Natural Way to a Perfect Smile Revealed by Dentist!

Let me introduce you to one of her kind. She's a woman entrepreneur, a holistic cosmetic dentist based in Beverly Hills, the place where all the who's who high profile celebrities go to. And she is one of her kind because she's of Indian origin, although born raised in America. And her background is amazingly interesting because her dad is a very high profile doctor who was a general surgeon, studied in Ames. Ames is something when I was studying I tried to give the exam and I was like, I can't get in here and I literally had to put the paper empty. His dad is a general surgeon from Ames in Delhi, which is huge deal back in India. And then mom very artistic, made paintings, financial planner. But she gets her artistic attitude from her mom and her medical dental attitude from her dad. So combination is Anjali introducing you to Anjali Rajpal, the famous Beverly Hills Indian origin doctor that everybody looks up to. She's also a socialite, she is like known everywhere. Welcome to the show Anjali. Thank you for sparing some time to meet with us.

Thanks. Thank you for having me here.

I'll give you the mic for a minute. Tell us a little bit about you, how you grew up, what made you come into dentistry and not follow your dad into surgery or your mom into being a painter. I know your sister is oncologist, very famous oncologist. So tell me about yourself. Start from the beginning.

So I don't know, I guess I grew up in Michigan. Both of my parents were obviously very good with their hands. My dad being a surgeon, my mom just being creative, painting, cooking, whatever she had. So I think I had a natural inclination to always work with my hands. I was always just making arts and crafts since I was little, dancing, playing different instruments. I naturally I went to undergrad in Michigan, went to dental school in Boston at Tufts and then I matched for residency out here at Cedars Sinai. So I was always in the Beverly Hills area because I transplanted right into it where Cedars is. And so during college I was pre medical, I was following my dad and my sister's pets, but there was nothing in medicine that was really grabbing me. And I also wanted to do art and I just kind of torn between the two. So I ended up talking to this student that just dropped out of medical school and went into fashion design. And she told me that, oh, maybe dentistry would be a good mix for you since you like working with your hands. And so I immediately shifted over into the dental path and it's such a perfect fit for me because it is kind of Arts and crafts all day. And so it's fun for me. But then there's also the scientific aspect that's mixed into everything. And I love the personal patient contact and being able to help heal people and make them smile more and help them emotionally build confidence by being able to smile more. So there's just all these like elements. I studied biopsychology as my major is the psychological element of dentistry as well that I love. And so. So yeah, I've basically been in Beverly Hills primarily since I moved here. Actually always since I moved.

How many years since you moved to Beverly Hills? And by the way, for people who didn't know, Cedars and I is like the place to be. It is where all who's who actually go to get treated. It is one of its kind. It's where all Hollywood kids are born, literally. I don't know anybody in Hollywood who's not born in Cedars. So it has been their institution to reckon with. So tell me about your current practice. I know you're very holistic. Maybe it's your Indian roots. What do you exactly do today? Is it general dentistry? Is it cosmetic? What do you exactly do today?

I'm basically a cosmetic dentistry practice, but also general dentistry because I feel like they're kind of fused together. Everything I do in general dentistry looks cosmetic. I'm not placing silver fillings anymore. So everything I'm doing is basically to enhance the beauty of the smile and the health of the smile so that I'm very long term minded. So I really make sure that all my cases are treatment planned so that my patient smiles. They look amazing. But I want to also make sure that they're super healthy for the long term. So that's kind of my holistic minded aspect of it because I just want to make sure that everything I'm putting in my patient's mouth is biocompatible. And I prefer to use natural products like your products because there's so many toxins in our environment already. So I just want to minimize the toxic load to my patient's system. And everything we do in terms of general dentistry, the routine cleanings, we see our patients every three or four months. It's really to manage the bacterial load so that they are not having systemic issues. So obviously the mouth is connected to the rest of the body. So whatever I'm doing in the mouth, I have to be considerate of how is this going to affect the rest of everyone's body.

So I've seen a lot of people nowadays being very cautious of Saliva testing. The old, older generation of dentists never bothered with it. Do you have any idea of what is saliva testing and why is it important or if it is not important at all?

I think if you're not really suffering from any condition, it's not, it's super necessary. But for patients that are having periodontal disease that just for some reason seems unmanageable, it's really good to just find out what is the specific bacterial microbe that is causing the destruction of their gum and bone tissue. To try to use maybe a specific antibiotic or specific procedure to handle that specific microbe and get it under control so that it doesn't again affect the rest of the body and cause destruction beyond the oral cavity.

