Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Free Your Mind, Let's Talk About It with LKJ. Today, as, um, the guest that we have on is Dr. Zahida João, who is a dentist and often does many guest speaking appearances on the importance of a smile. But today, when we think of that smile, we have to think on the day of this recording was done on the 25th of February when Russia decided to go to war against the people of Ukraine, who never thought it was going to happen, who continued right up until that strike to put a smile on their face. So for myself, my heart goes out to everybody in there, and I hope that we can bring peace and bring back the importance of the smile to those Many, many people. Already 29,000 of the refugees have found base in Poland this morning. But although they found out, there may be relief to go on there, there's still the loss of a smile. It takes more muscles, so in my research, in my research, to frown than it takes to smile. So on that, I'm going to introduce Dr. Zahida Joel. Zahida qualified from Sheffield in 1990, where she then took on a house officer's job for 1 year in oral surgery. After this, she completed her vocational training, gaining a firm foundation in general dentistry. Since then, she has worked in a general— apologies— general dentist practice and has continued with further postgraduate training in cosmetic dentistry, along with provision of snoring devices for patients with snoring problems. Zahid has a keen interest in facial regeneration, giving patients the perfect choice to enhance their own natural beauty with treatments using anti-wrinkle injection, dermal fillers, and non-surgical thread lifts. Her patience and her caring manner is especially suited to working with children and anxious patients. So on that, let me introduce Zahida. Good morning, Zahida, and thank you so much for coming on Women's Radio Station. To all the listeners that have fear of dentistry, do not understand the importance completely what lies behind dentistry with noticing cancer, oral hygiene, and going on that, but Just bring you into the audience and give an overview yourself of who you are, then we'll take each step into each subject. Hello. Hi, thank you very much for having me on, um, to speak about this subject, which is, um, yeah, like I say, I've been doing dentistry for, what, over 31 years now, and it's obviously something I know very well, and the smile particularly is something that I do talk about a lot, I do think that it's really important, the smile is important, it's got a lot to do with our well-being, and as you rightfully said, you know, what is going on out in the Ukraine, you know, I've been watching what's been going on as well, and you know, there is no smiles for those people out there, and it's awful, absolutely awful that their smiles have been taken away. By one person making that decision to do it. So like you said, my heart goes out to them, and I hope there will be some resolution sooner rather than later with that. So I'll pass the mic back to you, Lady Kendall. What would you like? Well, when we're talking on— to move on from that— when we say about the smile, a lot of people think of appearance, and when, you know, we're very much in a cosmetic world now than what we were 50 years ago. When we see people having Botox, etc., to enhance themselves, and there's no wrong or right answer. You know, some people, they say, when we talk about Katie Price, for instance, Katie's got her own issues with that and wanting to go on. And, you know, a lot of people say this is mental health that can affect somebody where they're going on constantly to do it. And there are signs in there. But my personal opinion is, is it wrong that you want to just, you know, deal with issues that are coming on your way? When, as you were saying, you do dermal fillers, you know, you do that, because sometimes that does change our way how we feel. We don't— none of us like to get older, but, you know, when we look at wonderful Joan Collins and how they look, it's— and how we preserve and want to see ourselves, other people think grow old gracefully, etc., on there. You know, and that is our personal journey and what we want to do. But as long as it keeps us happy and doesn't overtake our mental health to an extreme, then, you know, I don't have any problems in that. But we have to be careful on the line and how far we go. And whilst talking to you on that, it's like with dentistry, I'm going to go straight into Veneers, if I may, when we see, you know, these TV shows, well, a lot of it was created by that. When you see all these perfect teeth and then we start questioning ourselves on how does it look, that people actually have their teeth all filed down and all these sets of veneers put on when they're perfectly healthy teeth, just for that perfect smile. But is it not to look back into the mind I think let's deal with the mind issues first, what may be causing this, and then if you do feel that you want to go on that, do you feel that there should be therapy before somebody does that, is my question. I absolutely agree with what you're saying, to be honest, because this is what I've found. You know, we— a lot of people tend to follow others and think that that's going to bring them happiness without realizing actually the deeper meaning of that. Because we look at other people like influencers, obviously the celebrities who have their teeth done, and that's where it all goes back to, you know, wanting to feel like you're somebody else. But obviously, as we know, happiness comes internally. It doesn't come from looking like somebody else. We can all try and be somebody else, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to be happy. Trying to look like someone else. In fact, it's probably the opposite, actually. It's probably the complete opposite, that you're still not going to get happiness. And this is what we find, particularly in my profession in the dental field, when people do come asking for these treatments, you know, all the veneers, and they're wanting it super bright white. I mean, we've had patients who, you know, are not happy with the brightest whitest teeth, and they still want it whiter. And we've had to say to them, we can't get it any whiter. There is no whiter than white. And Honestly, it really does create some problems for us as well, because their expectations are so high. But they say, 'Well, this is what I've seen. I've seen somebody else with these teeth this white, so that's what I want.' So it's something that's very difficult for us to manage as well. And I manage it all the time, because I actually refuse to go down that line for people who I don't think it's warranted for, to be honest with you, because I I refuse to shave people's teeth down for the sake of them having bright white teeth, when I know there may be other treatments that they can have, such as having braces to correct the crowdedness of a tooth, having teeth whitening to make them look whiter and brighter, but just more