Dr. Apa on His Approach, Dental Must-Haves, and Goal to Shake Up the Industry

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Michael Apa, DDS, is an aesthetic dentist known for his innovative method of natural-looking veneers that are custom shaped and fit to a person's features. He is a favorite among celebrities such as the Olsen twins, Chloë Sevigny, Uma Thurman, Lucy Hale, and many more.

In the latest episode of our podcast, Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr, Apa talks about his journey to becoming a cosmetic dentist, the impact that teeth have on anti-aging, dental must-haves to use at home, and his ultimate goal to shake up the dental industry. Keep scrolling to get a glimpse of our conversation, then tune in to the Who What Wear podcast to hear the whole episode.

I personally—even though I've worked in the beauty and fashion world for two decades—have not specifically connected youth or anti-aging along with teeth in that same way. How do those two relate in your opinion?

So your teeth are the support for the lower third of your face. I always use the example of a denture. If you see someone that has a denture take it out, their entire lower third of their face collapses, and they put it back in, and their lips are fuller, their jaws are fuller, their jawline is structured, and there's real vertical height in the lower third of their face. It supports the rest of their face, their skin. What's happening over time is we're getting to a denture. So our teeth are collapsing, and they're getting shorter and grinding down. And they're discoloring and chipping and staining and the obvious things, but their skeletal structure from the beginning will dictate what they're going to look like. When they go to a dermatologist or plastic surgeon, they're looking at facial collapse, but they're not understanding that it's their skeletal structure and their teeth. And so the dermatologist is going to say, "Oh, well, your lips are longer and thinner, so let's inject them, which is going to make it fuller and down more." Or they're going to do a lip lift. But it's not going to change the overall structure of the lower third of their face, which is really what they need. So if you understand facial aging, teeth have everything to do with how old you look and how fast. Now, obviously, it has nothing to do with skin and things like that, but it has everything to do with the support of your face.

Are there any at-home treatments or favorite products that you really like? Also, apparently, everyone needs an electric toothbrush, but I didn't know that. So what else does everyone need? And why do they need an electric toothbrush?

I think that a lot of people would benefit from a night guard to sleep with. Not the sexiest thing in the world, but what a night guard is doing is it is stopping your teeth from shifting, and it's stopping that vertical collapse that's happening to your teeth over time, like getting to that "I just took my denture out" look. It will substantially hold things into place. Even when I do someone's teeth, we make every single patient a night guard because it maintains the integrity of what I just did. So think of it in the opposite direction if you just wore it from your 20s when you do most of your grinding and your stress from all the things that happen in your 20s, all the destruction you would have avoided to your teeth. So a night guard is a thing that a lot of dentists don't talk about, which is super important.

Electric toothbrush. So number one: Electric toothbrush is on a timer, right? So you don't have to wonder like, Did I brush my teeth for two minutes? But you really do need two minutes to brush your teeth properly. Most manual brushes are scrubbers, which isn't fantastic for your gums. And that doesn't really get into all spots, you know? Then you have to think of the manual dexterity of people. Can everyone really use a manual toothbrush the way that they can an electric toothbrush? I would say 85% of the world does not know how to properly brush their teeth with a manual toothbrush.

You have a tremendous team, a tremendous practice. You have innovated so much in your area of expertise. What do you want people to remember you for? What do you want to do next? What is the scope of your ambition, doctor?

I mean, the ultimate scope is to change the dental visit in general. But it's a very broad statement, and in order to get there, a lot has to happen. I would say a five- to seven-year plan is we're going to have many offices with almost APA-trained dentists in these offices with a certain standard of care and cosmetics because there is no recognized specialty by the American Dental Association. Anyone can do anything they want. It's like everyone doing oral surgery or everyone doing root canals. You can do it, but there are recognized specialties to where consumers or patients can go to a board-certified endodontist or a board-certified oral surgeon, but they can't go to a board-certified cosmetic dentist. So the idea is to transform our offices into that board certification so that patients know when they're going there they're getting a certain standard of care, even if I'm not personally doing it. 

The ultimate goal is to change the dental experience. Why technology in dentistry has not evolved at the pace of technology in other areas of the world is completely insane to me as a dentist. If you went to dental conventions and spoke to other dental companies and the people that sit on these boards… It's nothing against anyone, but we're not seeing the big picture as an industry. … You know what really generates the fear in a dental office? The noise, the smell all those things. Why are we still using air-driven hand pieces that make the super-loud noise when you go into someone's mouth? Why do we even have chairs that look like those dental chairs? They just look scary because it's the same dental chair from the early 1900s with a couple modifications, but basically, when you look at those old pictures in 1900s, there's not much [that is] different. So I would say the ultimate—after we really create a standard of care in our industry—it's to change dentistry in general and really bring innovative concepts to the everyday dental visit.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next up, check out our previous episode featuring Chris Horan.