And what do you think of these filling means? I see composite fillings. It used to be silver fillings, it used to be metal amalgam fillings. So a lot of people who got filled maybe 25 years ago are very scared to use our oil pulling. They keep talking about would this mess up my filling? I always tell them if the filling is not loose and it is done right, it wouldn't have any problems. What is the difference between these different fillings?

Well, silver fillings, they have an alloy of non precious metals plus mercury. They definitely have lasted well through the years in a lot of cases. But the mercury content is. I think if you have a lot of silver fillings, it's a good idea to try to, to control the amount, to maybe just reduce it to at least a few fillings. The silver fillings do not bond to the tooth structure the same way that composite bonding bonds to the tooth structure. If you are performing the bonding technique properly, you will get a very stable, strong, long lasting bond that there's no way oil or food or anything else can disrupt that bond. It's not, it's pretty much impossible. So if it's done properly, then it's completely sealed. There's no way any bacteria can just leak into that margin because it has become one with the tooth. And I practice biomimetic dentistry where we really are focusing on the powerful advantage of the latest bonding capabilities. Because bonding technology has improved significantly through the years. And because of that, you don't need to be cutting down tooth structure unnecessarily. So I'm very conservative in my preparation of veneers. I try not to do crowns as much as we used to years ago because it really isn't necessary. So I'm doing a lot more veneers and inlays onlays when necessary. And just a lot of composites. I'm very. One of my favorite things to do is just handcraft, artistically composite bonding to sculpt the edges of my patient's teeth. That way I'm preserving their entire tooth structure and just adding back on to whatever they have naturally ground down. So like I said, I'm just preserving whatever my patients have because my patients are generally a pretty young population. And even if not, there's no. There's no need for me to be destroying tooth structure. I really want to be preserving everything.

So you. You're actually. You've got a way to not have a crown, instead have a inlay or onlay, whatever you're telling. So can you explain a little bit more detail on that? Because a lot of people are prescribed either crowns or root canals, and they are, like, really scared because not only is it expensive for most people, because dental insurance is hardly worth can for people. It's a big cost, especially for people that are living in remote places. Even finding a right good dental surgeon to do all this work is not an easy job. And then the crowns that they get made, the labs aren't that quality labs. So what do you suggest? What should they ask their dentist? Because normal dentists are very crown hungry. How are you different from normal dentists that are recommending that? Because that has caused a lot of anguish. The dentists normally have been doing a lot more root canals and a lot more crowns and a lot more stuff that is unneeded. Are you in agreement or is that just a talk?

I mean, I'm so focused on what I'm doing and how I'm practicing. So I'm not positive what everybody is doing everywhere else. I just follow thought leaders and people who are thinking more along the line to use the technology that we have and the techniques that we have to our advantage to protect tooth structure. So there's a time and place for everything. You do need a root canal if there's bacteria that have entered the nerve chamber and have infected the entire nerve, or if there's been massive trauma to the tooth and the nerve structure has died. So you do need to do a root canal to get in there to remove any of the diseased, infected tissue and seal it off with a root canal. And if a root canal is done by a proper specialist or someone that is very knowledgeable of how to perform a root canal so that it is thoroughly debrided, thoroughly clean, then it can last for a long time. And then you can determine after, depending on how much the tooth has suffered, whether there's already large restorations in it, how, how much the tooth is compromised, whether it needs a crown or whether it can do with an inlay onlay. You have to evaluate each tooth tooth based on its own particular situation. But in terms of the lab work and all of that that you're talking about, my goal is always to make extremely natural looking restorations. I don't want my patients to walk out and have these fake looking, opaque looking, blinding smiles. I want them to look really natural and to flow with their facial features so that it looks like they have a beautiful smile that suits them and it doesn't look like they necessarily had dentistry done. It's just somehow they have this natural, beautiful smile. Because again, technology has improved so much that we have the capability to put very natural characterization into our veneers and crowns. Now you can make them look completely like natural teeth. So I definitely are lean to the side of making natural smiles. If a patient wants a really fake smile or a very opaque looking smile, I obviously can do that for them too. It's pretty patient preference, but in general I lean towards doing more natural looking smiles.

Got you. And the crowns, how important are they? And is onlay a replacement to a crown or you need crowns at times.

