Smile Business Diaries Conversation with Dr Fadi Yassmin

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Maria Cabanellas: Welcome, Dr. Fadi Yassmin. How are you today?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: I'm very good, very good. Thank you for having me. I'm in lovely Dubai at the moment, which is, uh, always fun.

Maria Cabanellas: Yes, the rockstar life, right?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Just the transit life.

Maria Cabanellas: Well, it's wonderful having you. You know, you're such a great representation of what it means to incorporate, like, a luxury dental office and business. So, I feel that the listeners will gain a lot of insight as to, you know, who you are and how you've become who you are today.

Would you share just a little bit of information on, you know, what it's like for you every day and then what your practice is like?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Sure. Like you said, I mean, I run a boutique aesthetic practice. Um, I don’t like to use the word cosmetic as much—it’s more aesthetic and multidisciplinary. So, the evolution of our practice has been from the fact that I've always been about comprehensive treatment.

And when I say comprehensive, in the sense that, you know, we like to look at all disciplines that apply to each case. So, when someone comes in—and I’m sure we’ll delve into this later—it’s more about I wanted to have a practice where I could treat every patient ideally, and not just be limited by my own skill set.

So for me, the more I practiced, um, the more I realized I had to, you know, educate myself and be able to sort of master quite a few disciplines, especially to be able to bring it all together in aesthetic dentistry.

So that’s pretty much the niche practice I run—it’s a multidisciplinary aesthetic center. And the luxury part, I guess, had to come naturally because I wanted something to complement my treatment.

I've always been obsessed with perfection—giving perfect treatment—even, you know, from attempting from day one of graduating. So, I guess the practice was just a natural progression, but it was all underpinned by my philosophy of practice and the type of dentistry I do.

Maria Cabanellas: And when you say it came naturally or formed over the years, um, there had to have been some kind of influence for you. Can you list anyone or anything that impacted you the most in that process?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Oh, 100%. And actually, he passed away last month, so it was literally my mentor.

I was referred to a practice on day one by one of my tutors, and he said, "You should really, uh, you should try working here where you can."

And so, he referred me to this practice, and it was a general practitioner who had limited his practice to Orthodontics, Functional Dentistry, and Multidisciplinary Care.

It was from really day one there that I learned about efficiency in practice. And when I say efficiency, I mean efficiency of actual movements, the way you sit, posture—he was quite big on that.

And I think that's something that is so missed out in dentistry. We've got all these fancy chairs and fancy gadgets, but he had a system that he had been using for many years to keep posture and limit movements during practice.

So, that was one important thing.

And from there, um, just the way that we approach treatments—that was really my first foray into multidisciplinary treatment.

It was big on Orthodontics initially for any cases, then followed up by any aesthetic things at the time. So back then, it was bonding, some crowns, and so forth.

So really, that was me. I was very, very lucky to have that from day one.

I was programmed into ideal patient comfort and ideal treatment from day one—there was no compromise.

Mind you, it was the lowest paying assistant dental job in the country.

But it was worth every cent.

Maria Cabanellas: Absolutely. Yeah. I always believe that we learn the most when we have the least, right? And it's, it's like, exactly—lessons you can’t replicate, you know?

And so, are there any other lessons that you could think of besides that? Because you, you've built such a beautiful practice, and your team—we're going to get into that as well, you know, how you've been able to select such great minds and wonderful people around you.

But, you know, is there anything else that you can say, "Okay, this was a monumental, pivotal moment for me to get to where I am today?"

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: I think, like you said, a pinnacle or instrumental factor is having the ability—or the so-called ability—to select the right people for your position. But also, you have to be on the same sort of mindset. You have to get along. You know, I know people like to keep certain things professionally in business and, you know, not cross over into almost like a friendship. I’ve never believed that because everyone that’s ever worked for me is pretty much a friend. You know, we’re a family—a family that works professionally.

And the interesting thing is that patients see that. They actually tell us, "This is an unusual dental office. You guys are like family." They treat it like that because I think it’s underpinned by the fact that they love what they do. They're working with an ethical dentist. They’re looking, they’re seeing this every day.

How often do you hear staff talk about their principal saying, "God, I’d never get that done here," or something similar? You know, every single treatment is something that I would do for myself. Everything that comes through our door has to pass the daughter test, which is an actual concept.

So, it has to pass the daughter test—if it’s not suitable for you or your family, then it’s not going to be suitable for my patients. And that’s actually very easy to do. If you stick to those guns, you can do dentistry for a long time. If you try and manipulate that or, you know, take shortcuts for different cases, then you’re going to get into a bit of trouble, and you’ll be found out and caught off guard.

Maria Cabanellas: Can you explain that more? What is the daughter test like?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah. The daughter test was actually in a paper. I came across this paper when I was doing my master’s at King’s College. A dentist actually wrote a paper about how we diagnose.

Because cosmetic dentistry is quite huge, you know, young patients are coming in asking for veneers. The daughter test was essentially a question posed to dentists: "Would you do this for your daughter?" And they actually wrote a paper on it and called it the daughter test.

