the smile effect
Powered by Dental Boutique™ the smile effect podcast covers all things in pop culture surrounding cosmetic dentistry, taking you behind the scenes with some of your favourite Australian celebrities, whilst debunking some of the common misconceptions behind a smile.
Covering the journey to being your most confident self and the power a smile can hold, podcast host and Social Media Coordinator at @dentalboutique, Paris Mavricos will take you along each guests unique story.
the smile effect
Love Island & Overseas Dentistry with Dr Sam Koh
Hey! It’s Paris, and on this episode we are chatting Overseas Dentistry and Love Island Australia. When Love Island rolls around normally overseas dentistry, botched veneers and dental mishaps tend to be a topic of discussion. Listen in to today’s episode with Dr Sam Koh whilst unpack this years cast and take a look at some of their smiles (including one DB smile!)...
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Hello and welcome to the Smile Effect podcast. My name's Paris and I'll be your host. On today's episode, we have Dr. Sam Koh joining us. We are talking all things overseas dentistry, botched veneers and dental mishaps. If you haven't already seen, Love Island Australia is just aired and we are going through the cast and some of their smiles. Hi, Dr. Sam.
SPEAKER_00:Hello, Paris. How are
SPEAKER_02:you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm so excited to have you on The Smile Effect.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
SPEAKER_02:No problem. Obviously, Love Island has aired, so I thought this was a perfect fit for you to come on and have a chat with me about some overseas dentistry, botch veneers, and dental mishaps.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing.
SPEAKER_02:So before we start, we normally like to ask each and every one of our guests, what makes you smile the most?
SPEAKER_00:What makes me smile? Very, very simply, food.
SPEAKER_02:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It keeps me going. It's just like, you know, one of those things where you wake up and you crave something. I don't wake up thinking about where I want to go, what I want to do. I crave what I'm going to eat for the first meal of the day.
SPEAKER_02:What's your death row meal?
SPEAKER_00:So my death row meal is one of two things at the moment. So I'm hooked on Vietnamese pho.
SPEAKER_02:Yum. Yeah, me too. It's so good.
SPEAKER_00:No, I'm hooked on a really weird pho though.
SPEAKER_02:What do you mean? So
SPEAKER_00:for about my whole life, so let's say like over three decades, I have never had any tripe or offal.
SPEAKER_02:What's that?
SPEAKER_00:So kind of like organs and stomach and intestine. Oh, yeah. And now
SPEAKER_02:you like it.
SPEAKER_00:I'm hooked. I'm hooked on tripe.
SPEAKER_02:No. I
SPEAKER_00:have to have like a beef and tripe fur.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, my God. That is wild. That is so wild.
SPEAKER_00:But otherwise, my proper death row dish would probably be something to do with seafood, some sort of lobster dish or like a crab dish.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah right. See I'm not a big seafood fan.
SPEAKER_00:No?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_00:We'll get you on it.
SPEAKER_02:Tea. So much tea. Let's get into the episode. Who is Dr. Sam Koh? What do you do here at Dental Boutique? And how did you get here?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, great questions. I am one of the cosmetic dentists here at Dental Boutique. I'm very fortunate and lucky enough to be a principal dentist as well. So I run the Dental Boutique in Mornington. It's a clinic down in the southeast suburbs of Mornington, and it's just a beautiful place. It's next to the beach. I love it there. When I'm not there, I am doing lots and lots of stuff for the group. So I kind of work with management. We help manage the clinics. I do a lot of things like this. Kind of show my face maybe a little bit too much here and there, to be honest. That's great. And I do a lot of clinical in terms of cosmetics and veneers, all on fours, all on implants, a lot of surgical stuff as well.