naturally. I mean, I've got quite white teeth, and lots of people look at my teeth and think, "Oh, your teeth are quite white," but they're my own teeth. So it is possible, you know, it is possible to get quite nice white teeth without having to have veneers. And I do turn people away. I say to them, you can go down the road, there is somebody down there who will do it for you, but that may not necessarily be the right thing for you to do. And I, you know, I feel I do the right thing by my patients. And if I am turning clients away, I have to turn them away because I don't feel it's the right thing to do. So that is my take on it, to be honest with you. No, and I agree because we can bring in that movie Mask. And that's what you're doing. The adventure is putting a mask upon your face to say, this is me, you know, this is the person. He was cool, he was going out. And this smile with these amazingly white teeth that overtook the face. And this is what's happening. People have these teeth and they're not even looking at your eyes anymore. They're not seeing the beauty of the actual smile or your eyes or when your soul inside is full of happiness. To come through and express, and express the importance of smile, because the smile does say how you are feeling. When you get up in the morning, you know, and you go out and there's some old lady sitting at the bus stop, that you turn around and give them a smile. Yep. And say good morning. They don't care what the color of your teeth are. They're more grateful that you have that free kindness in your heart to offer that gesture. That again, you know, when we live in a world of positivity, you will gain, um, the smile more naturally. It will be there, um, so that you can express and you walk with a spring in your step. Because we have to look positively. If we feel these negative things, there are therapies et cetera, to go to and see why. Because we have to be happy in our life. We're not saying you'll be happy every day and you will smile every day, but if the days are less than they are, you know, carrying a smile, then we have to look at these things and then take recognition of ourselves and then look into the mirror. Yeah, look into the mirror and look at your reflection back. And just stand there by yourself. And even if you want to scream, whatever, you know, get it out so that you can go in there. And one of the things is that I myself, I'm absolutely petrified of the dentist, you know. I go— I've left it when I've gone so bad that they've had to pull my back tooth out or something. I'll go, 'No, I don't want to go.' And that was all. Due to me having a bad experience. I think I was about 23, went to a dentist and I didn't want to wear a brace. So he said, well, I'll tell you what, we can put you these crowns on. My husband said to me, what on earth are you doing? Why are you doing— your teeth are beautiful, they're white. Why are you letting them do it? I said, no, because I don't really want to go around with that in a world that I worked in. Um, everything was, you know, you didn't see people walking around with braces at that age. It was a quick fix. Again, that's why I said a quick fix. And I thanked the dentist at the time and went, great, that, that did me well. But I got an infection, so I had this raging stuff, and he went in and After that, I couldn't bear needles or anything, and I had a traumatic experience from that. But what happened then is, you know, I have these crowns, everything on that now, you know, crowns only last so long. And because I'm so frightened, I am going into hospital this month to be put to sleep to take the crowns off and redo them because I'm still petrified of the dentist. Yet my dentist But there is also another line because I suffer with epilepsy, narcolepsy, etc., you know, and with my diabetes, they have to take a little bit more care. And I've had 3 anaphylactic shocks, so I'm not the best patient to have in a dentist chair. So on that side, even though I am scared, they feel even for them, for my patient diagnosis and anything could go wrong, I'm better in a hospital if something happened. But I have gone, and this is when I said at first, you know, I can replace these crowns. Oh, I'll have to go to sleep, I'll have to be put to sleep, you know, before she actually realized the extent of my medical history. And she said, Kendall, you've come in, I've removed that tooth, did I hurt you? I said no. 'How was your after— did you do so?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'We eased you through, the nurses there,' and they offered these wonderful solutions, which was fine, and I even had a clean. So she said, 'You can do it, you just need to relax your mind, you know, you could go to the doctor, you can get half a tablet of diazepam to keep you calmer.' I went, 'Okay,' and then she went, 'No, I'm sorry, you're gonna have to go in because of your medical history.' And I was like, yes. Yeah, but after that, they rang me last week and said, Kendall, you haven't been in, you should have been in January and had that done. I said, unfortunately, I've got COVID, so I couldn't. So that's why I'm going in now to get it done and have these wonderful new teeth. Yeah, they're coming on because what's happened is they only last so long. Now, because I was frightened of the dentist, And for any listener out there, I neglected the oral hygiene of it so that they would have lasted longer. But you have to have, you know, your hygiene, you have to have that. But if you're frightened to go, it does put them— but obviously I am fortunate that I can go private, but I still think the NHS offer a very good scheme to people there. The reason of mine going private was because of my fear. In the end, I was getting pain and bleeding from the gums and knew I was at a serious point with oral hygiene. I then went and that's when they said, right, this is what you need to do. They did do the clean and everything for me and I bought whitening products. And the reason I bought whitening products, because she said, you know, I said I'd like to have them. I asked them about this white I wanted. Do not buy the products off the internet. You know, use your dentist. They look at all your oral hygiene. We look at everything, and it is not a sales gimmick. I must say that to the listener. This is not a sales gimmick by your dentist. They don't force you to have it. What you know is on there, clean, healthy, that's fine. It's personal choice to lift them. Now, because of, you know, working amongst the celebrities, etc. And seeing this, I think, oh, you know, now I'm going, I would like that. So I went and I paid and I had the gum shields made and they checked them all, they cleaned all, you know, the hygiene. And then I had these gum shields, I had to inject this little cream stuff in there and you put them on, walk around for an hour and they lift them naturally rather than, you know, going on to the veneer. They are still crooked at the bottom, but you know what? That's life, that's me, that's