So I always keep it in the back of my mind. I don’t have any daughters, so it’s probably the son test for me, you know? And it’s always about the right treatment.

Now, dental treatments can be argued and debated among dentists, but if you feel in your own heart that it’s the right treatment and that’s what you can justify, then that’s what you’re going to be doing.

Maria Cabanellas: Yeah. And, I mean, you’re obviously a DSD Clinic, and you’ve got the surrounding support around you. Do you feel that, having DSD—you’re the first point of contact with the patient, right?—but you have DSD incorporating their planning around your treatment. So, how has that affected your daughter test scenarios? Does that complement your process? Have you ever found that maybe there’s been a different plan ahead that you didn’t recognize initially?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, of course. I mean, the classic thing with all of our DSD and planning is that it immediately highlights that a lot of these cases—if we’re going for an aesthetic finalization—will most likely, or very likely, benefit from ortho.

And straight away, you know, when you do your mockup, the first thing you see is that you’re trying to perform quite a lot by placing some porcelain on there. And immediately, two things happen:

1. You can show the patient how beautiful it’s going to look if that’s what we’re looking at.

2. You can show them how thick and how much I have to cut back to get it there.

But I can also show you this next phase, where I’ll get the same external appearance, but look how thin it is. Look how minimal I have to cut away from your teeth.

Which means, you know, whatever we do now—and I always give them a 10–15-year window—it has to be redone. So, we’ve got to think about that early-stage treatment planning. What are the options? What can we do?

So, all of those things—yeah, the powerful tools of DSD from a planning perspective but also from a future-planning perspective—allow us to show that to patients very, very specifically, and they get it.

You’d be surprised—they understand it. They say, "Oh yeah, look how overlapped my teeth are, but it looks great from the front." And I say, "Yeah, but for me to achieve that, I’d have to cut a lot of your teeth unnecessarily."

Maria Cabanellas: Absolutely.

[Break for DSD Promotion]

Maria Cabanellas: So, for me, that’s always been huge. I mean, we get beautiful illustrations, we can show all of those things. You’ve got a 3D model showing the exterior final destination where your teeth should be, and then comparing that to your existing structure.

And it doesn’t take an engineer or a scientist to work out, "Wow, if I’m here, and I need to be here…" You know, "I need to move things around." It just makes sense.

So, yeah, definitely, definitely, the DSD side of things has certainly just made it seamless, to be honest.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: 100%.

Maria Cabanellas: And I would guess, too, you know, you do a lot of veneers and a lot of aesthetics—I’m not even going to say cosmetics now because you said that.

But has there ever been a moment, or a patient in particular, that you can think of that has challenged you? When you’ve said, "Hey, this isn’t my way of doing things. I’m not going to cut your teeth and take off half of your tooth structure because you want this procedure." Has that ever happened?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: All the time. All the time. Like, this is the daughter test part, right? You’ve just got to stand true to your word, and I’m pretty stubborn with that stuff. And I’ve lost a few cases over the years. I mean, you know, they go down the road and get them done.

But, you know, when someone comes in insisting, and their teeth are fine, and they’re like 28 years old, and they’ve got great teeth, they just need a bit of alignment… what are you going to do? Cut these teeth? You just can’t. You just can’t do it. I just can’t do it.

I mean, I’ll show them what the issues are, try and talk them out of it. And you can always have a really good chance if they’re willing to entertain the idea of, say, some sort of straightening or some alignment. Because you get to the end of the alignment, and they go, "You’re right. They actually look really good. You know, I like them. I’m not bothered by this tooth."

And really, sometimes the things that bother them aren’t as big as they perceive. You know, some people think they have to cut their whole front teeth just because the lateral is sticking out. But you push it into the right position, and all of a sudden, "Oh my God, that looks great." Or you might polish some edges at the end—which I do a lot of—to balance the symmetry or an asymmetry.

And then, all of a sudden, they’re like, "Oh no, no, I don’t want veneers." And I say, "Well, exactly. That was the whole point."

You know, often, you do your best with this first step, and if you don’t like it, then we can have that discussion. So if you can push them to have the orthodontics or some minor stuff in the meantime, just to get them over the line… because often they’re still not seeing what you can do, even though it’s quite simple.

They’re still stuck on the fact that they either want no treatment or massive treatment. So if you can get them to that in-between phase, that’s when you often get them over the line.

But there are patients that, no matter what you say… you know, there are some sort of body dysmorphia issues. They want to get their plastic surgery, their veneers, their cosmetic surgery—it’s a whole thing for them. It’s a whole journey.

So, they go see someone else, and then you see them on social media not too long after with ugly, white, B1 opaque teeth.

Maria Cabanellas: Yeah, well, you know, at the same time, I think it’s such a hard thing to let someone go, right? In any situation. But in this specific situation, I think it’s important to stay true to that.

Because let’s say you do the work for the patient—they’re insistent—and then you start to get more of those patients. So it’s almost like a filtration system for the people that you want to see, right?

Because you convince the person that wanted veneers in the beginning. That person sticks out because you said, "No, look, you don’t need veneers," and they figure this out on their own. And then imagine the trust that comes between you and that patient at that point.