So onlays you usually will use on back teeth on molars or premolars. So if there's a small cavity, I'll usually just put a basic composite filling in there because that can withstand the stress. Okay. If they're a medium to large sized cavity, that's when I'll typically move over to an inlay or onlay because if it's molar or premolar, it might be getting a lot of stress through the years and it might be helpful for a lot of my patients. They grind their teeth. So it's better to have something that will last through the years a little bit better. I'll use a porcelain inlay or onlay. It just kind of fits like a puzzle piece and into that area where I've removed the old filling or the decay, whatever's there. You can also use them on root canal treated teeth if necessary. But it for front teeth, you're not really going to do an inlay onlay. Those are typically going to be veneers or crowns if really necessary. But I typically like, I prefer to do a veneer with some composite backing or something if it's possible to get to get away with not doing the crown.

How long do these onlays last?

They can last Years and years. It again, all depends on the dentist technique and how well they are bonding the materials to the teeth, as well as how well the patient is maintaining their oral hygiene. That's why we constantly monitor our patients. Every three to four months, we do exams. Every year, we're checking their periodontal health, their periodontal pockets. We're always checking for cavity in terms of the bonding technology. If they're bonded properly and solid and they're maintaining their hygiene, they can last years and years, like 10, 20 years sometimes.

When it comes to hygiene, what do you suggest to your patients?

So we make sure they're brushing twice a day and flossing once a day. If they are struggling with the manual toothbrush, then we'll advise them to advance onto an electric toothbrush. But if they're doing great with a manual toothbrush, we're completely fine with that. And as long as all their brushes that they're using are soft bristled, we will just modify their technique if they need any assistance in improving their plaque reduction. And then we teach them how to floss if they're not flossing correctly, making sure that their floss is getting a little bit underneath the gums on both sides of the teeth. And then mouthwash is not mandatory. It can be incorporated if we feel like they do have inflammation in their gums and their pockets are a little bit deeper. That's why we measure the gums every year, to just see how well the gum is attaching to the tooth, to see if there's any anaerobic bacteria lurking under the pocket. So the mouthwash, because it's a liquid, so solution, it can get into the base of the pockets better than your toothbrush bristles can. So if a patient is having inflammation, bleeding gums, we're managing it every few months, but their pockets still need to resolve. Then mouthwash will be a good addition because it'll be an antibacterial solution that will help flush out the area. And of course, I love your mouthwash because it does not have alcohol in it. Mouthwashes with alcohol are fine every so often, but I don't think it's the greatest thing to use on a daily basis because it can cause dryness and irritation of the tissue a bit over time. Especially a lot of them have synthetic ingredients in them. Once again, I'm trying to minimize any toxins in my patient's mouth. I. I would typically just tell them to use a saline rinse with iodized salt. But because you have products that are Similar that have saline solution in them with the essential oils. The essential oils are just more soothing, antibacterial, anti inflammatory. So being Indian and having studied a bit of Ayurveda, always being exposed to all these different oils and herbs. Like I love how there's ashwagandha and neem and turmeric in some of your products. These are all clove, cinnamon, cardamom, like so many things that we cook with. Because I actually think that Indian cooking is a science in itself. And we've grown up with garlic, ginger, cardamom, all of these things. Turmeric in our foods naturally, because we know that food is medicine and so we've always, Indian food just naturally has these things incorporated into the food because it's great for our body. They have always known that scientifically. So again, if we're going to use a product in our mouth, it's great to have all of these oils infused into them already. And there's nothing synthetic. So that's why I'm a fan, because it's really what I would be using myself as well.

Great, thank you, thank you for all your compliments. Basically our idea was the same, the same Indian curry that people used to say, oh, stay, what is this curry guy coming? When I came to us, like some people would even call me, hey, curry, come here. I was like, really? And this is back in the day and now things are totally different now. The CEO of Microsoft and CEO of Google, everybody is from India, so I get a different kind of respect. And we've got hundreds of employees here. So the world has changed. But I remember back in the day things are not the same now. The same curry which is made by turmeric which has curcumin in it. Turmeric and curcumin is the single largest selling supplement there be. It sells worth $8 billion. $8 billion. And everybody wants to eat turmeric because they've realized that this single unbelievable herb is responsible for so many things. It is one of the most amazing anti inflammatory gift given by God to mankind. So everybody's on turmeric, but luckily I grew up eating turmeric so I put turmeric like a half a spoon in my omelet and I feel I don't need to eat a capsule anymore. That said, other thing that I really would want listeners to know is why do you think everybody needs to go to a dentist? Because most people go to a dentist when they are totally getting a bad pain or they're almost dying in, in the sense that they don't know what else to do. And that's when they go to the dentist versus most people, or at least the dentists say that you should visit us twice a year, get a cleaning done, get yourself treated, because oral health means overall health. So what is your opinion?

