The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
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The Alimond Show
Dr. Maya Bachour - From Following Her Mother's Footsteps to Dental Innovator: Creating Calming Spaces, Addressing Sleep Apnea with Expertise, and Cultivating Holistic Health Through Personalized Care
Discover the transformative journey of Dr. Maya Bachour, the visionary behind Loudoun Smile Center, as she takes us through her inspiring path in dentistry. From being influenced by her mother's footsteps in the dental world to establishing her own practice, Maya's story is one of dedication and empowerment. With a focus on creating a soothing environment with her all-female team, Maya opens up about the unique strategies she employs to tackle dental anxiety, including virtual visits for sedation patients. Her approach to complete health dentistry is rooted in personalized care, ensuring that each patient feels heard and valued in their dental journey.
Join us as we explore the collaborative efforts in addressing sleep apnea, where Dr. Bachour's expertise shines through the use of custom oral appliances. By teaming up with sleep doctors, she ensures a comprehensive approach to improving patients' quality of life. Gain insights into the effective marketing techniques that have cemented Loudoun Smile Center's reputation in Northern Virginia, combining traditional word-of-mouth with vibrant social media engagement. With over a decade of experience, Maya Bachour shares invaluable wisdom on enhancing both dental health and overall well-being, offering listeners a fresh perspective on the integral role of dentistry in holistic health care.
I'm Maya Bashur. I'm the founder and owner of Loudoun Smile Center in One Loudoun. We are a complete health dentistry dental office. We provide the whole range of the full range of dental services and tell me a little bit about those services.
Speaker 2:I believe I saw that you have cosmetic dentistry, emergency dentistry, general dentistry, invisalign, restorative dentistry and sedation dentistry.
Speaker 1:Correct. That is right, woo. And we have sleep dentistry too, dental sleep medicine. But as a complete health dentist, we do provide all range of dental services. We cater for anxious patients. That's why we have the sedation dentistry. We do a lot of cosmetic dentistry and enhance smiles. Our office approach is very personalized, root cause and patient-centered.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's always the way to go patient-centered, right, yeah. Before we dive deeper into your industry, I would like to ask you for a little bit of a background about yourself and how you got started into becoming a dentist, and how did you know that this is what you wanted to do?
Speaker 1:Okay, I'd be happy to share that with you. So my mom is a dentist. There we go. It's been a longtime dream for me, ever since I was in high school. So I kind of knew I want to be a dentist. What I really did not know is I wanted to own a business. I wasn't planning on that, but I love dentistry. I love treating patients. I think it's very fulfilling. I was a dentist for nine years before I decided to open an office, so you were sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. What was the experience like being the daughter of a dentist? You always hear like my mom is always on my teeth. She was chill. She taught me all the tricks. What was that like?
Speaker 1:Well, it's a little bit of both. It depends, but my mom smelled like dental office. Okay, I always thought that's her perfume. I'm like she wears really weird perfume. Back in the days they used stuff that we don't use anymore, so everything was a little too smelly. Yeah, yeah, it took me a few years to find out that was not her perfume.
Speaker 2:Oh man, Now you're just like, let me make sure I don't smell like this, right Okay. That is so funny. And then I'd like to ask you how many people do you have on your team right now? 13.
Speaker 1:13 team members, all female. Okay, Women run women own girl power.
Speaker 2:What is that like? What's it like being the owner and being able to manage and handle everybody, like your clients, your team, everything.
Speaker 1:I love it. It brings me a lot of energy and I love it. When I'm there, I feel like this is where I belong. I'm lucky to have really good team members. Everybody shared the same vision take care of our patients. There's a lot of laughter in my office, a little loud, but it's really a good feel, has a good feel to it. It's good to be there.
Speaker 2:What is the ambience, or I want to say the look, of your office? What kind of feeling do you want or do you hope that it's bringing for your clients and patients when they come in?