You know they’re going to rave about you to everybody else. And so, you get more of those patients.

And so, I think you’ve got such a great system. And a lot of this too, I know, comes from your team as well. You know, it’s not all just you running the whole practice. I wanted to ask you, because you have such a great way of doing things, where we can control ourselves, but we can’t control others. And you have an exceptional team. How do you replicate this into your team?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: The replication, I mean… there’s good management that I’ve got, that I’ve been, you know… we’ve been working together for over 16 years. So, you know, whatever I’m about to say, Nia would know about it before it comes out of my mouth.

And that’s sort of a top-down effect. It just trickles. I think if you have consistency in your everyday practice, mannerisms, personality… people know what you are. Your patients know what you are, your team members know what you are. So they know what’s expected, and it’s predictable in their mind.

Like, they know when Fadi goes in there and sees that patient, oh, he’s not going to do veneers for her. They know that. And then I walk in, I say, "No, you’re not suitable." Because they come in and do a lot of the, you know, the pre-diagnosis. Because they’ve spoken to the patients.

Eighty percent of the time, they’re spot on. Because they’ve seen how I work. They’ve seen our ethical side in terms of how we diagnose. And it’s like, you know, my nurse comes in, she says, "Oh, that’s so-and-so, but I don’t think she needs this. I think she needs this, she should do…" It’s like, spot on. Because they’re just hearing everything I say every day.

Everything’s consistent. It’s much easier to be consistent than inconsistent. And that’s how you develop that sense of trust, that sense of team.

Because imagine everyone being on the same page. My aim is for everyone to be on the same page. Now, there might be others that are not as skilled, you know, some do things a little bit more, but we’re all on the same page.

There might be different levels of ability, but we’re all on the same level field. Which is what you want. You know, you don’t want a staff member or someone that doesn’t agree with your treatment philosophy. That, for me, is the biggest thing.

And I’ve had a few of those. Not everyone’s been a slam dunk. I’ve had a few… not that they didn’t agree, they just… I think they were bringing such baggage from their previous practices, that they just came in with this bad attitude.

But over time, they came around, if they had the ability, or if they had, you know, that… if I tolerated them long enough to be able to get them up to speed.

But often, if they come from a practice setup… you know, you hear all this negative stuff, and they’re expecting the same. Because that’s what all dentists are, you know?

They’re so-and-so. So that’s it. It’s about getting them to understand the consistency and how much, you know, I actually believe in everything I do.

And once they have that, the rest is easy.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Well, the decision to hire a practice manager at the time was a big decision because we were transitioning into a period that was very different.

I had gotten involved with a corporate, right? Like a DSO, what you would call a DSO. There were many things going on, and it was a huge change. I had just renovated my first little baby practice, and then I needed someone to, you know, to try and drive it. It was a very sort of—not rough seas—but it was very different from what was going on.

And it was down to two candidates, and thank God I picked Nia. It worked out. That worked out amazing.

But for me, I like to put a lot of trust in and push my staff. But in her case, you know, there was always that room to grow. A lot of trial and error, whatever we needed to do, whatever she suggested, we would go with. You know, it was never a fight. It was always just progression. It was like, we do something, we’ll try something else, and continue because everything we were doing was uncharted.

You know, all the things we were doing, there was no, like, "Oh yeah, let’s do what they’ve done." Nobody was doing this stuff. From just the way aesthetics was being portrayed, to building a practice with a certain facility, targeting certain areas, starting to do education…

You know, all of a sudden, once we got involved with DSD, we had an amazing education platform that we were doing. But all of this was new to us.

But, you know, if you’ve got the right people, like your colleague… whatever I would throw in front of her, whatever challenge, I’d say, "Here, you need to learn how to do this." And she’d come back, I’d give her all the stuff, she’d come back and just know it inside out.

You know how much you can sort of push and push and expect out of your staff.

Maria Cabanellas: Yeah, for sure. You know, she seems to be kind of like the coordinator for everyone in the office. And it’s very clear she has a good way of training her skills into others.

I know she’s not here, but would you be able to elaborate on how Nia does this on your behalf? And how has it worked out for you?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: It’s great because I just say, "Nia, can you do this?" And she’ll go do it. That’s pretty much it.

She doesn’t even ask anymore. She’ll just ask out of courtesy, "Do you mind if I do so-and-so because I think—?" "Oh yeah."

You know, she’ll say, "How do you feel about me placing an ad to get someone?" "Yeah, okay."

I think she’s just entertaining me, making me feel like I get to make a decision. It’s like she’s already done it, right? The person’s already hired.

She’s like, "Oh, I forgot to ask him." "Yeah, I’m interviewing four or five people for this new role." "Yeah, sure, I think that’s a great idea."

And then tomorrow, someone walks in, and I go, "Oh, have we finished it already?" "Yeah, yeah."

You know, like, you cheeky little thing.

But yeah, I mean, it’s just trust in their ability and just knowing. I mean, mind you, she hasn’t always been 100%, neither have I. But you don’t let that… you don’t get caught up on that.