SPEAKER_02:And even behind the scenes, you do a lot of fun work, working with Colgate and, you know, fun dentistry brands, fun dentistry. brands and yeah you do a lot of cool work and you work quite closely with me I guess with talent and things like that as well and it's great great to have a dentist who's involved in that space which is cool
SPEAKER_00:I love it it just keeps things really fresh and interesting like dentistry can be super interesting on most days anyway but to do a little bit of this little bit of this here and there it's just really really refreshing
SPEAKER_02:like I said before you know you work closely with me with a lot of my talent and things like that so I thought this was a perfect episode for you to come on and have a chat to me about love island so as we know love island australia has just aired but i know with the uk love island and things like that there is a lot of talk around overseas dentistry botched cosmetic work a lot of the uk love islanders always like to talk about you know big white hollywood smiles and they're a big fan for you know big white teeth but yeah what what What is that sort of stigma around, yeah, I guess like botched veneers, overseas dentistry and things like that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, I think botched is a really strong word to call, you know, that treatment these days. There are really good and bad dentists everywhere. So honestly, here in Australia, overseas, you hear of a lot of countries being thrown under the bus, like Croatia and Turkey, Bali, Thailand. We don't want to kind of stereotype them into the kind of that one botched category. But we do see a lot of patients go overseas to certain countries to get that treatment done. They may or may not be able to then work with the clinician or the dentist at that stage to design the smile that they're after. And we do see kind of like almost like a cookie cutter sort of approach where they come out, they get the same sort of look. It definitely may or may not suit their face very well. It depends on the size, the color, the shape of things. And they come out with just a very generic looking set of teeth and I know a lot of people kind of put a negative stigma to it like you said before they call it botched veneers and like you know you hear of terms like turkey teeth and things like that but it's one of those things where it just comes down to them not going to get the treatment that they're after or something that is then going to suit their face and their needs and wants as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. I think it's so interesting, obviously, as an individual who has had cosmetic work done as well, a lot of my friends and I feel like there's a lack of education, I guess, in society these days that people sort of ask, oh, have your teeth been shaved down underneath? And I see a lot of that content come out. And I think that a lot of people think that that is what happens when you have cosmetic dentistry done or any sort of form of cosmetic dentistry. But yeah, what can you sort of, can you elaborate more on that and what you sort of, what your experience has been with that and maybe people having that misconception?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a very common misconception and it definitely is a misconception. So one of the things to really kind of pull back on is with cosmetic dentistry, it can be whatever you need it to be to improve your cosmetics. It doesn't need to be veneers. It doesn't need to be things that where you shave down your teeth extensively. So typically what you see in TikToks and like viral Instagram reels and stuff, they're actually not veneers at all. They're actually extensive crowns have been done and placed elsewhere. So they actually drilled down their teeth extensively to then put a cap over. But a lot of the times, you know, and you would know this as well, Paris, from what you've had done, depending on the look or the finished aesthetic that you're after, you can get a really beautiful result with things that or treatments that require far less destruction, far less aggression, and far less treatment to your teeth themselves. So, In terms of how to get a really beautiful smile, it's really about finding a cosmetic dentist that you trust, that has proven results, that has actually the ability to do various different treatments, not just the one, and actually get them to understand what is going to be the best look and outcome for you. and help drive you to actually make that decision. And whether or not that then means that we do need to smooth back a little bit of the teeth, that will sometimes happen. So depending on whether or not your teeth do stick out quite a bit, do expect for us to actually have a result where your teeth then don't stick out. We either need to straighten things up and push things back, or if we do something purely cosmetic, we do need to potentially smooth things back a little bit too, but hopefully not to the extent that you kind of sometimes see in those videos. So I think the kind of overall answer I've got for that is With cosmetic dentistry, it doesn't always have to be destructive. You can always get a beautiful cosmetic result to what you're wanting, but there are many options to get there that may not be that destructive.
SPEAKER_02:Definitely a good idea to do your research and have an experienced clinician, you know, do your treatment and go to someone you trust and have them at arm's reach. You know, when you see overseas dentistry, obviously if you need to change anything or, you know, you need to have something fixed or something goes wrong and things like that, you can't actually, you know, you've got to go all the way to overseas to go get that fixed. the process becomes a little bit longer and way more difficult than what it needs to be. So definitely want to do your research.
SPEAKER_00:And it's hard to, we don't want to harp on the negatives. So again, there's good and bad dentistry overseas or anywhere in the world, but there are those risks involved and everyone needs to understand those risks. And as long as you understand them, then that's fine.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, amazing. Well, let's go through the cast. I'm so excited. We've actually got our very own patient on there, don't we?
SPEAKER_00:I know. I seem to have almost one every year, to be honest.
SPEAKER_02:Really? I didn't know that. Fun fact.
SPEAKER_00:I know.
SPEAKER_02:Taylor Reid. He had his smile redesigned with Dr. Sam.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, Taylor, he's just a really, really down-to-earth guy. So we met each other. He came to my clinic maybe about seven, I reckon like seven or eight years ago now.
SPEAKER_02:No way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh my gosh. So he's actually really good friends with one of my friends, Carla. So we've treated Carla here actually. So Carla is a beautiful example of someone that's got beautiful asymmetry to a smile.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So Taylor was friends with Carla. I was friends with Carla. So I saw Taylor. So he came in and had his treatment done. He's got a very natural smile though. So we actually haven't done very much to his smile whatsoever. We've just improved it in a way which is very, very natural. Just brings out the best of his smile without having to do anything too aggressive, anything too like advanced. But they just look like a really beautiful new set of teeth now, which is great.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. He's got a great smile. So we were looking at his before and afters the other day and just, yeah, really, really natural result. I think it really suits his personality. Yeah. His face shape, everything like that. I think it really, really works for him, which is nice.