Speaker 1:So when I leased my spa, the most important thing to me was light. I love light. So my office has windows. It's on the second floor and it's on the corner and it has windows just all over. It's white. I think it's very inviting, has some positive energy to it. It's calming at the same time. In my business, in my philosophy, my patients are the heroes in their health journey. So again, it's patient centered. We do everything to make them feel better, look better. I always tell my team our goal is for every patient to live better than they walked in.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love that and I think it is so important to have a place that seems very light and positive, because you know dentists can be very nerve-wracking for you or nervous, right. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, what are some tips that you could give to people who are maybe nervous or they feel uneasy, or maybe there might be a little bit of pain, maybe not. What are some words of encouragement that you would give to them?
Speaker 1:Share your fear because you're not alone. Don't feel intimidated, don't feel shy, don't feel like I'm a baby, I can't say it. I feel like when patients share where they are, what they're feeling in this moment, whether, if they're worried about being in pain, they had previous bad experiences, even if it's childhood experiences I think be open and share your fear. They had previous bad experiences, even if it's childhood experiences. I think be open and share your fear. And it kind of because we like to say that fear is false, evident, appear real. Yes, fear is very common, but from my experience I've been practicing for 20 years from my experience, when patients do share their concerns, they kind of go away. A lot of them are just coming from past experiences and they no longer exist. The patients are just carrying these fears with them, yay.
Speaker 2:So if you're listening out there and you haven't gone to the dentist and you feel nervous, I know a place where you can go with Dr Bashor, so that would be amazing. We also offer virtual visits.
Speaker 1:Look at that. We get to meet the patients because we do sedation dentistry. A lot of these patients don't when I come to the office not knowing where they're going, who they're going to meet, so we do virtual visits for most of our sedation patients, that's pretty awesome. Just to get to meet them from the comfort of their house when they're like safe space.
Speaker 2:Safe space no scary. Yeah, exactly, I love that. I love that option. Yeah, I'd like to ask you about the sleep apnea portion, maybe even for myself or people who are listening out there. What is the correlation between that and your mouth and the sleep?
Speaker 1:Tell me all about that I'd love to talk about that. So I'm a diplomat with the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. I got my mini residency at Tufts Great program. But then the reason I wanted to do it? Because we're a complete health dentistry. We don't look at the mouth as just a bunch of teeth that might get cavities and we need to drill it out. We believe that the mouth is the gateway for the rest of the body. Sleep comes from obstructive sleep apnea, so it's a lot of sleep apnea. If it's obstructive, it's anatomical, so there is an obstruction and breathing starts right here in our area. So moving the jaw forward actually moves your tongue away from your airway and relieve the obstruction so you can breathe better.
Speaker 2:Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, exactly, and it's a great alternative to CPAP for patients that can't tolerate CPAP, and a lot of patients don't like it or can't tolerate it, or they want to use it on and off, like they don't want to take it with them on travel. They don't want to use it more than twice a week, so they have another option to treat their sleep apnea without using the CPAP.
Speaker 2:Awesome. What are some common signs or symptoms of sleep apnea? Is this something you know, or know because you're sleeping?
Speaker 1:Yes, so you probably won't know it while you're sleeping, unless somebody else tells you that you stop breathing during your sleep Because if you have a bad partner you might snore, they might witness you choking kind of symptoms. Like stop breathing. But a lot of us just wake up unrefreshed, wake up tired. We need coffee to take us through the day.
Speaker 1:Um have headache, um anxiety, depression, adhd with kids, weight gain, um sugar craving to so many things yeah, for quick energy because we're not getting refreshed sleep um memory, like finding that we forget so many things. I just can't get a name. I don't know where I put my keys. Yeah.
Speaker 2:What are some of the treatments that you're able to offer for people with sleep apnea?
