Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. #56 Pioneering Dental and Aesthetic Excellence with Dr. Amos
What does it take to merge aesthetics with dentistry while building a business and raising a family? Join us as we sit down with Dr. Melissa Amos, the inspiring founder of Dogwood Dental Spa in Waxhaw. Dr. Amos takes us on her journey from New Jersey to South Charlotte, sharing how her grandfather's dental practice sparked her passion for dentistry at just 12 years old. In an engaging conversation, she opens up about the excitement and challenges of relocating to North Carolina in 2020, searching for the ideal community, and establishing a practice that uniquely combines dental care with aesthetic services like Botox and fillers.
Discover the unfiltered reality of entrepreneurship and family life as Dr. Amos discusses the emotional highs and lows of starting a business from scratch. With three young boys and both she and her husband managing their respective ventures, Dr. Amos gives us a peek into the balancing act of professional aspirations and family responsibilities. Stay tuned for the buzz around the upcoming launch of their new med spa in November, and find out how you can connect with Dr. Amos both online and in-person. It's a story of resilience, community, and the dreams of a family hoping to bring loved ones closer to their newfound Southern home.
Dogwood Dental Spa
Dr. Melissa Amos
3808 Providence Road South Suite 103
Waxhaw, NC, United States, 28173
(704) 256-7027
info@dogwooddentalspa.com
dogwooddentalspa.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast here in the South Charlotte area and so excited to introduce and speak to Dr Melissa Amos today. She is the founder and owner of Dogwood Dental Spa in Waxhaw. Good morning Melissa. How are you?
Speaker 3:Hi Regina, Good morning. I'm great. I'm so excited for this. I've never done a podcast before, so I'm also a little nervous, but I think this is going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It is a lot of fun and I love just getting to know people. So I'm in Waxhaw, marvin, all the time for to see clients that are in my publication and to meet people, and I came upon your beautiful, beautiful building, and so first I got to know how you got to Waxhaw and how you got into the dental business.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I am originally from New Jersey, which I feel like a lot of people now in this area are. Although when my husband and I decided to move we were kind of trying to get away from that, it seemed to have followed us. So we've been here since 2020, but even before then, my grandfather was a dentist, so I grew up in his office. I started working there when I was 12 years old. Child labor laws we just were going to ignore those, but so I pretty much I started there and I was kind of thrown into it really quickly.
Speaker 3:When one of his assistants didn't show up, my mom, who was the office manager, was like well, you're assisting today. So they threw me in and I was totally overwhelmed and freaked out but then realized pretty quickly I think I knew by 13 that, like this is what I was going to do. This was how I wanted to spend my life helping people in the dental industry. That is amazing. Was this up in New Jersey? This was up in New Jersey, so our family is still up there. We moved down here in 2020. My husband and I, we just decided to take a leap of faith and see where it took us, and we ended up here, and since then we've had three wonderful little boys that keep us very busy.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, three boys, Holy cow and establishing a dental practice. So how did you select the Waxhaw area to live and do this?
Speaker 3:Okay, so this is actually a funny story. So when we were living up in New Jersey we used to vacation in the Outer Banks all the time and we absolutely loved it to the point where, before real estate everything blew up. We were like, oh, maybe at some point we'll buy land and we'll build a house and do the whole beach rental and then we will live somewhere closer so that we can utilize that house. So at the time we decided we knew we wanted a warmer climate. Coming from New Jersey, the winters aren't terrible, but you know they're not great. So we knew we wanted a warmer climate.
Speaker 3:We had planned to be very close to the Outer Banks and we started looking and we went to Raleigh initially and there was nothing wrong with Raleigh, but we just we didn't get that feeling. You know, when you get that feeling you're like we're like, yeah, we don't think we actually belong here. So I went back to the drawing board. Then we looked into the Chesapeake Virginia area and we liked it, but again we were just like I don't know if this is the area for us either. So we pretty much at that point said, okay, we're going to do one more weekend trip, we're going to go to Charlotte If we don't like it. Maybe we're just meant to stay in New Jersey. Maybe this is not for us. We need to rethink. Maybe we don't. Maybe we have a travel bug. We need to go to like Europe for a week or something, I don't know, it's not a moving bug, so anyway.
