Dr. Kourosh Maddahi: A Clear Choice For Dental Care
Written By Jennifer Niskanen, May 2015
Dr. Kourosh Maddahi started to participate in makeover television shows in the early 2000s, pioneering the dentistry subfield of Anti-Aging Dentistry. By analyzing how the position of the teeth impact the lower third of the face, he is able to not only improve the smile itself, but to provide support for facial features like the lips and cheeks that lose their elasticity over time making a person appear 10 years younger in just 2 weeks.
He has also developed an expanding oral hygiene product line that is much more natural, healthy and effective than many other alternatives. His mouthwash uses Dead Sea salt to preserve the ecosystem in the mouth, while neutralizing the toxins of bad bacteria, instead of killing, or creating harmful effects with sodium saccharin, SLS, artificial dyes or preservatives. Oral Essentials is free of alcohol, dyes, preservatives, sugar, BPA, and is non-toxic and non-acidic with a pH of 7.3. It’s currently selling on Amazon for $15.99.
His practice is one of the few that use BPA-free tooth colored fillings and materials that are in the 96th percentile for being hypoallergenic. He is also known for his speed when it comes to smile improvement, through his use of technology such as a Scan Tek sensor that can measure the force applied to each tooth, and a CAD/CAM machine for same day crowns. People fly from all over the world to have a complete dental makeover in just a week to ten days. To find out more, we spoke to him at length:
Q: People talk about you as a genius and Beverly Hills dentist. I would love to know, what makes you different from other cosmetic dentists in Los Angeles and all over the country?
A: I’ve been a cosmetic dentist for 28 years and when I say cosmetic dentist, it means that I don’t do any gum surgery, I don’t do root canals, I don’t do anything but procedures involving veneers, crowns and tooth colored fillings. Over my 28 years, I have pushed the envelope in a lot of areas. In the late 80s, early 90s I was one of the first in my field to use veneers to straighten out teeth for those people who didn’t want to do braces. That was radical at the time.
Q: Your line, Oral Essentials, how is it different from conventional mouth wash?
A: Have you ever seen a clear mouthwash? . . . When I ask that question, 99 percent of the time the answer comes back no, because there really aren’t many. The question is why? When I started to look at the market I found that most of what’s available is colored. Not because of the ingredients themselves, but because they have an artificial dye in them. In an age where we are so worried about the brightness and the whiteness of our teeth, and we’re doing bleachings and whitenings and Crest White Strips, and all of these different things, why would we want to rinse our teeth with something that has artificial dye in it? On top of that, why would we rinse our mouths with something that contains alcohol in it, or SLS, which is used in detergents and engine degreasers? These are common ingredients in mainstream brand names and they are not things I would want any of my patients to put in their mouths. The important thing to understand about that is anything you put in your mouth gets absorbed into your blood stream very quickly. So, what you use for oral hygiene doesn’t just affect your teeth and gums, it affects your whole body. If it’s not something you would feel safe eating, you shouldn’t put it in your mouth, even if you are spitting it out after 60 seconds.
Q: Where is it available? Where can people find it?
A: The Oral Essentials Mouthwash is already available on Amazon and our website, www.oralessentials.com, as well as dental offices around the country. That was a great sign that we had formulated something worthwhile. We started getting all of these orders from dental offices for it. When the toothpaste comes out it will be the same thing.
Q: You are also known for providing biodentistry and not all cosmetic dentists provide biodentistry, so can you tell me more about the whole philosophy behind it and what your services in biodentistry are?
A: I think the better way to describe it is to call it bio-compatible dentistry. Early on in my practice I found out there were a lot of different materials that could be used inside the mouth that people might have an allergic reaction, and there was no real explanation to this. My patients would come in and I would see inflammation of the gum around any teeth that had crowns on them, and I didn’t quite understand why, no matter what we did, there was still inflammation around the gums. I started to use a test called the Clifford test, which is a blood test that looks for different antigens and antibodies that are within the blood that show elevated levels towards certain kinds of materials, and with this test we are able to test more than 8,000 different dental materials.
Q: You are known for a rapid one week smile makeover, so how do you manage that?
A: When you are doing the makeover shows, you’re always under time pressure to make sure something looks really good as fast as possible. On top of that, I always had patients that were coming from out of town and needed this done in a very small window of time. These circumstances pushed me to create techniques that cut out all the extra time. Not to mention I work with some of the best technicians in the world, who work with me exclusively so I can get the best work, in the least amount of time possible. My philosophy has always been to get the work done right the first time, as quickly as possible, and as pain-free as possible for my patients.
Q: And also you offer same day implants and same day crowns, is that the same technology?
A: Same day implants are possible for us because I bring in some of the best oral surgeons to my office to perform those procedures, and with the same day crown, we use a CAD/CAM machine, which is essentially a computer that assists with design and manufacturing crowns and veneers. With that CAD/CAM machine in our office we can make single crowns on the same day.
Q: Your office has night-guards and all kinds of therapies to help people with clenching, I understand. Can you tell us about that?
A: One of the major issues in my industry is that 20 to 90 million people are actually clenching and grinding their teeth. These habits have many negative side effects, and a lot of the times it can collapse the lower one third of the face. By grinding their teeth, people lose the length of the teeth, and the face becomes squished. So, the use of the night-guards, and educating people so they can get diagnosed is so important for prevention of these problems in the future . . . We can actually heal some of the aches that they have had and by providing patients with night guards and awareness we are making sure that the work is maintained.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for your patients to have a healthier and whiter smile if one doesn’t want to undergo a whitening procedure? Is there anything they can do at home?
A: Understanding what is causing the stains on teeth to begin with is an important aspect of it. As the number of Starbucks are increasing in the United States, people’s consumption of coffee has increased. The same with the popularity of green tea, green juices, and dark berries because of their health benefits. As a wave of people understand that red wine has a good effect on the heart, the consumption of red wine has gone up. All of these trends also have a staining effect on the teeth . . . I suggest people use a vented lid cup, not an open cup, or use a thick straw to consume these things.
Q: Many people enjoy coffee all their lives and then their teeth become sensitive because of aging. Is there any solution to that?
A: I’m always very worried about the acidity in my patient’s mouths. Coffee causes acidity, carbonated drinks, alcohol, are all highly acidic. We want to stay away from acidic foods because, over time, they break down the enamel, which causes sensitivity, and more importantly, when the enamel gets broken you are more likely to have cavities.
Q: If people want to get in touch with you, what is the best way?
A: The office number is 310-888-7797, and the website is www.drmaddahi.com. If you have any questions you can also write in to info@drmaddahi.com.