And she’s very thick-skinned, which is amazing.

You know, it’s like, we can not agree on something one day, and you think, "God, it’s all over." And the next day, it’s like nothing happened.

And that’s something she’s taught me because I’m one of those people that would drag on stuff for weeks, you know?

While she’s like, "Next day, get over it, mate. Let’s move on, let’s do this, take it on the chin."

Which is incredible. So that’s… you know, I guess that’s just luck for me.

You know, I was lucky to find someone like that. And if I want to go and say, "Oh, you know, I chose her because I’ve got a very specific test that I do during my interviews, and it’s a psych test I’ve developed…" No.

I think I was lucky. I certainly lucked out on that one.

Maria Cabanellas: Well, I mean, I would think you did, because it’s very hard for anyone to trust these days, right?

And I kind of want to rewind back to the point of when you were hiring Nicola and then immediately gave her the open avenue to be creative and think of out-of-the-box situations for your practice—for your baby at the moment, right? How did you do that?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Because I think it's just—it's an overall challenge for anyone to say, "You know, I’m going to give you my baby, and I’m going to trust you to take care of it."

Like, one thing that I was pretty impressed and mesmerized by was how mature she was for such a young age. I mean, Nicola applied for a huge role in our practice, and it was a huge role that was moving forward—even though it was quite a long time ago. I think she would have been… yeah, she would have been 25 at the time, which I think is quite young for what I was expecting.

So, you know, when I realized just how advanced she was—you know, definitely, definitely fits the expression "wise beyond her years"—for me, it was very easy to hand over stuff and be confident enough that I think she has the capacity to be able to get a result.

And yeah, from then on, anything that I saw, I would basically point and shoot. I’d say, "Yep, there." You know, basically, whichever way—any sort of processes and things that we would want to put together—it was very easy for me to point and shoot, basically.

Maria Cabanellas: And I know there was a moment, going from your original practice, where together you built the new practice that you’re in today. There’s a lot that goes into building, right? Ups and downs. So, would you be able to share your story on that and what it was like?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, look, I guess it was one of those…

We were very lucky because of such a horrible, unlucky event.

So, what I mean by that is—we signed the lease for the new practice the day before it was declared a worldwide pandemic.

So you can imagine, I thought, "What the F have I done here?"

I’ve just signed up to build a brand-new practice with brand-new premises. You’ve committed to this astronomical lease because we’re in such a beautiful area. And then this thing comes along, and I don’t even know what the hell we’re going to do.

Are we meant to work? Are we not meant to work?

Am I going to be able to get the materials?

Like, we didn’t really think supply was going to be an issue. What we were thinking was, "Oh, you know, we had all these restrictions on working, so are they going to be able to turn up and work?" and so forth.

Fortunately, it was probably the best thing that could have happened because, for a while, we couldn’t work.

So that allowed me to be on-site—which I reckon I would have never done, because I would have been at work, and I would have missed so much. And it all would have dragged things out.

But the beautiful thing—the first four months, I couldn’t do much anyway. I was on-site every day, which we were allowed to do because building and construction, as you know, was the only thing that wasn’t restricted. It was an essential service.

So we were very, very lucky in that sense.

Like I said, people think, "Oh, the year you opened—what a horrible period."

For me, it was actually a really nice period because I was building this beautiful practice. I was going to the site every day and seeing that unravel, dealing with situations.

The crew was there, we were there, the architect was there, and it was like, wow—everything was on pause, and I was able to smash this out in six months, which I reckon would have taken way longer, and there would have been way more issues.

So that was our fortunate situation in an unfortunate period of time in our history.

And that allowed us to really achieve something special.

Maria Cabanellas: I think—absolutely. I mean, it sounds like a blessing in disguise, you know, that you had the time to invest at that point. It was almost like forced on you, you know?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, it was crazy.

Maria Cabanellas: Yeah, you couldn’t do it any other way then. You know, not many people have that luxury. So if there were someone that’s listening now in the process of building their practice and they don’t have the time that you had during the pandemic, what would be the top items that you’d say, "Think about this"?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: 100%. Firstly, you need to select—you need to get a project manager or have someone within the design group that can be your project manager and liaise with the builder. Not liaise with your builder directly. Because, like anything, I’ve learned there has to be a level—there has to be sort of a wall between yourself and the final construction, because so many things can occur without you knowing, especially if there’s no one checking.

So I guess the layers would be yourself, your own management—that’s like someone like Nia—then liaising with a project manager on the design side. You just have to do that.

Because otherwise, cutting those corners—the first person to do that is through the construction side. Because when things are built slightly out and you come to get your equipment, it’s not fitting.

And, you know, cabling—especially with digital—having everything in position, all the safety electrical stuff now, that’s, I’m sure, all over the world. So you really need to be on top of that.

And I guess push your suppliers—all your dental suppliers. Now they’ve got services that integrate for the equipment, what’s expected. But again, that needs manpower. That needs a lot of stuff. And if you’ve got all that, that can be simplified into checklists for yourself so that you know, at the end of the day, "Yep, this is what you need to sign off to do the project."