Speaker 1:We do oral appliances. So oral appliances or mandibular advancement appliances, as I said, it's kind of like a double night guard that's custom made and allow the patient to advance their job forward, to open up their airway. We don't work in this field alone. We always work side by side with the sleep doctor Perfect. So that's what our office is. We work with physicians, we work a lot with physicians, so with the help of the sleep doctor, together we can position the jaw in the best possible position to treat their sleep apnea. So we help with it. But sleep doctors are the real doctor that's treating the sleep apnea. We just put the jaw in the right position and we are able to identify obstructions and sleep apnea and refer these patients to sleep doctors for sleep studies and ultimately changing their lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it sounds like you guys are working together. I know you're like it's really the sleep doctors, but I think it's, yes, the sleep doctors, but both together make the dynamic duo to help combat this. Yes, absolutely, love that. And then talk to me about what you're doing for marketing. Are you using any video? Are you using photos, maybe little information graphics, online? Are you more word of mouth for marketing yourself?
Speaker 1:Yes, I think a little bit of both, but I mean we've been in the same location now for 11 years. I've been in Northern Virginia for 19 years. I practiced in California for one year. Okay, so a lot of word of mouth. Yeah, lots of word of mouth. But we try to be active on social media, having an informative website. We're involved with the community.
Speaker 2:I love that. What are you involved?
Speaker 1:in. We have troops, OneCo, LCPS, schools and teachers and activities there. We love to give back and we're involved with the community. So Mobile Hope. I just love being in One Loudoun, love being in Loudoun County. It's probably the best place I've ever lived wow, did y'all hear that? Love it. Thank you. What's a challenging thing that you've found as a business.
Speaker 2:Best place I've ever lived. Wow, did y'all hear that Love it. Thank you. What's a challenging thing that you've found as a business owner that you have found to be quite shocking to you or you weren't aware of, because you know, when dentists go to school they're not really Prepared for business. Yeah, prepared for business, right. So maybe somebody's out there who's listening and they're going through something and maybe they hear this podcast. Can you share an experience of where something was a little bit challenging but you were able to overcome it?
Speaker 1:I would say just do it. I was very, very hesitant about owning a business, but again I said I want to do a complete health dentistry that is highly personalized, root cause and patient-centered. And it's either a blessing or a curse, however you want to look at it. I could not find a practice to work at that has exactly what I want, so I figured that I have to create my own. It was very challenging. I was going through a divorce, trying to get a loan, at the same time having a little baby at home.
Speaker 2:Oh, man, you were busy.
Speaker 1:So it was very challenging, but if I did it, everybody else can do it. Look at that.
Speaker 2:You're living proof right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard, it's not easy, but it's good. It feels good when you do it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You're just like ah, eventually, eventually it happens. It was so hard to get a loan, I couldn't get a bank loan, so I ended up with an SBA loan, which is amazing. But Doors open, I think when it's meant to be, and it's your passion, and it's something that you want to do, the universe gives it to you somehow. I agree, multiple doors might close, but the door that you have to go through will open Will open, exactly yeah, and you look so happy.
Speaker 2:You're glowing and radiant. What do you use on your skin? It looks amazing. So yeah, you're proof, and I saw that you got your top doc for PerioProtect in 2024. What was that like? That was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Hello, it is pretty cool. It's one of the treatments that we use and it has to do with oral microbium which goes from the mouth to the rest of the body.
Speaker 2:Again, the mouth is a gateway for the rest of the body. Wait, can you go into that a little bit? That just scared me.
Speaker 1:We do saliva testing just to see what's in your mouth and Peri-Protect. Basically it's a hydrogen peroxide-based gel that is delivered in FDA approved trays that pushes the gel underneath the gum and just treat the environment there. Wow, so bad bacteria. Basically it oxygenates underneath the gum. Bad bacteria cannot survive. Good flora will flourish and will restore the balance. This is incredible.
Speaker 2:I never even knew about this. What Now I'm questioning things Anyway thank you.
Speaker 1:This is amazing information. Now I'm going to look into this.
Speaker 2:Might have to go to your office maybe. Thank you, we'll take care of you. And now, having your mom be a dentist, was she a mentor for you? Was she able to help, maybe give you some tips or some insights? Like, don't worry, I figured out the secret to this. I'm going to pass it on to you.