SPEAKER_00:We just found a good cosmetic dentist, didn't he?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, must have. When a mouth works good. Best form of marketing.
SPEAKER_00:He's just a good looking dude. He's just blessed. He's got the build of that rugby star. He used to play rugby as well. He's just a nice chap. Funny story actually with Taylor. He was undergoing treatment, obviously, for a little bit of time. So for roughly about like eight to 12 months or so. The dude would always, always, without question, send me a photo on Instagram of him holding like a mouth guard case before he hit the clubs because he had to basically take his retainer out.
SPEAKER_02:No way.
SPEAKER_00:Before he entered the club. So I remember there was a time where there was a club down here in Melbourne called Electric. He would be there every weekend and every weekend he would actually just snap a photo in line with his mouth guard case, taking his retainer out and basically saying, I'm about to hit the club.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, my God. Might catch Taylor Reid at Electric. That's it. But we've got the rest of the cast here. I just wanted to have a look at their smiles. So we've got Mimi. I love that name.
SPEAKER_00:Mimi's a beautiful name, actually.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yep. And I think...
SPEAKER_00:Well, I can tell you right now, her smile is not broad enough. So you can actually even tell by how she subconsciously smiles herself. So you look at how everyone else smiles in their casting photos. They will give you the biggest... like brought a smile, she purposely smiles kind of like very narrow. She smiled like this.
SPEAKER_02:She's
SPEAKER_00:trying to hide the fact that she doesn't have any teeth showing on the sides. So I know you can't see a lot of a smile, but what I can see is I only really see her four to six front teeth at most. And then all of a sudden her smile just goes away. There's like nothing left. So she already knows that her smile is not broad enough. She has too much of a gap here on either side. So she'd definitely be one where she'd benefit from actually expanding and broadening her smile that little bit to just show you a little bit more teeth on the sides.
SPEAKER_02:I think a really nice big smile is super feminine and I really like it. I think it's a really aesthetic look. It looks super natural and yeah, I think it's quite nice on females especially. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:you don't have to look like Anne Hathaway or Julia Roberts but you do want to see maybe just a bit more tooth on the side.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think a lot of the males here have quite natural smiles to be honest. I don't think that many of them had much done like
SPEAKER_00:no
SPEAKER_02:his name is indigo
SPEAKER_00:it's a really cool name
SPEAKER_02:that is a cool name
SPEAKER_00:indigo also he needs his teeth are natural but they're too short
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_00:you know the way that he smiles it's like his teeth have been ground down halfway or something it's like i don't know if he clenches and grinds or whether or not he's naturally got shorter teeth but as soon as you see his smile what i instantly get drawn to is the fact that they're just too short
SPEAKER_02:Sorry,
SPEAKER_00:Indigo.
SPEAKER_02:As a cosmetic dentist, do you look at people and think, oh, like, do you see that now? I was going to say, like... Or do you just go about your day?
SPEAKER_00:I was actually going to ask you, is that a bad thing? Like, as obviously someone that works with you, and I'm a male, right, and... We have a lot of females here at work and we have a lot of non-masculine males as well. Do you like or not like the fact that I'm a bit more picky and I can kind of judge your smile straight away? Does that scare you?
SPEAKER_02:Nah. I want, especially as a patient, when I came into my consultation, I saw Dr. Ali. I wanted him to be as picky as possible. I'm a perfectionist and you know my personality. Yeah. if I'm getting something done, it has to, like I'm obviously coming in for a reason, I want it to be perfect. And also, I would love, working alongside so many cosmetic dentists, I'd love if, like I would never ever take offence if you were to say to me, hey, I've got to do something about that. oh sign me up
SPEAKER_00:yeah does it sound like a diva no that's good I'm always worried because I always tell patients how OCD I am and how I'm just really really picky about things and I think they can see when we finish off their smile I'm always standing there trying to just perfect things like Ali and I'm always wondering is this a good or bad thing like do they do they want me to be this picky or do they just want like a smile like that, but it's good to hear from kind of like your side as a patient as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think the details and aesthetics make a really, really nice smile and it's not just, you know, one size fits all or one shoe fits all, you know, it's all the tiny details that essentially match You know, your unique personality, your age, your like hair color or your eye color or your face shape. And there's so much that goes into it. It's almost like a styling session, I feel like sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, it's exactly the way that it is. I mean, you can't just give the same two people the same smile. every single person needs to have something slightly different because their complexion is different, their lips are different, their eyes and their nose are different, their facial, what we call flow is different. So, you know, not every one of us is symmetric. So sometimes you actually make smiles asymmetrical to match the asymmetry of the face. And by doing so, they actually look more symmetric.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Going back to the cast, What do you think of Hannah's smile?
