Dr. Shoaib Durrani, with a list of eminent achievements and experience since the past 15 years, has established himself to be a Dentist of repute, integrity and is famous for using techniques that result in nearly painless procedures. With a strong focus on patient-centric dentistry and consistent hard work, he has been successful in eradicating the atmosphere of fear related to dental treatments. Dr. Shoaib Durrani has made it his goal to bring awareness to people about the importance of dental care and the dire consequences of neglecting it.
Meeting him once will make you visit, Durrani’s Dental Clinic, for the rest of your life! Dr. Shoaib Durrani is not only a great dentist but a person who is striving, with every passing minute, to make this world a better place by filling it with happy and healthy smiles and getting rid of all the pain.
What inspired you to become a dentist and how has your Journey been?
While I was studying I realized that oral hygiene is really ignored and all over the world other than Pakistan, people were very much interested in making their teeth clean and maintaining good hygiene. I thought that I am going to make a mark on the dental landscape over here, so that we can help people achieve good oral hygiene & good oral health.
If not a Dentist then what?
If I was not a dentist, I would probably be in some multinational as a marketing or a sales person, designing campaigns for them.
Let’s talk about DDC, how would you say it’s apart from other the dental clinics?
Established in 2019, Durrani’s Dental Clinic is a premiere dental care facility. DDC is a purpose-built dental care facility offering comprehensive and pain-free dental treatments, ranging from simple general dentistry and restorative procedures to complex procedures such as cosmetic dentistry, invisible and conventional braces, dental implants, and full mouth rehabilitation. Here, we get your dental problems diagnosed with utmost care; thus, the vision behind this clinic is to deal with any and every kind of dental issue under one roof.
What makes it stand apart from other dental clinics, is that we have designed the entire clinic based on patient centric experience. The minute they enter the smells, the sounds and the ambient environment that we have created, will definitely reduce any patient’s anxiety and fear of what they will generally from a dental clinic. Our motto is genuinely redefining dental experiences for the masses as well.
DDC has a vision to provide painless and stress free experience, how do you ensure to fulfil that commitment?
What I have noticed in the past 16 years is that patients generally have a lot of fear, because they don’t know much about the experience that they are going to have. One of the main thing that we focus on is informing our patients and basically educating them about what the entire procedure would be like. We do practice profound anesthesia which is a concept where we have a little more of anesthesia and we take our time for it to take its full effect. There is no hurry, there is no hustle we just generally make sure that the patient is comfortable before we even start a procedure.
Who would you say is your target market?
My target market is actually anybody who is very scared of their dental treatment and concerned about their dental problems. We aim to be accessible by everybody, but of course the way that it can be done is that we spread more awareness that dentistry has completely changed into modern techniques due latest advance technologies. Things have gotten a lot better in the last 15 years and we will surely ensure that your experience over here is always comfortable.
What do you think is the biggest misconception when it comes to dental hygiene?
I feel the biggest misconception is, that people don’t seek treatment if they have bad breath or dental problems. The easiest thing to do is get scaling done where we remove the bacterial layer which is around the teeth. Some people think that, scaling is going to weaken the teeth but actually it strengthens the gums, teeth and the bone that give support to the teeth.
You have traveled around the world, do you think our health sector has been able to meet the international Standards?
In the last 10 – 20 years, we have definitely improved as far as our dental services are concerned, but I think there is a very long journey towards meeting the international standards. I believe that private sectors have really upped their game and they are really interested in giving a very good quality treatment.
What do you think are the vital points for client satisfaction?
There is only one vital point for client satisfaction and that is to have a complete disclosure of their condition, explanation of their treatment and making sure that they understand it. There are two different things, one is to explain something and the other is to make sure they understand what they are going to undertake. The most important thing is communication that is the one and only key.
What challenges did you face during the pandemic?
We opened our practice in 2019 and two months down the Covid pandemic broke out. I knew that when we set up the clinic, we were going to have optimal hygiene and sterilization standards and we just had to sort of repurpose certain things over here. Our protocols and SOPs were up to the standards, so the only thing we had to do was that we changed our policy of having a lot of patients at one time. Now we only treat one family at one time, so that there is a close group who is going to be treated and then there is a 20 minute fallow time which basically means that we disinfect all surfaces so there is no cross contamination happening.
What would you call as a turning point in your life?
Turning point in my life would be, when I was working with Dr. Altamash at his private practice. There were certain events that we used to hold, all I saw was a guy in his mid-60’s, who works throughout the day but at the same time would continue getting education all over the world. That sort of put things into my perspective because I would generally think that I am very well read and I have information about a lot of things, but international exposer and continuous dental education is the key to remain at the top of your game.
Dentist by the day, Rock star by the night so what’s all that about?
While working at one of the colleges, we used to hold a lot of events and I do sing a little here and there, so my students gave me a title “Dentist by the day, Rock star by the night” which was just hilarious because it sort of brought about my whole routine during those days.
What musical instrument do you play?
I play all musical instruments including the flute but my favorite is definitely the guitar. It helps me compliment my singing because rhythm guitars sort of gives a certain feel to somebody singing and enjoying music.
We have heard you are a champ at the shooting range as well, please enlighten us.
You can call me a champ, because I got selected for the National shooting team and then the South Asian Federation team, where I represented our country and I had the privilege of winning a gold medal and two silver medals for our country. It was an elevating experience because I put our country Pakistan on the map and I aim to do the same for dentistry as well.
Any advice on how to maintain oral hygiene?
Everybody knows how to maintain oral hygiene because everybody understands now compared to say 20 years ago, that they are supposed to brush twice a day for two minutes and floss their teeth. I just want everybody to understand that this is the simplest way to avoid oral diseases. If you brush twice a day and floss you are really not going to have any dental problems. If you think you brush for two minutes, trust me no one does so if you have a timer you will realize it takes quite a while to maintain good teeth and hygiene.