Speaker 1:You know my mom was a dentist but my mom wasn't really a business owner. I think I had real. I have to face it in real life that you have to be both. I feel like my mom wore one hat and that's where my passion for dentistry started. But I was very blindsided about you can't really do what you like to do unless you have control over the business. It's real and, as you said, school doesn't prepare you for that. Actually, my mom did not prepare me for that because she has no idea you were telling her like mom, oh my gosh gosh, yeah, she didn't take that route, but it's something that I think I had to learn on my own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, If there's one thing that you could let new people who are potentially going to be your patients know, what would that be about your practice and your dentistry and your team practice?
Speaker 1:and your dentistry and your team. We are very passionate about what we do, but we have a say in the office that we love. We say on a good day we save a smile. On a great day, we save a life and we love it. It keeps us alive and that's what our office is about. And that's what our office is about just having every patient look and feel their best. I always tell my team starting with our own yeah, you can't feed people from an empty cup.
Speaker 1:So we take care of ourselves, we take care of each other and together we take care of our patients.
Speaker 2:Wise words. Where do you hope to see yourself in the next five years, with your business and with yourself?
Speaker 1:With my business. I love what we're doing. Our goal is to make Loudoun County the healthiest county in the nation, so I would love to see more people being educated about how dentistry is just not having a cavity and get it filled. It's not just about cleaning your teeth. We do our best to educate patients and empower them to take charge of their own health journey. As I said in our office, our patients are the heroes and we're there just to support, educate and empower. Love it Myself. I think I would like to have a little bit more time for myself.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about that. Are you as a business owner, are you juggling a lot of things? Is it hard to put boundaries? Talk to us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:Yes, it really is as being a single mom, a business owner and a practitioner. I don't want to give up practicing. I love dentistry. I mean, my passion was never business. Now I like it, but it's not my passion. My passion was always dentistry, so I don't want to give up my clinical hours. So wearing multiple hats is super important. It is super important, but it keeps you busy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:If you look at my calendar, you'll be scared.
Speaker 2:I'm like this is too many colors, Just hearing this, just hearing this, I'm just like do you hope that maybe you can have some boundaries? Are you still working on it? Is it something you have trouble with? Setting yourself boundaries? It is my 2025 resolution we got this girl come on exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're working we're working on it I believe in you I usually block it on my calendar and then I'm like, oh, I have to do this, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2:That's the problem.
Speaker 1:You have to be like yeah, yeah, I have to protect my time.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly because if you don't take care of yourself, everything else can fall apart with it. You have to start healthy from within too, and it's hard, I know, because I go through it sometimes too, where I'm just like, no, I'm not going to, it's okay, I can keep taking more of this stuff, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Minute this is getting a little bit too intense I need to wind back a little bit. Yes, it's so true. Yeah, it's so true, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so true. And then, um, if you have one goal that you could accomplish for your business, what would that be? One that you haven't already accomplished?
Speaker 1:this is a good question. I think I have to think about it Again. My business is patient-centered. Just seeing patients getting excited about starting a new health journey, learning something. There are moments. I think this is what gives me a lot of fulfillment and satisfaction. I feel like that makes my day. I know I had a good day, it was a successful day. We share these moments in the morning cuddle every morning, we share about yesterday and what successes we had.
Speaker 1:We're very grateful for every patient that comes in, and I think that's what it is.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. Have you ever thought, maybe like wanting to expand or open another location, are you not ready for that yet, or not thinking about that yet?
Speaker 1:I do think about it, but I think I need to figure out time management just to have a little personal time.
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1:But I'd love to have a second location in London. Eventually Okay, eventually Okay, eventually.
Speaker 2:You heard it here first, everybody she's giving us her plans. And what do you like to do on your free time? I know we've talked about time management and a little bit of family and running your business and, hopefully, one day, two businesses, right. But what do you hope when you have free time? You're able to accomplish more. And what do you enjoy? And you're like, oh, one day I'm going to have more time to do this.
Speaker 1:Spending time with my daughter Exercising. Spending time with family and friends. I'm a people person. I love my family, I love my friends. I would love to spend time with everybody. I love to travel. Yeah, and then a little secret, I'm a foodie, ooh, so I love visiting, finding new, new.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite food?
