if you do have any questions for Dr. Shweta, by the way. yes’s ‘Why do our gums recede as we age and is there anything you can do to slow down or reverse it?’

Dr. Shweta: Yeah, so this is a common misnomer, that, you know, getting long in the tooth, as they call it, right? They call it for aging, but unfortunately, it is not related to aging. It is related to the chronicity of the disease, meaning that the disease has been there in our mouth for that much longer. So, that is the real problem. Now the two most common reasons why we lose gum or why our gums recede; one is of course gum disease and the other is over-enthusiastic brushing.

Helen: Always done with the best of intentions.

Dr. Shweta: Yes, of course always, but the problem is that when we don’t know, you know, we brush hard, not right. So, that’s the problem. So these two, so if you’re seeing receding gums, a) we need to check if you’re brushing right and b) of course, we need to check if there’s any sort of gum infection.

Helen: Can you give us a little brushing 101? What’s the type of toothbrush we should be using in terms of hardness, flossing before or after, can you give us (Dr. Shweta: Yes, of course) some basics?

Dr. Shweta: So, brushing, always, always, always soft, the softest you can go, yeah? And brushing should be vertical not horizontal, or scrub, don’t think by putting too much pressure, you know, we’re going to do a better job. No, if you can, take 30 seconds longer to brush, you know. I know everybody is very busy. But 30 seconds won’t kill you, yeah. And flossing, if you are doing it, fantastic, I don’t really care if you do it before or after, just do it

Helen: Yeah, I’m just curious about the flossing. So I had a message saying, ‘Where do you stand on the water flosses?’

Dr. Shweta: I love water flosses. I just love them because they may improve my patient compliance so much, and they do the job so well and because they are not, you know, technically challenging, I have most of my patients using it and you’re inter-dentally cleaning. When we don’t clean in between the teeth, you’re missing out 35 percent of the surface of your teeth, right, where you’re allowing cavities to brew and gum disease to go on, and usually because it’s at the contact, it causes a problem because then you have direct access. So flossing is great. You can use interdental brushes if you have bigger spaces between your teeth, but don’t force anything. Toothpicks are a big no-no because you can end up damaging gums when you use it constantly in one area. And if you need to use a toothpick all the time in one particular area, then please book an appointment with a dentist. There’s something going on there.

Helen: Okay, we’re gonna go to the text line 4001. You’ve got a couple of minutes, if you’ve got any questions for our specialist periodontist this afternoon. Lina’s saying, ‘We grew up mixing turmeric oil and salt together and rubbing that on our gums whenever they hurt. It’s a very natural remedy for Indians. Do you recommend this or any other home remedies?’

Dr. Shweta: So, turmeric and salt together? Salt is very abrasive. So I really wouldn’t recommend that as a long-term solution to any problem because it does erode your teeth away over a period of time because every time your gum hurts, if you’re going to use that solution, turmeric, yes, it is known to be an antiseptic, antibacterial, all of that, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a solution to anything. Maybe if it helps you as a temporary relief thing, please go ahead but there’s no scientific, you know, backing to this.

Helen: We’re gonna squeeze in this message here saying, ‘My doctor told me, when my gums were bleeding, that I’ve got loose gums and big spaces between teeth. So it’s not a gum disease problem. I was given a cleaning. I was advised to brush and use mouthwash regularly. Is this loose gums a real problem and is there some kind of permanent solution?’

Dr. Shweta: So, loose gums are a kind of gum disease, unless, so when we say we have loose gums and big spaces, unless you have big spaces which because your teeth are smaller or you know, you have a bigger jaw and a tooth size and jaw discrepancy, you shouldn’t be having loose gums. Nobody should have loose gums. Your gums should always be like a nice tight collar around your tooth. So, if you have loose gums, you do need to see a periodontist. What is also important is, what is the medical history of the person, right? Because there are certain drugs that, certain medications that you might be on, the side effect of which is gum swelling.

Helen: Interesting and …

Dr. Shweta: I think hypertensive which are very, very common because blood pressure is, I mean pretty much all of us have it, right? Fast-paced life and all of that. So all of that needs to be ruled out, so definitely take a consultation with a periodontist wherever, but make sure that what we call a probing is done.

Helen: So you kind of go between the gum and the tooth to check the depth?

Dr. Shweta: Yes, yes, exactly.

Helen: Okay, really hope that helps. We’ve run out of time. We have run out of questions. So thank you for your time today, Doctor, really do appreciate it. And if you do want Dr. Shweta’s details, just message me, 4001 and I’d be happy to send over her details there at Precision Dental Clinic. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Shweta: Can I make a small …

Helen: Of course, I’ve got 50 seconds.

Dr. Shweta: Big shout-out to my team at Precision Dental who we love absolutely. I’ve got the best team in the world and I know they’re listening inside. This is for them.

Helen: There you go, go team. Thank you so much, really, really appreciate it.

End of program

Male voice: Healthy Habits

Female voice: On Afternoons with Helen Farmer

I’m a gum specialist by profession and I am here to talk about the Mouth Body connection.

So why should we talk about the mouth body connection? All of us here have experienced some kind of dental pain in our lives. Have you all ever gone to the dentist in pain? Yeah. Do we like going to the dentist? None of us including the dentist we don’t like going right but so why does this become important? So there are a lot of things that give you pain in your mouth and there are also a lot of things that are lurking without causing any pain and don’t show it Now CDC which is the center for disease control, came up with the latest statistics where it says that people in their 30s and 40s – 5 out of 10 people are suffering from gum disease or gum infections, which are a very silent form of infection. This is constantly brewing in our mouths and that number increase to 8 out of 10 by the time we reach our 60s.

Yeah now why is that important? Now why am I talking about it – like I said I am a gum specialist with over 15 years of experience and every single day I see people suffering from this disease and I have been in a position thankfully to help these people and make a positive impact in their life by changing their gum health, that by the way is my daughter.

So what are oral infections? Infections like any other infections, like any place