on there. I learnt my mistake by going with the brace on there. They're perfectly healthy teeth, leave them healthy, look after them, clean them, and if you so want to brighten them, but not using products on there. But it is mental health, isn't it? You know, it's that fear. My mental health, and probably a lot of listeners think it's more frightening to go to the dentist— absolutely— than give birth. You know, in actual fact, my actual feelings were when I had gave birth to my son was less painful than the fear of going to the dentist. So what techniques do you do? What techniques could you offer the listener, Saeeda, regarding if you have a fear and for them to come out and come and visit you? So yes, you bring up quite a few good points there, actually, in what you were saying. I mean, you, you are a fine example of somebody, like I said, you know, who maybe should have been offered other treatments before you were just given the crowns. And this is what I was saying, people aren't informed even now, you know, you saying you had it done many years ago, but even now people aren't informed about those problems that can occur. You know, they're given the solution, you can have a wonderful smile makeover, have all these veneers put on there, they'll be bright white, they look wonderful. What people don't get told is, as you've experienced yourself, is that there's a long-term effect to having something done, having your teeth cut down and then having something placed on them, because there's a long-term maintenance plan that you need as well. So as a nervous patient, as you were, you know, it's created a lot of problems for you because you don't want to go back to have them replaced. And funnily enough, actually this week I had a similar patient actually in the chair, exactly the same as you, who needed some— she'd got crowns, she needed it replacing, very, very nervous. And in fact, actually, we actually tried hypnotherapy for her to start with. So I said to her, I said, are you willing to try hypnotherapy rather than going down the sedation route? Because that's what she was asking for to start with. So I said, should we try hypnotherapy? Unfortunately for her, it didn't work, the hypnotherapy, but she was prepared to try it, which I, you know, I thought I gave her credit for that. I thought, good for you that you actually tried it. It helped her to get into lifts, which she was scared of. So it did achieve something. But not to have the dentistry done. So we did have to go down the sedation route. So we did that actually this week. She came in to have her crowns done and had sedation. Now, I, in my 31 years, actually, I mean, I can't remember early years, we did do quite a few sedations then, but we tend to talk people out of sedations now. We try not to go down that route if we can help it. So I just use reassurance, to be honest, when I get lots of people come and see me and they are in tears. They just won't, they don't even want to sit on the chair and they don't want me looking anywhere in their mouth. But for me it's just about, it's a trust thing. So it's just getting them to sit in the chair to start with, talking to them and just, you know, coercing them gently. And for the first appointment I would just gently just chat to them, not even looking them up, or just looking their mouth without using the instruments, not being too invasive. And then maybe get them back a second time when we will do the checkup. So then they will allow me to use, you know, my instruments and look into their mouth and take some x-rays and whatever we need to do. And then gradually we start off with the smaller— if they need fillings, we'd start off with the small ones to begin with so that they're in the chair for the least amount of time. So that's how we kind of build up the trust. So for me, it's about building up trust, reassuring the patients always that if they want to stop, they are in control. Because I think, I'm sure for you as well, part of it is feeling out of control. And I find that a lot of patients say, well, I can't say anything. Because you can't speak, you feel you're out of control. And I think it maybe in the past, you know, dentists didn't listen to their patients and just, you know, forced them to have the treatments done. I mean, obviously these are the stories I hear from patients all the time where they're kind of held down and forced to have treatment done. Especially when they were children, which obviously creates the fears then, and that's where the fear comes in. So for me, it's about giving them the time, really giving people time, reassuring them, and just, you know, showing my personality, really showing them that I'm not just a dentist, I'm a person as well, and I appreciate their fears. And I think once you start alleviating that and creating a trust between you yourself, the dentist, and the patient, I think that really helps. And I just— that's how a lot of my patients, that's how I've managed to, you know, convert them into smiley patients, actually. So I've got lots of patients that come in actually with a smile on their face. And, um, you know, I had a patient in this week, another one, different one, who very, very nervous. And I've just handed my notice in at work, and she, she'd been told that, and she was so upset. She was like, I'm so upset because I've just got I've got trust with you and I really like seeing you. So, you know, this is the relationship you create when, particularly when you have nervous patients. And I think once they have trust with one person and know that, you know, that person isn't going to do anything that they don't want done, then that relationship gets stronger and stronger. And obviously, you know, when you then leave or say you're leaving, it's obviously always a difficult situation because, yes, patients do get a little bit upset when you tell them you're leaving. Yes, because what you find is you become— when you do gain the trust, you find that they open up to you, and they may be having marital problems, they've had deaths, they may be suffering, and this is all holding. All of a sudden you've got them down and they just go, 'Brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr.' I think you're there to do it, but you had the time to do that, and because you've had that and you've listened to them, it's where trust comes in, because they do open up. When you're in the chair, because when you're frightened, some people with their anxiety come out and it's a maximum there to bring it down. And like we're saying, you do tend to keep to your dentist, you know who they are. So when they move on, it's an attachment, absolutely, form of attachment, and you become very important to that person in that attachment because you are taking care of them. Because when you are going for the checkup when you're in the chair, they check to see your jaws. It's not just your teeth, you think, oh no, they're checking your gums, to check your tongue, anything for cancer. You can tell by somebody, can't