Speaker 3:So we ended up coming here to Charlotte and we just loved it. We fell in love with it. It reminded us of kind of the nicer areas of New Jersey, with more of that greenery and a little bit more space as far as your property and just not being on top of everybody, because that's very common in New Jersey. And everyone that we met when we were here, they were just so wonderful and we were like okay, this is why we didn't like the other two places, because we were meant to end up here in the Charlotte area. So we actually live in the Weddington Wesley Chapel area and then my office is in Waxhaw, which is such a cute little town too.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's amazing. And the building, what is that little area called where those businesses are with?
Speaker 3:you I think we're part of, like the Carrington, curiton area.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, you're right off of Providence Road. Well, let's talk now about what you guys do, because it's a little unusual. I see that you do dental services and aesthetics, so how did you decide to combine both?
Speaker 3:Yes, so when? So again, going back to my previous dental history, so my grandfather did end up retiring prior to me going to dental school. Sorry about that, sorry. So I'm taking this at the office and the phone is going to apparently keep ringing because I cannot seem to turn that ringer off, sorry everybody. So my grandfather retired before I went to dental school and then he hired a dentist who, well, not really hired him. He sold the practice to him and I worked for that dentist as well before I went to dental school, when I would come home on holidays from dental school. And he ended up going and taking a Botox and filler course. And he came back and he was like, hey, I'm going to practice on everybody, so we're all going to meet here on, you know, this Sunday morning and I'm going to do Botox and fillers on everyone to practice. And we were all like great, fantastic.
Speaker 3:We're not going to say no to that Right.
Speaker 2:Nobody ever does.
Speaker 3:So he kind of got into it. But he had a little bit of a different mindset where his plan was to bring those patients in and convert them to dental patients. Then, when I graduated dental school, I started working for him in my grandfather's office and I would see some of the patients here and there that would come in and he would treat them and I was very intrigued by it. So I was like you know what? I'm going to go take a course that would come in and he would treat them and I was very intrigued by it. So I was like you know what? I'm gonna go take a course. I took a totally separate course than what he had taken because I figured we would have then two perspectives of two different courses, and I fell in love with it. I became, in a word, obsessed. I was like this is amazing. It ties in beautifully with dentistry. I mean, as a dentist, we are head and neck experts. We give injections all day, every day. So there's really not many more people that are very comfortable with giving injections. You know it was definitely different going from the inside of the mouth to the outside of the face. You know, it was definitely different going from the inside of the mouth to the outside of the face. But thankfully that that came very naturally. So I started taking all of these courses. I ended up taking all the master level courses. I then loved it so much that I became an instructor with this company. So I've been teaching these courses as well around the country, for the company is called the American Academy of Facial Aesthetics. So I've been a trainer with them for almost five years. It's coming up on just about five years.
Speaker 3:So when we moved here to North Carolina and I knew I was going to open my own practice, I figured I couldn't really purchase an existing practice because that was going to be tough to grow this vision that I had for my practice. So that's why we we did a startup. I I built, you know, the whole. I didn't build outside of the building, but the whole inside of the building. It was dirt on the floors when we decided to lease it. So we put everything together. Yeah, it was, it was a lot, it was a labor of love journey here, but yeah. So that's how I kind of got into the aesthetics field. And then again, like I said, it just really marries really well with dentistry. Dentists are trained in dental school to be very particular when it comes to symmetry with the smile and the face and the lips and the eyes when we're doing, you know, veneer cases or crown cases, so it was kind of a no brainer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does marry well. I guess the artistry of it as well, because I'm looking at all the things you do crowns and yeah, I mean I can just see how that would go very, very well.
Speaker 3:Now you mentioned to me, tell me the vision of your practice well, now you mentioned to me, tell me the vision of your practice. Yes, so we, when we opened two and a half years ago, we opened as a dental med spa. Right, we just had everything kind of combined. I have been taking on everything myself with, you know, a couple amazing team members that we have, but I do have some exciting news. So, as of recently, we are actually not physically splitting the businesses. They will be under the same roof, but we are.
Speaker 3:I have created what we are referring to as our actual aesthetics and wellness center. It's going to be called Dogwood Face and Body, so we are keeping it in the Dogwood family and we have hired experts in their field. We have a nurse injector who is coming on board. We have a medical esthetician who's coming on board. So not only are we going to be able to offer the amazing services that we have been offering to our patients, which is the dentistry, the Botox fillers, threads, microneedling, laser hair removal, laser facials but we are also going to be offering weight loss drugs, body contouring for skin tightening, fat reduction. We're also going to be doing some amazing derma facials, chemical peels. We're bringing on a line of medical grade skincare. We're really just offering it all to our patients Because, at the end of the day, what I found in the years and years of teaching and doing this the best results and the most long lasting results for patients that are going to get them what they truly are searching for is that combination therapy.
