Episode 69: How Oral Health Boosts Your Career Success

[0:05 – 0:46]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Welcome to Save Your Money, Save Your Teeth, the go-to podcast where curiosity meets dentistry straight from the experts. I’m Eon and once again chatting to Dr. Clifford Yudelman from OptiSmile and it’s time for another deep dive into the world of dental care from a consumer’s perspective. Today we’re speaking to CEOs, entrepreneurs and digital nomads about how a confident, healthy smile can be your secret weapon, whether you’re closing deals in the boardroom or even just networking on Zoom from across the globe.
Let’s get started. Dr. Yudelman, welcome back.

[0:47 – 0:56]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Thank you. Thanks for having me back. Looking forward to today’s podcast because next week is podcast number 70.
I didn’t know I had so much to say.

[0:56 – 1:00]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Yes, yes, yes. What a milestone. Congratulations.
We’re going for 100.

[1:02]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Yes.

[1:03 – 1:09]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Dr. Yudelman, how can a better smile genuinely open career doors?

[1:09 – 3:35]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
So, good question to start. Thank you. So, career doors could be, you know, entry level when you’re just getting out of university or getting out of school into the workplace or someone who’s mid-management and would like to work their way up.
And it works not only for careers, but today we’re speaking about in the professional space. So, a good smile or being confident when you smile projects confidence and trust. And when you’re having client and colleague interactions, you just come across a lot more confident and people will trust you more if you smile more.
There’s a lot of research to show that. It enhances first impressions in interviews and in presentations. So, I guess they’re similar.
You’re giving a presentation that’s almost similar to being in an interview and vice versa. And one of the biggest things I think is it signals attention or it actually shows people that you’ve got professionalism and also self-care. You know, if your teeth are brown or you’ve got a cavity on a front tooth or you’re missing a tooth on the side, you know, just behind your canine tooth and you think, well, people can’t see it when you look straight ahead.
When people see missing teeth, it just makes it look like you don’t really look after yourself. And then they start thinking it may not be true, but that’s what people think. And with a great smile and all the confidence and everything that I spoke about, that could lead to more networking opportunities and also more referrals.
I mean, I might love my insurance guy, but maybe he’s got terrible teeth and you come to me and you say, who do you recommend for insurance? And I know that you look after yourself and you’re into looking after your appearance. And I think, oh, yeah, you know, I like the guy, but if I refer Eon to John, yeah, he meets with him and he sees he’s missing half of his upper teeth.
He’s going to think that he’s dealing with some hillbilly or something. So I say to you, no, my guy’s okay, you know, but I can’t really recommend it. I think it’s a good example.
Hillbilly, oh my gosh. No offence to any hillbillies that are listening.

[3:36 – 3:41]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
But that’s the whole thing. They don’t know they’re hillbillies. Oh, that’s funny.

[3:42 – 3:54]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Thank you. I think in Cape Town, I don’t know if it’s politically correct to say the word burgee anymore, but it’s basically a person who lives on the hill or on the mountain.
I lived in America 16 years.

[3:55 – 4:08]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Yeah. Okay. Right.
And then, Dr. Yudelman, what are the top three dental treatments that instantly enhance your professional appearance?

[4:08 – 5:56]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Okay. So if you’re talking about instantly, I think I have to start off with having a professional cleaning and an immediate, like getting your teeth polished to see what the actual colour is like underneath, because stains on the teeth need to be removed with ultrasonic scaling and a professional grade, you know, polish or air polish.
And then the dentist or hygienist can assess and recommend if you’re really in a hurry, you got that interview next week, you start with in-office whitening that works really well, and you’ll leave with your teeth two or three shades lighter and brighter, and you’ll have a more youthful smile.
Of course, you have to follow up with take-home trays to keep that smile white and to get it even whiter. We’ve done, I think, five podcasts about teeth whitening, but it does work. And if your teeth are on the more yellow side, I think that would be a great one to have right at the top.
Invisalign aligners, clear aligners for straightening your teeth. If you’ve got crooked teeth, straighten your teeth and it’s discreet, you can keep them in during meetings, people can’t see them. And anywhere from three or four months up to eight months, most people have lovely straight teeth without braces.
And the last one that we’ve spoken about quite a bit is composite bonding to repair any chips or to close small gaps. And we really favour something called injection-moulded composite bonding over any kind of drilling or veneers. And we’ve done, I think, also six podcasts last year about the difference between bonding, injection moulding, and veneers.
So go back and check those out. But I’d have to say those are the top three to enhance professional appearance.