SPEAKER_00:Well, first of all, Hannah looks like she clenches and grinds her teeth quite a bit, judging by her facial structure. People always wonder how we can tell, but you can very easily tell there. Her teeth aren't bad. They still look quite natural. The whole cast pretty much looks very natural this year.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So her smile is really nice and cute. The left-hand side, again, you seem to be missing a bit of that tooth show. So it kind of looks like you can see a whole smile on the right-hand side, comes to the front. Then when you get to the left, there's no teeth there. So it's almost like she's almost missing some teeth there. I'm sure she's not. She's a beautiful young 24 year old, but it would be really nice to see some of those teeth at the back left, just expanded out and brought out a little bit to fill out her smile. The second thing that kind of draws my attention is she does have a bit more of a central dominant smile. So when you look at the smile, all you really notice first are the two front teeth. So yes, they're a little bit longer and it's very normal to have two longer front teeth. but they do have that little bit more dominance in them where you kind of notice just the two front teeth and then it's the rest of the smile.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right? Yeah. I think that look though, sometimes I do quite like that look. Like I don't...
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I think it looks
SPEAKER_00:quite natural. It's a really beautiful and feminine look. So guys can't get away with it as much as girls. And I hate stereotyping genders. But females, for instance, can get away with a bit more gum show. Females typically look a little bit sexier and more feminine with those two front teeth a bit longer as well. Especially, I don't know what to call it, Paris. You know what those models do when you kind of do that look and your lips are
SPEAKER_02:slightly apart? That's the only way to describe it.
SPEAKER_00:It's really, really quite sexy in a way to actually see it. the edge of those two front teeth.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I feel like even on the red carpets, I know we spoke about like the Met Gala earlier this year. And
SPEAKER_00:the brown low that was passed. And I was lucky to have a few of my smiles on that red carpet as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But it was so hard to catch a smile. Everyone's just doing these like sexy poses and it's like, just crack a smile, please. think of, what's this guy's name? Zane.
SPEAKER_00:Zane. These are some really cool names.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I agree. I like Zane.
SPEAKER_00:Can we zoom into Zane's smile a bit more?
SPEAKER_02:Sorry, just bear with me. Perfect.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, again, another natural-looking smile. So it doesn't look like he's had much done, and it's actually quite a nice-looking natural smile, so I don't have too much that I can comment on it. The only thing I'd say is his smile is actually rather masculine, though, which is actually really good for him. So what I mean by masculine is you see his two corner eye teeth, Paris? They're that little bit longer and a bit pointier. So they're almost that tiny bit more dominant in his smile. Same as the two front teeth as well. But the pointier teeth do kind of give him that little bit more, not aggression, but that more masculinity, which is really quite sexy.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, awesome. Yeah. Really natural smiles on the Love Island Australia cast this
SPEAKER_00:year. Everyone looks like they just have a natural and killer smile that they haven't really done too much to.
SPEAKER_02:It's really nice to have, obviously, Taylor Reid, which is fantastic on the cast. One of our very own DB smiles.
SPEAKER_00:Rooting for you, Taylor.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Hopefully you make it to the finale. Hopefully you win the whole Love Island. Now, um... One thing to end it off that we do as well with all of our guests is what is one thing that you would tell your younger self?
SPEAKER_00:Is this dental or non-dental?
SPEAKER_02:Either or. Obviously, you know, you've come so far in your dental career and in the dental industry in that space. So, yeah, you can relate it to dental or just something that, yeah, you've found personally.
SPEAKER_00:I think, like, I live by quite a few little mottos and kind of like life mantras. I think the most important one to me is always to just explore every opportunity. And you can say that in many different ways. You know, some people say you make your own luck and you say basically, you know, luck is for whatever you make of it. I always say that. live by that. So whatever opportunities come my way, I just never ever say no. I always basically go in there with half a step tentatively forward, explore the opportunity, see where it takes me. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But that's how essentially I've gotten to where I am. Um, people might say that a lot of what I do, you know, is good luck, but I really don't believe in luck. So you make your own luck.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I think it's so important to get out there. And I always say the same thing. Yeah, that's a great, great thing to live by. I love that. Fantastic. Well, it was so great to have you on. And thank you so much for joining me today on today's episode. I'm sure we'll see you again soon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was awesome. Thanks, Paris.
SPEAKER_02:No worries. See you later.
UNKNOWN:Bye.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks so much for listening. If you want to keep up to date with The Smile Effect, give us a follow and why not leave us a review? If you also want to keep up to date with the behind the scenes of the podcast, follow us on our socials on both TikTok and Instagram, The Smile Effect with one E. See you next time.