you, whether— if somebody says, no, I don't smoke, you know if they're still smoking or not, don't you? Yes, we do. They go, no, I don't smoke. You try that. And also their gums as well, we can tell by the condition of their gums usually as well, because you are more likely to get gum disease if you are a smoker, particularly if you're a heavy smoker and have smoked for years, you're more likely to suffer from gum disease than somebody who doesn't smoke. So obviously there are those things that we can pick up on as well. And like we were saying, why, you know, dentistry is important for your smile is because when you're going and you have got that person come for your check-in, You've got a record. You can see, like the doctor has a record of you when you're going different things. Actually, you know, for a dentist, you can see clearly if there's any changes to this around the skin, the mags, looking inside oral gums, you know. Is it peritonitis? Yes, yes. They're such long words, you know. I apologize to the listeners because sometimes my words get mixed up. Words. Why do they make dentists and doctors have all these huge long words? Yeah, because it always gets me, because when you're a journalist or someone on the radio thing and you have to say it like 4 or 5 times before you go on air to do that. But when you smoke, for instance, like you're saying, it does affect long-term gum disease. And again, it's not an attack on a smoker, it's This is what will happen over time. Your gums will recede, they become inflamed, you get them. And if you're not having the cleaning, everything like that, you then you've got, you know, you need to— with the gums, you've also got to think of bone wastage, haven't you? There's lots of things that people do not understand through that smile. What you've got to take care of that— you take care of your feet because you've got to stand on them. Why don't we take the care with our smile, which is so important to be happy and excel our happiness from there. I mean, what are one of the things, may I ask, because there are lots of questions that the viewers probably don't ask you as a dentist when you're doing this checkup, when you're going, you're looking, what would you know when you see these signs of changing to the tongue? They say that if you've got a lot of— some people carry a lot of white stuff on their tongue. This, they say, goes down to a bad stomach or something, you know. I mean, there's lots of things out there when you're looking at dentistry, but there are signs. And people say, what should these signs, changes like that. But if you feel yourself and you are a smoker and things are going like that, the tongue— there's all these tongue scrapers they're telling people to use now. Yeah, I mean, there are, there are the tongue scrapers. I mean, they're not really necessary, to be perfectly honest with you. If you are— I mean, you can just use your toothbrush brush, and it's going to do the job that a tongue scraper will do, to be honest. And that's what we normally suggest if you want to give your tongue a clean. And the tongue is naturally cleansing all the time. The little papillae are always self-cleansing, unless obviously you are a heavy smoker and you do tend to find you get a little yellowy appearance or whitey appearance on the tongue. But like I say, if you just wanted to clean your tongue with your toothbrush after you've finished brushing your teeth, that's absolutely fine. It's not, you know, I don't think you necessarily have to go out and specifically buy a tongue scraper because that would do the job for you. So yeah, but I mean, it is important because when we do our checkups, we look at the— we don't go straight into the mouth to have a look at the teeth. I always say to people, you know, close your mouth, I'm going to look on the outside first. So we have a feel outside, starting at the neck. So you feel around the neck, under the jaw, you feel at the jawline, you feel the lips. So that, you know, there's more to a dental checkup than just looking at the teeth. And then the other thing is, when you go— when you talk about periodontitis, you know, people— what a lot of people don't appreciate is that the gum health is just as important as the health of the teeth. That is crucial as well, because if your gum health isn't healthy, then that affects the bone that supports your teeth. Now I always relate it to having concrete foundation around a post. When you have a concrete foundation around a post, if that concrete foundation starts breaking for any reason, then that post is going to get loose and it's going to loosen up and eventually come out. And this is exactly what happens with teeth. The gums support the teeth But underneath the gums you have the bone where the teeth are set into. If the gums aren't good, then the bacteria starts disintegrating the bone around the teeth, and that's when you start getting loose teeth. So if you're not looking after the gum health, then that will affect the bone that supports the teeth, and that's hence why we get loose teeth. And then teeth can, you know, you can lose teeth. The teeth sometimes, the teeth themselves are healthy but we have to take them out because the gums and the bone around them isn't healthy. So it is crucial for people to know, for your listeners to realize, going to see a hygienist and having your teeth cleaned and having scale and polishes is just as important as having the teeth checked and having, say, you know, regular X-rays to check that there isn't anything going on underneath any fillings or crowns that you've got. So both go hand in hand, and I think that's what a lot of the public don't actually appreciate or realize, because when I talk to patients like this and tell them and explain it to them, they're always quite surprised. They're like, wow, I didn't realize it was so important. Yes, it is. It's 50/50, you know, it's just as important to look after the gums and the gum health, periodontal disease, as well as making sure you don't get decay in your teeth. They both go hand in hand and they're just as important. What about if you're a diabetic? Does that affect the teeth? And gums? It affects the gums, yes, it does, because the gum health can be affected by diabetes. So you can get some illnesses and conditions that can affect the health of the gum. I mean, pregnancy actually is a classic example. Pregnancy and the hormonal changes in pregnant women can affect the gums, and you can get— the gums can get and start bleeding as a result of just the pregnancy hormones. So that hence why, that is one of the reasons why on the NHS pregnant women get free treatment while they're pregnant. I was just going to ask you that, is that the reason? Because as soon as you're pregnant, they say your dentistry is free, so you're usually encouraged to get everything done whilst you're pregnant. Absolutely, and you can get it for the first year after the baby's born as well. So you get free treatment up to the age of the baby being 1. So from