You can go through things quickly. You can say yes, no, yes, no. Deal with things that are delayed. What are your options?

But yeah, it’s not easy. It’s not easy.

Maria Cabanellas: The layers almost acted like a guard between the producers and yourself. So was it almost like they would handle all the major discussions and then just give you the summary points?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: No, no. We were right in the thick of it—between myself and Nia. Because we had the luxury of the time, we were in the thick of it.

We were literally there. You know, you’d see certain dimensions, specs, and we’d think, "Why is that half a meter out? Why is my office half the size of Nia’s? I don’t remember that being in the plan."

But that’s another good story, actually, Maria. It’s like, yeah, I don’t know what happened there.

Maria Cabanellas: Wow. I had no idea that you guys signed right before the pandemic. You know, from the outside looking in, it was like—

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: One day before. Literally. February 29th, I think. The pandemic was March 1st, and we signed on, like, the 28th of February. It’s crazy. Everything had shut down.

Maria Cabanellas: Wow. So what was your immediate—what was the immediate thought at that moment? Was there a moment where you had to come out of a different mindset to be able to work on the office better?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, look, we just didn’t understand what the restrictions were. I mean, it ended up being amazing for us. It was the busiest time of my life in dentistry because we had no restrictions to operate.

You know, initially, it was essential services. And then it became—you pretty much could operate as long as you followed certain protocols.

You know, everybody was pre-rinsing, testing, and so forth.

Or, you know, we were able to do certain surgeries under GA if we had to.

We were super, super busy.

Whereas our colleagues—the cosmetic guys, most practitioners, all the—you know, all the medic injectors.

We do Botox and stuff for clinical use, so we were covering a lot of that.

And yeah, for us, like I said, as long as we had our protocols, people were tested—all of those things, which is all a bit of a "whoa" now in hindsight.

Maria Cabanellas: Yeah, I mean, we use your office as an example all the time. It’s gorgeous. It’s beautiful.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: It is. I have to admit, it is beautiful.

I mean, I spend a lot of time there. And sometimes I look at it, and I think—you know, I always wanted—

You know, I always wanted something.

It’s not for the sake of someone walking in and saying, "God, it’s beautiful."

For me, there’s a certain calming sense about its architecture, its design.

You know, if I’m going to sit in a room for hours on end, you know, I’m prepping away and I’m looking away—I want to just be calmed.

I want to be calmed by my environment while I’m working.

And it is. It is a calming environment. But it happens to be beautiful.

It’s, you know, it’s me—over the years of things that I find relaxing, sane, what I like.

It’s a combination of Japanese Zen, functional, clinical, sterile—all in one, you know?

So yeah. And it works. It really works.

It’s just one of those things that flows. And you can do a ton of dentistry in there and feel like—you know, it’s like being on a very, very comfortable plane, you know, that’s fully decked out.

And, you know, you can keep flying on that plane as long as you want because it’s so beautiful.

You don’t realize that you’ve been cruising for 17 hours, you know? Because it just doesn’t feel like it.

Maria Cabanellas: Exactly. You spend most of your life in the office, right?

Think about it. It’s your waking life.

And so you want it to be comfortable. You want to have it be somewhere that you want to go every day and not feel like, "Oh gosh, I have to go there again."

Maria Cabanellas: Right, and so that’s an amazing point you made. On the other end of it, how do you feel your patients react to the office just by itself and the feelings that they get from it?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, there are two sorts of reactions. There’s the, “Oh my God, this is just the most beautiful practice.” And the other one is, “Oh my God, this is going to be expensive.” You know?

And sometimes it’s both. But they’re all positive.

There have been a few new patients that I guess—the place, the location makes it easier. Like, if I had that office, say, in another area—say, I had it in my previous area, which is still, you know, a nice city area—it would have been a bit harder to swallow. You would have probably had, “Oh, this is a bit over the top.”

Whereas, it’s expected where I am. It’s like, you know, our Beverly Hills, so to speak.

So for us there, we don’t get so many of those reactions, but we do get—people love the serenity of it all. It’s not unusual.

And for me, I did want it to be like that. There are a lot of beautiful hairdressing salons around us that I think probably spent twice as much on their fit-out.

I didn’t want to be another hairdressing salon in the sense of the look. What I wanted was to be a beautiful, serene practice, but when they stepped into the operatory, they knew that it was clinically impeccable.

So it wasn’t one of those beautifully designed, dysfunctional, or unfunctional areas. As soon as they got out of their serene zone, they were in my workspace, and that’s full-on. That’s very clinical, but it still has an element of calming to it.

But yeah, we do get a lot of beautiful reactions. They’re just mesmerized by it. Like, “This is unusual.”

And you know what actually impresses everyone? How clean it is. How clean it looks.

They say, “This is the cleanest practice I’ve ever seen. Everything is so clean.”

And I’m a minimalist. So I always let my staff know—and they know—I hate stuff on bench tops. Minimal. I don’t even have, you know, boxes of gloves out.