[5:57 – 6:06]

Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Okay. And then how common would you say is smile-related insecurity in boardrooms and networking events?

[6:06 – 7:03]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
You know, there’ve been surveys that show over 50% of professionals avoid smiling in photos. You go on a lot of these corporate websites and you look at pictures of all the people in the C-suite, they’re all, most of them are not smiling. Many people avoid public speaking or pitching to clients due to dental self-consciousness.
Insecurity often can undermine your perceived credibility and authority. And addressing concerns yields immediate confidence boosts. We see that with patients.
They come in with stained yellow teeth and they get a clean and a whitening and they go home with trays and they already, you know, they’re sort of mildly happy or they feel, oh, that looks a bit better. And we see them a week or two later and it’s almost like a personality change that, you know, smile and the world smiles back.

[7:04 – 7:15]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Yes, that confidence boost really helps, I’m sure. But are hiring managers really influenced consciously or not by a candidate’s smile?

[7:15 – 9:04]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Great question, especially for people out there trying to get a job. So there are studies that indicate a genuine smile increases likability up to 30%. So if you’re confident and you’re happy with your smile, which I’m not saying your smile has to be perfect and white and straight, it’s more a case of how you feel about your smile.
And we did a whole podcast very early on about being confident and about smiling with confidence, even if you, you know, maybe you’re a lot more self-conscious about one or two teeth that are slightly rotated and people don’t notice that as much as maybe you do. But definitely if you’ve got a genuine smile, whether it’s straight or not, you know, that can increase likability by up to 30%. Candidates who smile are viewed as more approachable and competent.
If you, you know, if you’re not smiling and you’re biting your lip and you seem, you just seem incompetent, like you, you’re having second thoughts, whether you can do something. Nonverbal cues like a healthy smile can sway people’s subconscious judgments. So even if people are trying to ignore the fact that you’ve got, you know, dirty teeth, subconsciously, they just can’t, they just can’t get that out of their subconscious.
And yeah, a strong dental presentation can really, I think, tip the balance if it’s between you and maybe someone who’s, who comes across not as good in interview, but they got a great smile and they’re confident. And, and, you know, especially if it’s a sales job or if you’re going to be customer facing, if you’re an accountant and you’re going to be in a backroom, you know, typing away on your computer and the client never sees you, all means have dirty teeth.

[9:05 – 9:13]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Yeah. And which cosmetic options would you say give the biggest wow factor without breaking the bank?

[9:13 – 10:31]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Yeah, going on from what we said earlier, I think at home whitening trays go a long way. They, they’re really not terribly expensive. A couple of grand, you get your trays, 380 or so rand, a tube of gel and a tube can last a week or two, you know, before you know it in a few weeks time, your teeth are nice and white.
You would have to start off with a good clean, if they’re not clean. And if you’re in a hurry, you could do a single in office session, which, which does add a, quite a bit of extra costs, but it does get the results quickly. If you’re going for an interview next week, composite bonding for single visit or small chips or discolourations, that’s, that can be inexpensive.
As soon as you go up to veneers or injection moulding, it does add some cost. Fair aligner tune-ups, if there’s a few teeth that are slightly crooked, that really bug you, even though people might not notice it. You could get some minor teeth straightening and, and that shouldn’t break the bank.
And just, yeah, having a nice good clean and polish for instant refreshing, you know, instant refreshment of your, of your smile and also to boost your confidence before you, you go in for that raise or before you go in for that job.

[10:32 – 10:41]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
And how quickly can someone see a return on the investment from a professional grade whitening or even aligners?

[10:42 – 11:31]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
So, yeah, let’s just talk about the bonding. So it’s usually done in one visit or injection moulding is done in one visit. So it’s instantaneous.
Whitening is, you know, you come in, you get your teeth cleaned, you have a one hour in chair session. It’s instantaneous. The next day or the same day your teeth are white, it doesn’t take long.
Small movement aligner cases, you start seeing a lot of changes after three or four aligners. So six, eight weeks, a lot of minor issues are straightened out and improved confidence can translate into career gains within, within weeks or months. Just, just as those things are coming right, your confidence increases.
And you start noticing a big improvement in the workplace.