the moment you fall pregnant to the moment the baby's born, you can get free treatment on the NHS, that is. And like I said, that is purely because we know that getting pregnant does impact your teeth and your gums. So that is the reason why it's always been there, that you can get free treatment. And what if you're a cancer patient? You know, obviously when you're looking at— you can see if there's cancer of the stroke the mouth, can't you? Generally, you would know that, and then you would— would you write to the doctor if you saw someone's hygiene and felt there was a risk of this, or would the patient have to go themselves? And thirdly, would they get free treatment if they have been diagnosed? Firstly, if we're suspicious at all with anything in the mouth, which, you know, we get this all the time, in any lesions or anything you see then we refer them to the hospital. So we refer them directly, we'd refer them to one of the main dental hospitals where you have an oral medicine team who will look at the cancers of the mouth. So there's, that's where we would refer directly to. And again, like any cancers, there's like a 2-week sort of urgency kind of waiting list, so you should get seen within 2 weeks if the referral clinician thinks it is a suspicious lesion and wants to have seen straight away. Yeah, so that is a— there is— we do it directly, we don't go through the GPs because obviously we don't want to put any time hindrance in place, so we need to get it directly done to where we want that patient to go to. Yeah, so that's what we would do. Wonderful. I think we've covered quite a lot on that area, on denture and people going with their fillings, what to do. So Just one more question, which I think the listeners would probably be interested in, is, is there any difference in your treatment if you was to go NHS, or would you be treated differently if you went private? Is there a different level of care? Or if you— if I was saying I was coming in, I'm NHS, and say, right, you've got a 10-minute appointment with the dentist, if you came private, would you have different things done privately, or is it because— and secondly, the question is, is that because the NHS only have a certain amount of funding that they give per NHS patient? For instance, just to stretch that a little bit further, when you go as an NHS patient— I've had a message from a lady Saying that she goes in and basically do a quick checkup and she's out there. Yeah, her husband, because he couldn't get on an NHS practice, goes private. He goes in and he's in there for like 20 minutes. They check his jaw, they check everything. Yeah, again, yes, that is purely down to funds really. It's down to the fact that the NHS only pays a certain amount towards a patient's fee, and when you see a checkup, so obviously it is time restricted. I worked on the NHS, in the NHS practice for 25 years, and I actually got very frustrated with all the guidelines and the regulations, and there's the payment scheme for patients and as the dentist, and I personally, this scheme that we, the payment scheme at the moment I personally, and this is my personal opinion, I don't think it suits either the dentist or the patient. This scheme has been around for, oh gosh, going back probably now about 2006, 2005, I think it started, this particular one that's on at the moment, and I really don't think it's fit for purpose. I don't think it ever was. To be honest. And that was one of my reasons for leaving the NHS, actually, 6 years ago. I left the NHS because I got frustrated, actually, because yes, I'm the kind of dentist who would spend time on my patients despite them being NHS. I would try and give them the same amount of time, probably not quite as much as a private patient would get, but sort of, you know, I would give them time. But the NHS doesn't pay for that, unfortunately. You know, so there is that monetary kind of thing. If you're running a business, you have to get the throughput of patients through because it— I mean, I, I've never owned my own practice, um, so I never had to take the business side of the running the practice and the finances into consideration. So for me, it was probably easier to be able to spend a little bit longer. That was just my salary was going to be less than what the person next to me would be if they're seeing more patients. And I accepted that because I wanted to spend that time with my patients. I want to give my patients that time. But in the end, I got really frustrated with the whole system and I had to leave. I just couldn't do it any longer because it was just stressing me out too much. And, you know, as much as the public may think that, you know, dentists are overpaid, um, are not on the NHS, you, you can make it pay or you're not really. And I'm— I count myself as a very ethical dentist. And I give my patients the time of day, even when I was doing the NHS dentistry. So, you know, that is, that's just the way I work, and that's me, and that's how I wanted to work. But not everybody does work like that. But that is the main reason why, you know, one NHS patient will get less time than the private one. And obviously on the NHS there are some restrictions as to what you'll get as well. For instance, like crowns, If you're having a crown done on your back tooth on the NHS, you will only get offered a metal crown, whereas obviously if you're paying privately, you'll get a porcelain crown or something that looks like a tooth rather than a bit of metal. So there are differences, although theoretically we're not actually allowed to say that. Ah, which? Theoretically, no, but sometimes we have to be honest. Absolutely. I'm all about— yourself, you say, after 25 5 years of service. Yeah, you gave that full thing to support the team and came to a point where I can't do this as much, even by giving that bit of time. This is wrong. This isn't the dentistry that you wanted to give. And when we were going back to 2006, I think using that Precision— is that the one where you can buy this pre-packaged where you can have your fillings done, this done, that done? No, there's 3 bands. It's called— it's banded into 3 different bands, so If you're in the first— the first band is just where you get a checkup basically, and X-rays. The second band is where you get fillings. So what you pay is— the bands are set, the payment is set. So in the second band, it's however many fillings. So you can have one filling and you'll pay the same amount if you have 5 fillings. I mean, to me, that doesn't make sense at all. One, from a dental dentist's point of view, I might do 5 fillings and get paid the same, or I could do 1 filling and get paid the same. So what do you think a dentist is going to think about doing? They're going to do 1 filling, bring you on separate times, say, oh, you need a filling this time, oh, you need a filling. Exactly. So that's what I mean, it doesn't serve anybody really. This, it's not fit for purpose. It's been going since 2005. I can't see it changing just yet, but it's