I mean, obviously, prevention is always better. When your tooth hurts, it's usually gone too far. We try to catch cavities when they're small and manageable. If the cavity grows so large inside that it invades the nerve tissue, it's going to hurt. And at that point, you're going to need a root canal. So you really want to be catching these things, having us take X rays and us monitoring you so that we catch these before, before they get out of hand. And same thing with inflammation in your mouth. If you have a ton of buildup underneath your gums with all this bacteria and you just let it sit there for forever, you can, yes, you can get a huge infection inside your tooth. You can also get a huge infection outside of your tooth. And you can get the formation of an abscess, which is just filled with bacterial pus. And that huge pool of bacteria sitting in your bone also or sitting in your gums, it has the ability to just travel through the vasculature into your blood vessels. It can potentially cause heart disease, stroke, endocarditis. It can be linked to diabetes, Alzheimer's, preterm pregnancy, all of these things. So you just. If there's inflammation in your mouth, it's huge, usually meaning that now there's inflammation in other areas of your body too. So you just want to reduce all of that. We don't see our patients every two, twice a year. It's every three to four times a year, depending on their gum health. But if things get out of hand, I mean, especially in the front teeth, infections can travel directly into the brain. That's so dangerous because your nasal sinuses are here and your cavernous sinus. So you have just these open areas where bacteria have free range to just roam and cause havoc in other parts of your body. So it is actually pretty serious to make sure that your teeth are healthy and your gums are healthy and your tongue, too. Back to Ayurveda. Your tongue breeds bacteria and fungus and virus and debris and all these things. Things. Another thing with Indians going to India. Since I was a little kid, everybody had a tongue scraper. It was on all of my family's cousins, aunts, uncles, toothbrush cups. It was just everywhere but here. I don't know why it's not part of root.

It's soon becoming. Actually, you would not believe tongue scraper is the fastest growing oral care product in America. Like about just 10 years ago or seven, eight years ago, Wendy Williams, when I gave her a tongue scraper at her show, she said, is that a soda water bottle opener or something? And so people did not know what is a tongue scraper here, Literally. And now everybody is starting to know it. Everybody's starting to realize because once they use it, within less than a minute they know how phenomenal they feel. It is not just changing their breath immediately. They taste their food better, they feel satiated better. They just feel overall such a huge difference in one go that they, they said, why didn't I ever use it before? So yes, India's 5,000 year old ancient civilization versus people here are 3, 400 years ago when they got populated. So huge difference. I think that ancient wisdom is starting to come handy. It always takes time. And I think all these social medias like YouTube and Facebook and TikTok have helped really assimilate the world. And people like yourself who have origins in India and people like myself who traveled here and became US Citizens, we are the ones who are really forbearers of the torch to bring western world the enlightenment that they had back in India in the ancient times. So hopefully we can find a common ground and enlighten the world. Now, before I go next, I would want to ask you, is there any specific message you want to give to the world here? All the listeners here that number two, I would like you to give your social media handles so that people can follow you and your details of your office, if you're okay, comfortable saying, so that in case somebody is in Beverly Hills, I don't know how many people can afford you, but if you are, and if you're looking for a celebrity dentist, she's an amazing one. I can vouch for that. So give us all your details, plus give your message to the world.

I mean, everyone is always welcome here. My office is an open home to everybody. Our goal is really just to make people feel so comfortable getting their work done that it's actually an enjoyable, painless, relaxing experience for them. But ultimately my goal is just to make everybody smile more. That's all I want to do. I just want them to feel joy on the inside, joy on the outside, just expressing themselves through their smiles. It's really what we should be doing every day here on Earth is just smiling. Yes, absolutely. So I want everybody to feel comfortable with their smile. So that they can smile. I have just tried to create an environment where they feel happy here and.

Where all Are you on social media? Can you give your handle out?

Yeah. So everything is the same. My Instagram handle is Beverly Hills dental arts. My TikTok handle is Beverly Hills Dental Arts. So is my YouTube. My website is BH dentalarts.com and so everything is really just Beverly Hills Dental Arts. We're just on Roxbury Drive in the golden triangle of Beverly Hills. 90210 beautiful guys.

In case you guys are in Beverly Hills or if you are actually going looking for a great dentist in Beverly Hills area, she is unbelievable. I will put all her links in the details in the comment section and please follow her in all the areas. She has a lot of words of wisdom that she shares on her social media. So thank you so much. Anjali, any other words of wisdom or can we call it a day today?

I don't know. Just. I hope you guys all have a wonderful day.

Thank you, thank you. Thank you for having me smiling and keep the world smiling. Thank you, Sam.