[11:31 – 11:38]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
And Dr. Yudelman, what daily habits would you say sabotage a confident smile at work?

[11:39 – 12:58]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
I mean, everybody loves their coffee, but if you, if you’re drinking a lot of espressos or, or like I like Americanos, that obviously can stain your teeth, but a good clean on a regular basis will take care of that. Red wine, some people drink a lot of red wine or these very heavy red wines. They can make your teeth look quite purple and tea can actually stain, stain, rooibos tea.
Some of those teas, if you drink it really strong and black. For me, one of the worst things is when people don’t floss or if they don’t brush properly, or we did a programme just recently, I think last week on electric toothbrushes versus manual toothbrushes, you got puffy and red gums and recession. That looks the worst when you see someone with, with red bleeding gums.
Nail biting or chewing on pens. We’ve done a few podcasts on that about biting your nails, biting your lip that can cause chips or wear. And then using very abrasive toothpaste and wear away the teeth and sort of make them look flat and dull.
So those are things that can be sorted out or prevented.

[12:59 – 13:05]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
All right. And for the remote workers, how can they maintain a professional smile on the video calls?

[13:06 – 14:15]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Yeah, I mean, video calls since COVID, a big thing, Zoom. After COVID, everyone was on Zoom. People now will work hybrid.
So many people work hybrid or even from home or from bootleggers or one of those coffee shops, people are on video calls. And obviously with the cameras being so good, they really make your teeth look even worse. So ideally you should have good lighting.
If you got nice looking teeth and the lighting isn’t good, your teeth can look like quite black in between. I would check my smile in the camera before you log in or have a mirror handy. Make sure there’s nothing stuck between your teeth.
You can use trays. If you’ve got take home whitening trays, you can touch up every few weeks and keep your teeth nice and white for very little cost. The touch up will cost you, the amount of gel you use might be 10 or 20 rand.
You know, a few little blobs of gel from that tube. Wear it for half an hour to 40 minutes and your teeth will be sparkling again.

[14:15 – 14:21]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
If you’re working from a coffee shop, it’s probably best to avoid eating anything with spinach before you have a video call.

[14:24 – 14:29]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
The parsley or spinach in your teeth, even if it’s a piece of…

[14:29 – 14:30]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
That’s a real devil.

[14:30 – 14:37]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
At least with spinach, you can see that it’s spinach. If it’s a piece of chicken pie or something, you know, brush your teeth.

[14:37 – 14:49]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Yeah, exactly. All right. And Dr. Yudelman, which smile enhancing treatments are most discreet for patients who can’t take much time off?

[14:49 – 17:12]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Yeah, most of the stuff we’re talking about is very discreet. The clear aligners, you really can’t see them. You can wear them 24-7, except when you’re brushing and eating.
The take-home trays, you can use overnight. We don’t like the overnight gel. If someone’s got aligners, we give them overnight gel because they’re wearing them anyway.
But we use something called Polar from Australia. It’s a hydrogen peroxide. If someone’s listening to this from the UK or some countries don’t allow hydrogen peroxide for whatever reason, it’s being used in America.
We use it very safely in South Africa. That’s from Australia. They use it in Australia.
We use a 7.5% or a 9.5% hydrogen peroxide gel. It’s not just straight hydrogen peroxide. It’s a special gel that strengthens your teeth and whitens them.
And it also sorts out your gums if they’re a little bit inflamed. Yeah, that’s something you can use for, as I say, every day until your teeth are white and then for touch-ups. The single visit composite bonding is done in a single visit.
You don’t have to take much time off from work. And virtual smile design. If you’ve come in and we’ve done a one-and-a-half-hour digital exam with photos and scans and x-rays, and then we’re using new software called SmileCloud.
That’s amazing. It uses AI. We put your photo in and we adjust how your teeth could look.
And then we create a virtual movie of you speaking with your new smile. We can send you a link to that or meet with you on Google. Yeah, it’s amazing, the AI.
And yeah, I’ve just signed up for a course because we can take it a step further and actually use that in your final design, which is all in the same software, which is amazing. We keep investing and reinvesting in new technology here at OptiSmile. And yeah, like a Google meet to save you from having to come into the office.
If you’re a busy CEO and you’ve come in and you want to know what your teeth will look like, if we don’t do it at the same time, now with this AI, we could prepare it the same day or next day, meet with you, send you a video link or meet with you on Google. So you don’t have to take a lot of time off the office and we can do all the preparation, the design work, and you can come back in and get it done in one visit.