not, that's not fair for anyone. It's not fair on the patient. And it's not fair on the dentist either. Because if you've looked on, then you've wrote on your card where you start with your molars and you're counting on, you do the check and you've got your dental nurse there going through, oh, she needs 5 fillings. Well, my list is so long. I'm going to do a filling today, but then they can bring you back on another day. Right, next. Oh gosh, you need to do another one where they need them all doing. And if they're not really as desperate as the other, but they do need doing. Where at the same time, if we can get the mindset, and even if people start doing— and this is something I was wondering, I have met you personally. So for everybody, um, that is listening, I do know Aziza, she's a person, I know her personally because we're in the same wonderful club called Global Women's Club, and she's been guest speaking on there. And talking honestly and openly on public audiences and friends that we go and for other guests speaking is important as a smile and with mental health, etc. That one of the things that I have been asked, um, with when we look at people's buyers who work within yourself, what you offer, like you're saying with your concern persona to the patients is, have you thought, Sahida, about doing therapy, a therapeutic like hour, you know, that can be recorded that perhaps we could play on women's radio show, um, so that people have the understanding what that is. And perhaps you offering meditation stuff as a dentist for people who are frightened that they could play at home before they got in the chair? Because I think if I could listen to that before I even got into the journey, even if I was sitting in the waiting room, with your voice, your persona, you could really help a lot of people. Yeah, I mean, that's very true, actually. I mean, I haven't thought about it, no, is the answer to that one. But I agree, whether there is anything out there like that, I'm not sure, actually. I've never really looked into it. No one's ever mentioned listening to anything like that or come in saying— I do get patients who come in with their AirPods and say, can I listen to my own music? So obviously, you know, we do have options for people. You know, we're very open to suggestion as well. But I think that's a very valid point that you make, actually. That would be a very good idea, actually. And probably a lot of people would use it as well. It's like I said to my patients, sending them for hypnotherapy. So yeah, if we could get into somebody's brain like that while we're doing the treatment, that probably would be very beneficial, actually. You're right, absolutely right. No, but I'm on about you personally. Me personally? Yes, personally. I'm asking you personally, have you— would you do— because I believe in— for the listeners that are listening to it, and there are lots and lots of listeners that you know that listen to this show, for instance, that, you know, that could use that voice, because you are saying it with hypnotizing, but with you, with the calmness that you're going in and just put that on, you know, welcome to, you know, we're going to get on, you would say, please play this 5 minutes before you leave the house, right, this is breathing technique, and then you would click on it and then say, right, when I get into the surgery, just listen to this, it'd be like, hi, as you know, I am a dentist, we're going to just help you breathe down in here, which you would normally have had, that you could put this onto a platform, because I'm telling you, you know, with your voice and what you know in your knowledge, that people would listen to that. So when they actually come through that door, even if they are NHS or private, they sit in that chair, and because you've coaxed them, you've eased them, you've brought their breathing, their anxiety down, so when they get in, they're not firing up at the dentist. That's something I think you could produce. Yeah, a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, it is a product. That you could bring to so many people, and they will walk in. And one of your ethos is about the smile. That's what your, your true trump card is. You like people to smile, you want that. But you would have them already on that platform to go in and ease them. And I think it is a project that's not very difficult to produce, and that it can be going out there and people can download it. You know, there's people out there to do it, so to look at, because you do do other stuff, and we're going to move on to that now, which we've talked about veneers and the dental whitening. Now you do offer, but there's going to be a little bit of confusion here because you have said you're leaving your current place where you're working. Can you tell the listeners where you will be if they needed to come privately or or where to find you. Is that possible? Um, well, at the moment what I'm doing is I'm setting up my own business and selling teeth whitening products, bizarrely. Um, the reason this has come about is from seeing what's out there. Again, this comes down to my sort of wanting to serve the public, uh, in an authentic way and the way the public I feel should be served. Obviously, over the last 5 to 10 years, there's been lots more teeth whitening companies coming up online, lots of products being sold out there. And I see what's being sold out there, and I see how the public are misinformed, actually. And then a lot of it comes down to influencer marketing, actually. Influencers market these things, they sponsor these products, So the public think, you know, that influencer is using it, then that's great. What they don't realize half the time is, we talked about veneers, sometimes some of the people that they use actually got veneers on their teeth. So there's no way their products are going to lighten that person's tooth. So when they are actually advocating their product and promoting a product, yet they can't actually use it on their own teeth. And to me, that discredits the product completely, and it's false advertising as far as I'm concerned. I mean, how can you— how can somebody advertise your product when they can't actually use it themselves? And their teeth aren't bright white because of the product, that's because they've got veneers on. So this is the reason why I decided to produce my own product line. And what I do is I use dental-grade products, um, so it is products that I know work because obviously like I said before, I've been doing this for 31 years. We've been using these products for the last 31 years, ever since I qualified, and we continue to do so. So that's what I decided to do. And what we want to do on our platform is to educate the public as well. So we want it to be an informative, educative platform where we can educate people about dental care, about oral care. Like you were saying, that, you know, it's more about oral cancers, you know, It's more about educating people on diets as well. So lots of