Speaker 1:Good food. I don't have a favorite food.
Speaker 2:You don't have a favorite food.
Speaker 1:Everybody asks me, everybody asks me what's your favorite food. I don't know what's my favorite food.
Speaker 2:I love food. I'll take that that works, and is there anything that I have not touched on that? Maybe you want to share about yourself, your business, maybe you have a new product or a new service that you're going to be providing. You can take that moment to share with us, if so.
Speaker 1:I think we've talked about a lot, but I just want to emphasize that the mouth is the gateway for the rest of the body. Again, the say that we love is on a good day we save a smile. On a great day we save a life. I actually did write a book.
Speaker 2:Talk to us about that. What? Yes, yes, yes. This is why I ask these questions.
Speaker 1:I had a book. I wanted just to share it with everybody and the goal of the book was basically awareness. It just had little stories from the patients I encountered in the past. I think at the time I wrote the book was 17 years, okay. Okay, it just talks about real life stories of patients that had physical impaction because of dental issues and it was an eye opener for them and you got me in a good time. Actually, I'm super pumped because I just came back from Future of Healthcare Okay, where multiple dentists, physicians, therapists, health coaches, multiple people that are in complete health, that believe in whole body and integrative medicine, get together, share insights, new research, see what new things are doing, celebrate our successes. So I just came back from Costa Rica last week Wow.
Speaker 2:Girl lucky. That was amazing. You missed all the disgusting weather we had. It was snowy and cold.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, I came back to it. I came back to it as soon as I named it.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, Well, snow is nice sometimes, but sometimes when.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Single digit cold.
Speaker 2:So I'm glad that you were able to go over there, be with your community of healthcare professionals, but also be somewhere in a beautiful country with beautiful weather and just relax and learn. That was great. Yeah, that's awesome. And your book where can people find your book if they're interested?
Speaker 1:Actually it's on Amazon, but if you come to my office you can get it.
Speaker 2:We have it in the office.
Speaker 1:We give it to everybody Again. It wasn't that the goal of this book was just to raise awareness.
Speaker 2:Yeah and share experiences.
Speaker 1:Share experiences. Exactly. It's like you're not alone. There are people that went through this, so come on over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe she'll sign the book. I'll get you a signed copy. Yeah, and maybe she'll sign the book.
Speaker 1:I'll get you a signed copy, yeah exactly that's what I wanted to say. I'll get you a signed copy. Great minds think alike. I love it yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, oh, I had a question that I wanted to ask you and I'm glad I remembered Are there any misconceptions that maybe you would like to debunk? Or has social media played like a key part or component in your industry with misconceptions? Because a lot of people see things online or they're like oh wow, this whitens your teeth. You don't need to go to the dentist and try this, you could just do charcoal or whatnot. What are some things that you've seen that you just want to be like? In my personal opinion, I don't think this is a good idea. Yeah, I don't think charcoal is a good idea.
Speaker 1:There we go A lot of see, dentistry is very, very personalized. So the toothbrush that works so well for me might ruin your gums and vice versa. So it's really important to know your own body and use the right thing that serve you own body and use the right thing that serve you. Um, that's why we we just have variety of everything and that's why I say it's highly personalized. Um, there is no one size fits all in dentistry. Yeah, there is no people that are exactly the same. My daughter and I are not the same like even if that's mom and daughter right exactly you can.
Speaker 1:There's not so many people that are the same yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's why it's important to get the best opinion is go see your dentist. Go see a dentist to begin with, and they will give you your specialized treatment for your customized mouth what works best for you, exactly. Yeah, yeah, all right. My final question Do you have a quote, a saying or a mantra that has inspired you in your life or that resonates and you think about like that was a quote? I know you have your quote from your office, yes, but do you have a quote maybe that's inspired you? Or maybe your mom told you something that's stuck in your brain? Health?
Speaker 1:is greater than disease.
Speaker 2:Health is greater than disease, simple as that Very simple Very simple, but to the point, I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on our podcast today. It was a pleasure having you here. Thank you so much. Absolutely, it was a pleasure being here, yay, thank you.