[17:12 – 17:22]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
I love how you integrate AI. I think that’s amazing. I mean, imagine watching a video of yourself with your new smile and I’m sure it looks very realistic as well.

[17:22 – 17:47]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love AI, especially I’m very loyal to ChatGPT.
My daughter got married last year and I’m hoping she calls one of my grandkids ChatGPT because then I’ll get a lot of air time from me. I’m going to spend a bit of time with ChatGPT and I’m going to be with a grandkid.

[17:47 – 18:01]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
You can ask it anything. Right. Final question for today, Dr. Yudelman, what’s your single best tip for anyone who’s nervous about investing in their smile for career growth?

[18:02 – 20:36]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
We’ve done a few podcasts about nervousness when it comes to actually, you know, sedation and people are very nervous, oral sedation and so on. But sometimes people are just nervous or they have a lot of questions, how much is it going to cost or they’re nervous for other reasons and they don’t want to go and spend money or spend an hour and a half to get all these scans and x-rays and everything done without knowing what it is that we might suggest. So we offer a free 15 to 30 minute video consultation that you can book straight online with myself or one of my other fantastic team members here.
And you send us a few pictures ahead of time and we meet with you on a Google Meet, which is like Zoom, and it saves a transcript for us right into your chart and it’s free. So, I mean, there’s no need to be nervous about that. I think you need to look at the treatment as a strategic investment in your career, if not only your career, your personal life.
If you, if you, you know, very shy and you’re not confident because of your smile, it might help you to meet a person of your dreams. And it’s not a luxury expense. It’s not like you’re driving a car that gets you from A to B and now you want a fancier car or a faster car, you know, although those things might be important to some people.
Your smile, I think, goes a long way and it’s not as expensive as a car. In many cases, it can be if you, you know, if you’re overspending on veneers or getting crowns everywhere. So, yeah, I would ask to see some before and after cases on similar professionals.
We don’t put any before and afters on our social media or on our website. We save that for privacy reasons and also HPCSA and advertising reasons. You’re not really supposed to put before and afters on social media, although people do it.
We do show people what their teeth can look like and show other cases when we do these one-on-one video consultations or when we have patients come into the practice and at the end of their consult, they might want to see similar cases. So, we do show that. And just remember that confidence from your smile often pays dividends very quickly.
So, it’s really something to get going, if not today, tomorrow.

[20:37 – 20:46]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
Yes. And that’s it for another episode of Save Your Money, Save Your Teeth. Dr. Yudelman, thank you so much for joining us as always.

[20:46 – 21:04]
Dr Clifford Yudelman – OptiSmile
Thank you and thanks for all your great questions and looking forward to speaking to you next week about virtual consultations. We’ve sort of spoken a little bit about them in the past and on other podcasts, but we’ve got a brand new one for you next week.

[21:05 – 21:53]
Eon Engelbrecht – E-Radio-SA
And speaking about virtual consultations, remember if you would like to take your professional image further, you can book OptiSmile’s 90-minute digital consultation with scans, x-rays and a customised treatment plan or start with a free 15-minute video assessment. Head to OptiSmile.co.za or WhatsApp 071 140 0396. We’ll keep those details below the podcast as well.
Also, remember while we strive to provide valuable insights with these podcasts, always consult with your own dental professional for advice tailored to your personal health. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. Until next time, keep smiling with confidence.

[22:13 – 22:58]
Voiceover – OptiSmile Promo
Discover the world of dental excellence with OptiSmile. Join us for a weekly podcast featuring Dr. Clifford Yudelman, a seasoned expert with 40 years of dental experience across four continents. Gain unique insights and expert dental advice by visiting OptiSmile.co.za for articles that illuminate the path to optimal oral health. If you’re seeking unparalleled dental care in Cape Town, get in touch with OptiSmile or book directly online on OptiSmile.co.za. OptiSmile, where global expertise meets local care.