Dr Fareed Amod of Crown Dental Studio selected dentistry as an occupation as he has been driven since childhood to help people in the medical field. In addition, Dr Amod loves mental stimulation and while he was exceptional at mathematics at school he was not artistic and wanted to prove to himself that there was no skill that a human could not learn if they applied themselves - practice makes perfect!

Why should people take their dental health seriously?
Well, to be honest, prior to commencing my studies I was unaware of the importance of oral health. But very soon I learnt that a tooth, one of the smallest hard tissues in your body, can humble you. Whether you are a prisoner, a parliament member, a street cleaner, a policeman, or even a fellow dentist, toothache is unbearable. I don't wish such pain on anybody and I don't believe that anybody deserves to go through tooth pain.

I treat an old age home in my area and there is one thing all of the elderly people tell me, it is that they didn't realise the value of their teeth until they had lost them and had to wear false teeth.

What services does Crown Dental Studio provide when dental treatment is required?
Crown Dental Studio offers the full range of dental services including whitening teeth, cleaning - scale and polishes, veneers, crowns, orthodontics, root canal treatment and implants. The removal of wisdom teeth is often done on a referral basis as many practitioners prefer not to do this procedure. We even make mouth guards for sport players.

Most importantly and what most people want is the replacement of missing teeth.

What makes Crown Dental Studio unique?
I have set myself up to be unique and ironically my name Fareed means unique in Arabic. One of the ways that I go about being unique is that I am one of the only 24/7 hour accessible dentists in the country. I have earned the trust from most of my colleagues and when I get referrals from them, I initiate temporary relief or complete the first phase of treatment and then send the patient back to that doctor.

I pride myself on being a painless dentist but moreover patients love that I take a personal interest in them. I don't look at a patient as a client or a customer but wish to build lifetime relationships with them.

You are obviously business minded and have an enthusiastic business sense, how does that help you?
There are very few dentists who are business minded and very few businessmen who are dentists. I wanted to combine the two because I believe this could be very successful if done correctly.

Business has taught me that there are four things that you never compromise on and I apply these in dentistry:

• Ethics and principles
• Integrity
• Pride in your products and services
• Quality

How did you take your business and build up it up in such a small space of time?
It is hard work, perseverance, strong faith in the Almighty and support from my parents. And when life gave me lemons, I planted a lemon tree.

What is the vision for the future of your practice?
I would love to grow a team of equally enthusiastic dentists with different ideas but similar visions and quality of treatment. I would love to extend this unique service and approach to new places. The sky is the limit.

Crown Dental Studio is one of the few truly 24-hour dental practises in Durban as this is not limited to emergency dentistry treatment. 

T: +27 81 207 8621
E: info@dramod.co.za
W: www.dramod.co.za