Speaker 3:Right, I wish I could stand here and say, just do Botox every three months and it's going to be great and you're going to be super happy. But what we've been realizing over the years is that if we don't address certain things, mainly collagen loss in our skin, we're just Botox is not getting us those long-term results. So combination therapy is definitely the way to go and you know, this is a journey. Whether people come see me or my nurse injector or my esthetician, for that matter, or they go somewhere else, I do, you know, always try to educate my patients like hey, just keep in mind this is a journey. This is not a one stop shop. Unfortunately, we never stop aging. That would be great if we could just push a button. That's not how it works If it. If it did work like that, I guess I'd be out of a job, so that would be pretty bad, but I don't have job security in both things you do.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, so that's so. That's something that we're super, super excited about Moving forward. I think it's going to be a really, really great thing for our clients and just being able to get them, you know, the results that they are ultimately searching for.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. So I mean, what a journey you've had. Can you describe any hardships along this, this ride?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 3:So just in general, anybody who is listening to this podcast or I'm sure the previous business owners that you've interviewed have said the same thing like starting a business from scratch is one of sorry I don't want to get emotional, one of the hardest things I've ever done and sometimes it can feel like it's a really lonely space when you're the owner and you're the business owner Because even if you have an amazing team around you, like nobody fully grasps it.
Speaker 3:Your team doesn't fully grasp it. Your, your clients don't fully grasp it again, unless they've owned a business or they own a business. Your family that you sometimes you know you vent to when you're having a tough week, like they don't really also fully grasp it. So it can feel very lonely at times and then, especially with the fact that my husband and I decided to move away from our entire family and then start this venture he's also a business owner, so neither one of us has a nine to five. So it can be very stressful when you're like first starting out and you know things have definitely gotten better, gotten a little bit easier, but going over those hurdles in the beginning and trying to figure all of that out like it's no joke.
Speaker 2:Right. So what are you most proud of? I mean holy cow. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yes. So, as I said earlier, we have three amazing little boys. Currently I have a three and a half year old and almost two year old and an almost seven month old, and they are amazing and I am so proud of them. I didn't even know if I wanted kids growing up and then, when we decided to have kids, I had a tough pregnancy. I was like this is it. I'll do this twice. You know, that's it. I fell absolutely in love with him and I was like, okay, I actually like I'll do it again. I'll do the pregnancy again, and clearly I've done it more than once, because we have three now and we talked about possibly a fourth.
Speaker 3:We'll see. There's no rush on that at this point, but I'm just I'm so proud of the fact that you know, my husband and I we moved here. We've kind of opened up both of our businesses. We are moving towards, you know, being successful and setting up a great life for our family and you know, this office is truly my fourth child and then his business is his, his fourth child. So it's a lot and I'm definitely proud that we've been able to do it. Have there been times where we've considered moving back to New Jersey to be close to family? Yes, that thought has crossed our mind and then we realized we didn't like New Jersey and there was a reason we left. So I think just, you know, being able to kind of sit back and say, even when it's hard, like you know what, look what we are building, look what we have built, like we were doing okay.
Speaker 2:I predict they're going to move towards you. That's what a lot of people do. Someone in the family starts here in the Charlotte area and then everybody joins them.
Speaker 3:I hope so. We've been waiting, man. It's been four years and no one's come yet. Come on.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, well, this has been so amazing. So when do you launch the aesthetic, the med spa?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we are officially launching that in November, so mid November. We should, at that point, be have that kind of officially 100% moving and going. So that's really exciting.
Speaker 2:Very good, and how do our listeners find you reach, you connect with?
Speaker 3:you, yes, so as Regina said earlier, we are located on Providence Road South in Waxhaw. Our actual address is 3808 Providence Road South, suite 103. Our telephone number that you can reach either business at this point that may change in the future, but it's 704-256-7027. You can also email us at info at dogwooddentalspa. com or info at dogwoodfaceandbody. com. And then we are on Facebook dogwoodfaceandbody. com. And then we are on Facebook. We are also on Instagram. Our Instagram handle is dogwooddentalspa and our other one is dogwoodfaceandbody spelled out.
Speaker 2:You are one busy woman. I sure am Impressed, holy cow.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm excited.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to come see the new med spa and try things out. It's a pleasure to meet you, Melissa. Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Regina. This has been so much fun and I look forward to meeting you in person one day.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.