things, and also, you know, confidence about smile, mental well-being, because I'm very passionate about mental well-being, particularly in young people. I support Young Minds and do fundraising for Young Minds, and part of my business, my new tooth whitening business, some of the proceeds from the profits that we generate go towards Young Minds charity. Because I am so passionate about supporting young people with mental well-being. And obviously confidence and the smile is so important. It all sort of ties in for me, actually. All is one, actually. So that's, that's what I'm doing with my time, and hence why actually I have given my job up to actually focus on this business. And what I want to do is I want to become a known authority in the field as well. So I'm going to get myself out speaking more about it and on the public domain, talking about actually, you know, the rights and wrongs of dentistry. Yeah, that's what I want to do because that's my passion, is I want to be— and I always have been— an ethical dentist. You know, I've always done the right thing by my patients. And when I see things that aren't quite being sold the way that I think they should be, for the benefit of the patients and for the benefit of the public, then I feel that somebody has to speak up, really. And I do feel that somebody in the profession needs to speak up about this, and I'm willing to put my neck on the line and start speaking up about things that, you know, aren't right. And that's wonderful for you to do that, because again, it's that trust element. And it's not— when you see all these teeth whitening things, as I said, we'd always go to dentist, and you know, I've got my own stuff from the dentist. Now, may I ask, if you're like myself, I do have the gum shields, etc., that my dentist did, can I buy the products off of you and put in that shield? We don't sell the products separately, we just, we sell the kits because, well, because they are dental grade, what we have to get people to do is do like a dental screening and It's a virtual screening, so it's just, they just have to upload 6 selfies of their teeth so that I could screen the teeth. So this is how we're trying to still keep it dental related. Like you said, you should go to a dentist, and this is our way of still doing it in a professional way. So even though it is online, we still want to do that screening. We ask our customers to do those screenings so we can just make sure that we get a vague screening of their teeth and that they are suitable for use, using the dental grade products. So then you would then send— how would they get their mould done? Well, then they get a kit sent out to them where they create this mould, they get putty sent out, they get instructions to do it, send it back to us, we get the trays made for them and then send them back to them. So it's all done, yeah. So then once you've got that kit, because when I got my kit from my dentist, we had a big wallet thing and it has like 5 injection tubes that you can inject. They're the bits that you use and go in your gum shields when you place them in. So is that a similar thing that you do? Because obviously you are looking actually into that person's mouth, so you'll be able to pick up immediately. And with you being such an ethical person, will say, I think you need to go to the dentist and have this checked because of your ethical side, rather. And you would do that more than the whitening product. So you are actually getting a checkup with a professional in a personal, private manner, actually. Yeah, yes. I mean, I will clarify that it's, it's not an actual dental checkup, so I do clarify that it is on your screening. So I don't want people to think that they can just come and have their checkups done this way, because that is not the case at all. This is a screening, a pure screening, so we can establish whether that person needs to get a checkup face to face before they can use these teeth whitening products. So it's purely for that. I don't want people thinking they can have this screening done and that's justified their 6-month checkup at all, because obviously, as we spoke about earlier, there's a lot more to a dental checkup than just looking at the teeth. Excellent. Thank you very much, Zahida, for doing that. So regarding these platforms, and you know, to go on and building that up, I will put you through to Mark Stephen Poulet. He's on LinkedIn, actually, Zahida. If you send him a private message and tell him Lady Jo put you on there, because he does Brilliance TV and you get 45 minutes, and it'd be wonderful to see, because this fantastic interview that we've had today, and I'm sure every listener has, you know, seen a different side to dentistry. I think we've touched bases on many aspects as well as, you know, your new product and what you're going to be doing. But I do tend to send people over to Mark where you go on TV and have a worldwide platform there where you've interviewed, but you can actually see the product, you can show. So people on women's radio station tend to know that, um, and I don't get any kickback, there's no monetary thing in there, it is purely ethical side. I believe in this, but sometimes, you know, when you're doing this, we're blind to it, we're going by the voice and our ear is listening. But sometimes we need the sight to see, to see the results and what happens in there, and to build that face-to-face one-on-one. So if you go on to Mark Stephen Phillips, tell him Lady Kendall-Jagger asked me to connect with you about this. She's done her show, and it'd be wonderful then to link that in going forward so that people can see what you're doing. And, you know, with the dentistry and stuff that's on there, um, thank you, because, um, yeah, she's great. Yeah, I want to do— actually, I want to, you know, get the word out there because I want, I want to demystify dentistry. And I want— and also, you know, also educate, like I said, people about the rights and wrongs of what they, what they're buying online as well. I think people need to be made aware of what they're buying online, actually. And you know, obviously we— the time goes so quickly when we're chatting on these interviews, but there's so much still we've got to cover. But I'll have to do them as an overview now. As you do, Facial Renovation— I've probably said that wrong— but the perfect choice to enhance their own natural beauty with treatments using anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers, and non-surgical threads. Can you just give us a quick overview on why do you do that and what, what, you know, um, well, it's basically, it's, um, rejuvenating somebody's face. It's Botox and fillers. And again, like I said with my dentist, you know, I mean, I get lots of clients and I, what I always say to them is I want to make you look naturally youthful. So I'm not into making people look what they don't, shouldn't look like. And I know with this, in this field, there are a lot of people that don't look normal anymore because