I try to minimize everything. When we need it, we put it on. It’s all in the drawers. It’s accessible.

So that also looks nice, you know? You don’t have clutter everywhere. I have everything ready for each procedure.

For me, I guess that helps, and that’s tied in with that Japanese philosophy that I was trained on 30 years ago—minimal movement, optimal ergonomics.

I don’t know if you know, but in my practice, the dentist cradling the patient in a horizontal position—that came from the treatment philosophy that I was trained in.

Maria Cabanellas: So basically, the patient is flat, and the dentist is in an upright position?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Exactly. And there are only two positions that you use to basically work, and that’s how that ergonomic flow works.

Maria Cabanellas: So you work almost intersecting with your patient?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, I mean, if you look—do you know the picture at the front of our practice?

Basically, yeah. You’re sitting at 12:00, looking down on a patient that’s flat.

There are only two positions that you rotate around the head, and you can do everything in dentistry from that position.

Maria Cabanellas: And the assistant is parallel?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah. It’s a Japanese philosophy that was put together by an American dentist who went over to Japan and worked for Maruichi.

Maruichi is the biggest dental company in Japan, and they basically supply every dental chair in Japan. But they did a lot of work outside, especially in the ’70s and ’80s.

They had this ergonomic “spaceline” series based on where the assistant sits, the shape of the triplex, the way the suction had to be soft and moldable in the mouth.

Minimal movement.

There was nothing over the patient. Everything was under-tray delivery, so the patient didn’t feel confined, and they could get up and move anytime.

There was always a set distance from the dentist to the operator. That’s why you’re working at a certain distance.

It was amazing. I was taught all of that when I first graduated.

But unfortunately, that’s not something that’s really being pushed by Maruichi anymore because they have such a huge market in Japan that they just can’t be bothered with the rest of the world.

But my mentor was one of the pioneers in that area and brought it to Australia and all over the world.

So there are some older dentists out there that know about it, but the efficiency of that system stuck with me.

So I’ve tried to continue bringing it in—always training new assistants, new nurses, dental assistants, on how to suction properly, how to carefully rinse.

This is stuff that’s not trained.

You know, when you rinse someone’s mouth, you don’t just get your triplex and press the water button.

It should be a fine mist, suction on the other side of the mouth—not down the throat.

All these little techniques make a difference to the patient’s experience.

Because when someone comes in and you can do things very efficiently and very quickly, patients appreciate it.

And I always tell my patients, "The quicker I can do something, the more expensive it’s going to be."

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: You know, they laugh. They go, “But you only took one minute,” or “You took 10 minutes to do something.” I said, “Yeah, because it takes a lot of planning and skill and design to be able to deliver something so efficiently, so quickly.”

People think, “Ah, you know, he has to work on me for an hour and a half to justify what I just paid.” I’m the total opposite.

I want to be able to do something so efficiently at the highest level, and they get that.

We laugh about it now with patients.

Maria Cabanellas: Yeah, and do patients ever complain that it was too quick?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, that it was too quick. Like, “You charged me for something?” I said, “Yeah, I don’t charge per hour. I charge for the outcome.”

Maria Cabanellas: And they still want to stay, they want to relax.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: I think it’s amazing that, you know, it’s well known in dental businesses that you need to enhance the experience for your patients.

But the thing that stood out to me when you were talking is that you’re practicing what you preach, and you’re doing it in real time, right in front of the patient.

Do you ever find yourself telling these stories to the patient so they understand your methodology and your philosophies—from the core of how you sit and how you use your tools and everything like that?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Absolutely. All the time, all the time.

They come in from another practice, and they’re used to a different experience.

You know, they’ll have something done, then they’ll get up, spit, and rinse, then go back, do something else.

I have no spitting and rinsing in my practice. There’s no need to.

I mean, my practice has a spittoon, but we usually don’t use it—just to rinse our etch when we’re bonding.

Because you don’t need to.

You need to lie down, relax. If you need to be rinsed, we have these beautiful rinsing tools and suction that can do it all without you having to move.

This is the ergonomic side of things. Imagine doing something and someone has to get up, spit, and rinse five times, as opposed to someone who doesn’t.

That’s already 10 minutes saved—10 minutes of spitting and rinsing.

And besides the infection control factor—you can’t sterilize an aerosol. No matter what you do, you can wipe the chair down, but when someone does the big whirlpool in their mouth and spits it out, that’s an issue.

I say, “Dude, what are you doing? Just rinse it out.”

I do a pre-rinse, rinse out while we’re working, and continue—very efficient, no stop-starting.

I keep them in the same position, with a very controlled approach in the mouth.

I always tell my assistants when I’m training them, “You don’t just jump in. You go slow in, slow out. Slow in, slow out.”

And that’s why when people come in, they say, “Oh, you guys are so gentle! I didn’t feel a thing.”

But they don’t realize it’s 20 different things we’re doing to achieve that.

That’s how I’ve been doing it for so long.

So it’s not just really about being “gentle,” it’s about the process.

And they don’t even realize what’s going on.