the dermal fill and the Botox and everything, but it's overdone in my opinion. Again, that's my opinion. Um, so I try and do it in a natural way. So I want to make people look youthful but trying to keep it as natural as possible so they can maintain their youth but in a natural way. And I think that's the way I like to look myself. You know, and I have it done myself, but that's how I want to look. I want to look— continue looking youthful but not abnormal. And unfortunately, I see too many people starting to look abnormal, not, you know, yeah, in their faces and the facial features. And that's what I do, and I love doing it. I love it. It's part of the creativeness, creative side of me actually that loves doing that as well. When you see this, the change, but it just Enhances. Yes, absolutely. Yes, enhancement rather than when you come in, you think, my God, they can't raise an eyebrow, they can't frown, they can't smile. When they smile, it's like so transfixed. Where you can have that maybe 1 mil on the side of your eyes, you know, probably 2 mil, you know, on the forehead that will just lift if you've got a scar or something that sometimes prevention is better than the cure. So when you look at the genes that you are, you will know from your grandmother, your mother, and you will know at the age of, you know, that we are in young— how your genes lie, where you're more to your mother, more to your father. So you will see how you will age. You know, it's quite known. My grandmother, she had hardly any wrinkles. My mother, when she died, you know, she She has amazing skin, and obviously I'm 54, and you know, I'm not bigging up that people sort of think, wow, I didn't think that age, because it's not so much the cream that I've used. A lot of it's based on my genes and how wrinkly I'm going to get. But at the same time, I don't want to go like that. That's my personal opinion, like yourself. I want to still look naturally, you know, a natural and obviously I would, I would go that way, you know, if I had to, if I thought it was coming. Because rather than— if you— sometimes they say, when I was researching this area that you were doing, is that people that are heavily wrinkled tend to want to go and really pull them out, which is going to look fake, don't it? Because they The face has gone so deep with it. Yeah, if you start off when you're— not saying you've got to be 20 or something. I mean, my niece, bless her, she's 26, she's having photos. I was absolutely shocked. She said, "Auntie," she said, "it's prevention than the cure." And I went, "You're 26 years of age, don't tell me about that." You know, I said, "You've landed on our side, you've got good genes." But when you are somebody, you know, probably, you know, Is there a right age or wrong age? I don't know, it's a debate that we've got. Say somebody in your 55s, just starting, you know, where you smile, you've got a few of the crow lines or something, that you could have a couple just to lift it. Nobody would actually notice. That's right, yeah, they don't notice it. Oh my God, you've had Botox! But you just look brighter in your face, don't you? Right, exactly. I think they say, oh, you look very healthy. And that's what people tend to say, that, you know, they don't quite, don't quite realize what you've had done. I think that's probably the better way to do it, actually, just do it gradually as well. And that's why I always suggest do it gradually, do a little bit at a time where people don't notice that dramatic change. Not that you— we want you to have a dramatic change, we just want you to look more youthful. So what is a dermal filler? A dermal filler is— that is the fillers, basically. So if you wanted bigger cheeks Dermal filler is a filler, it's hyaluronic acid. So we have different consistencies for different areas of the face, for whatever we want and we need them for. So that if somebody's got a really thin face, you know, the cheeks are like in, then you would put that in just to plump them up to make them look as if they've got a fuller face? Yes, exactly. And like, you know, there's a lot at the moment, jawline, sort of, there's lots of young girls having their jawlines contoured and Oh yes, I've heard about that. Well, they're injecting up underneath the chin to get that jawline right. Yes, yeah, yeah. So yeah, there's lots of areas in the face where you can do it. You can do it with thinner fillers to just, um, hydrate the skin. So we can have like Skin Boosters, so you can just put little small amounts in of a thinner solution and that just hydrates the skin. So there's lots of different types of dermal filler for different reasons. And the anti-wrinkle injections, is that Botox? Yes, that is, yeah. That's a posh way of saying Botox. No, but we're not allowed to, that's why. You're not allowed to advertise it as Botox. You can say anti-wrinkle injections, but you're not allowed to online put Botox. And if somebody is advertising saying, you can get, you know, I'm not on Facebook, because all these Instagrams, all that, I'm not allowed. But I do hear from people, you know, in the field working, oh, some scammers have Botox. So look, look, if I cheat, you can go and have it done. They do Botox. I'm thinking, as you said, you're not allowed by law to say that. Then I wouldn't go to them if they did that then, because they're obviously not doing the correct speech that goes with that. Well, I mean, to be honest, we all kind of use it, but we're not supposed to. But they were supposed to be really cracking down on it actually over the last year or so. They were going to bring in stricter regulations so it wasn't used, but because of what's gone on with COVID it's kind of been pushed aside for a little bit. Yeah. Well, we are coming to the end shortly, so we've got basically a minute for you Can you tell us the website for people that want to get in touch regarding your, you know, your private stuff you're doing regarding the teeth whitening, Smiles, and you know where they can come and make appointments if they want to have this natural, uplifting, wonderful smile with any treatments that go with that? Is that possible? Yes, and go on to my teeth whitening product website, which is www.zsmile.co.uk, and they can find me on Instagram @zsmilelondon. So that's where they'll find me on Instagram as well, where they can— I'm happy to take messages on there as well. Oh, that's wonderful. And obviously you are a member of of Global Women, which is Global Women, um, club in London, which is a member of as well, with a wonderful Marola and all our ladies. You know, give a big shout out to Global Women, um, and who, you know, all join together and our hands unite to support. Absolutely. And yeah, and supporting the rights of women. And on that, thank you, Saeeda, for coming on not only as a global woman but as a Zida Joelle, the dentist with true authenticity behind it. And thank you everybody for joining us on this week's edition of Free Your Mind, Let's Talk About It with LK Jane. Goodbye.