They’re just lying on this beautiful bed, they haven’t moved at all, they haven’t had to get up and rinse.

They just came in, lay down, opened their mouth, and then they were done.

Thank you very much.

For them, compared to their previous dental appointments, they don’t even know that was the issue or what the difference was.

They just think, “Oh, he wasn’t rough. I didn’t feel anything.”

They don’t realize the little things that we’re doing that make the experience better.

Maria Cabanellas: You know, I try to teach the DSD coordinators in our course about treatment presentation.

And one of the things I mention, just to help communicate effectively, is that when you present the treatment plan—or when you do anything in dentistry or in life and you want to portray a certain image or experience—I compare it to being like a wine connoisseur.

You’re presenting this bottle of wine, telling the story, with movements and gracefulness.

And I think you’ve captured that a lot.

You guys are truly the masters of the patient experience, if I can say that.

So I know you’ve got some secrets up your sleeve, and I understand if you don’t want to share them.

But is there anything that you would share with others—just one thing here or there that would make a phenomenal difference for their practice?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: You can't rush things. For me, I love the mockup. It's all about the mockup, and I never rush it. It's always meticulous. I spend a lot of time getting it right, even down to every second.

I drive them crazy when we do our presentation. You know, the angle of the photo—why did we use this one? Why did we pick this? They think it’s crazy, but just being on point, being aware, and treating every single one like it’s your first case makes all the difference.

Even if the patient is waiting next to you, they’ll think, “This is my guy.”

You know, they see me obsessing over a photo with my staff, and they think, “If he’s this particular about the picture, imagine what he’s going to do about my teeth!”

And it's not a show, it's not something put on. It's not like, “Come on girls, you need to get that right.”

It's more like, “Oh my God, he's so obsessed about the presentation and getting it right. I feel totally safe. I know he's going to do the right thing.”

And that’s what they need to feel.

All of them say it. They go, “You know what? We’re going ahead with you because I trust you.”

And I’ll say, “But you just met me.”

And they go, “No, no, you love what you do. I can see it. I can see I’m going to get the right treatment.”

And that’s the thing—whatever you do, if you do it with your heart, people will see it.

They will feel it.

And that’s what you’ve got to do.

You just have to stick to your guns. If it doesn’t feel like the right treatment, don’t do it.

You might lose one patient, but you’ll gain five.

It is what it is.

Maria Cabanellas: That’s great advice.

Now, we’re coming to the end of our time. I’m having so much fun.

Is there anything you want to share that I haven’t touched on?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, I think there was a really good question.

I liked the question about the key moments in my career.

One of the key things I found—obviously, the day I graduated. That was huge.

Because, you know, it was so tough. I had no idea.

I didn’t know anything. I thought I did, but I didn’t.

And just coming from my background—from a working-class family with no academic history—it was a great achievement for me.

But I didn’t have that fallback.

A lot of my classmates did.

Their dads were dentists, their families were doctors. They understood the process.

I felt quite alone in that.

I wasn’t the only one, but there were a few of us who just had to do it on our own.

And for me, that was such a moment of relief.

It was probably one of the greatest feelings.

And then, a week later, realizing, “Oh my God, I know nothing.”

And then that journey of building up my knowledge began.

But having a mentor was crucial.

Getting a mentor is really important.

Find someone who inspires you.

Not just anyone who is a good dentist—because that doesn’t always mean they’re the right mentor for you.

That’s something you have to work out for yourself.

You have to find someone you truly aspire to, research them, ask about them, and if you can work for them—even for nothing—do it.

Because it will pay off tenfold.

Like I said, I worked for two or three years for virtually nothing.

Meanwhile, my colleagues were making a lot of money and had great lifestyles.

I was still driving the same Honda Civic that I had when I was in third and fourth year.

And I thought, “You know what? No, this will pay off. This will pay off.”

Because I was already mastering Orthodontics.

I was already doing ortho just a year out.

I was doing all this work.

I already had an understanding.

I understood ergonomics in seating and posture.

I was so proud of myself.

But I was making no money.

Yet, in the end, it all made sense.

And later, it all paid off.

Maria Cabanellas: Right, and just the knowing of it, you know? Not everyone has that drive, and that’s very clear from the beginning, from what you’re saying. And, I mean, I can say—you’ve made it now.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, well, I guess the simple term would be to align yourself with the best of each discipline in each field. Because you’ll start to see overlap.

The best of the best—you know, when I say “the best,” I’m not talking about the best on social media. I mean the people who are truly at the top of their craft.

You start to develop a skill of ruling out fads, charlatans, and hype. You start to see the people who just consistently work at the highest level.

And now, I’m in that group, so to speak.

You’ve got to find them. And now it’s easier, because a lot of them post their work, you can see it online. You don’t even have to be connected with them directly—you can connect through education platforms.

But you need to identify those people early.

That’s what you have to push yourself to do.

That’s definitely the way to go.

Maria Cabanellas: So that was two—graduating, and your mentors.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah.

I have to admit, getting my master’s in aesthetic dentistry was a huge one for me.

I hadn’t done any formal study for a long time because I was trained in the analog days.

I’ll tell you a funny story.

Back in the analog days, everything was printed—get the lectures, print them, read them, study them.

And then, when I did my master’s, we had moved into the digital era, where everything was online, everything had to be annotated.

It was a whole different world.

My first shock was when I handed in one of my first assignments.

I was so proud of it—this beautiful 8,000-word essay on aesthetic dentistry and perceptions.

And then they had this program called Turnitin. Have you heard about it?

Maria Cabanellas: No.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah, so it’s a plagiarism detection software.

The university gives you two chances to check your work and make sure it’s original.

Maria Cabanellas: Oh, now I know what you mean!

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah. So I ran my assignment through it for the first time.

And it came back as 87% plagiarized.

That’s when I realized—oh.

Yeah.

Anyway, it was all sorted in the end, but that was a rude awakening for me.

I thought, “The good old days are over. They don’t exist anymore.”

I realized I had to step it up to keep up with these young guys.

That was a pretty funny moment—well, funny now. At the time, I thought, “Oh no, I’d better work hard for this one.”

Maria Cabanellas: Better reshuffle that a bit!

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Exactly.

Maria Cabanellas: Oh my goodness. I think it’s so important to have those humbling checkpoints throughout your career.

And from what you’re saying, it sounds like you do that from time to time.

As far as your branding—your imagery and the way your practice is presented—it’s so strong.

I think it’s refreshing for people to know that even with all the glamor and aesthetics, there are still challenges.

There are still moments where you have to check yourself and say, “How can I do better? How can I do more?”

Because you could have been part of that 87% just going through the motions, right?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah. You always have to be pushing yourself. Because there’s always someone out there looking to be better. There’s always someone looking to take you down. To find an excuse.

For me, being at this level, there’s always someone looking for a reason to justify why I shouldn’t be here, or why I’m not what I seem to be.

And I’ve always been obsessed with maintaining my integrity.

Because people—well, in Australia, we have a thing called Tall Poppy Syndrome, where people love to find reasons to knock you down.

So you have to stay on top of it. And I guess that’s true all over the world, in any industry.

As soon as you start to rise above, as soon as you start gaining notoriety, people want to find an excuse to discredit you.

So you have to be strong in your why and your passion.

Stick to your morals. Stick to your ethics. Stick to your code of practice. And I think you’ll be okay.

Maria Cabanellas: Thank you, thank you so much for sharing that. I'm going to ask you one more question.

We’re doing something where we have a previous guest from another podcast episode ask a question for the next guest.

So the question for you is:

What could we really do as clinics to get the full digital workflow with no workarounds?

What do you feel might be incorporated in the future with AI, possibly?

But ultimately, how can we implement a complete start-to-finish digital workflow with no workarounds involved?

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Very easy.

Very easy—because that’s where I am now.

I just spent a week fine-tuning certain workflows in full-arch implants.

It’s very simple.

Firstly, you have to have the right equipment. And that’s not a big deal—it’s all available now.

You need scanners and software.

You need to have an understanding of how those scanners work.

You need to be able to print.

Secondly, you need to understand all the materials—how they work.

That’s the easy, non-negotiable part.

Next, you need to understand the communication softwares for each of those steps.

For example, printing—you need to know how to print and what adaptations are required for different materials.

That’s step one.

Step two, you need a completely digital lab.

A fully digital lab.

And within that lab, they need to have a CAD/CAM department that understands design.

That way, you can send designs over, and there’s a process where you confirm the design before it goes to milling or printing.

Then, you need to understand how that lab transfers designs to the next phase of production.

Are they doing true milling?

Is it a monolithic workflow?

Are they adding layering manually—or is it all digital?

That’s crucial on the prosthetic side—veneers and crowns.

Now, when it comes to full-arch implant cases, it gets a little more complicated.

You need to have specific workflows for that.

From what I’m seeing, full digital workflows are becoming imperative.

Planning is imperative.

Guided surgery is imperative.

I do a lot of freehand full-arch implant cases, but even now, when you talk to the best in the world—the ones who were masters at freehand surgery—they’re all saying:

“Guided is the way to go.”

So, if you’re going to be guided, you have to be completely digital.

You need to have the right CBCT scanner.

The right software.

And that software has to communicate with your planning software.

It has to be integrated with Smile Design.

It has to be all on one platform, so that every clinician involved in the case can log in and see everything in real-time.

Now, planning centers are a bit tricky—so what we often do is move all the planning files into a shared Dropbox.

That way, everyone involved can see what’s going on.

But things are evolving now where real-time collaboration is becoming more seamless—where all clinicians can make changes, and everyone else sees those changes immediately.

That’s going to be huge.

But most importantly—

You need the right technicians for the right disciplines.

You need to understand all the different softwares.

You need to know which software each lab is using and make sure everything integrates.

So, yeah—it's definitely, definitely doable.

We’re totally digital now.

Maria Cabanellas: That’s amazing.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: Yeah.

Maria Cabanellas: Thank you so much for sharing.

Dr. Fadi Yassmin: My pleasure.