Today we’d like to introduce you to Karnik Shah.
Hi Karnik, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Mumbai, India. Since a young age, I was always interested in reading texts on biology. While my friends and cousins spent their entire holiday season on the playground, I would atleast dedicate an hour or two on reading encyclopedias and thats where the love affair started with human biology.
Therefore when it came to choosing a field to study medicine, dentistry and pharmacy were my natural choices. that I chose dentistry came down to my love of art combined with my interest in studying human systems. dentistry gave me an avenue to keep exploring my artistic side.
Through dental school, the field of Prosthodontics and oral surgery excited me the most. These are probably two of the most extensive and involved branches of dentistry and throw new challenges at you everyday. Many of the procedures involve rebuilding the lost dentition, reconstructing oral tissues that have been lost to disease or trauma, thus helping people Smile. Being a surgical prosthodontist, I thrive the most when challenges are thrown at me and force me to stay out-of my comfort zone. As some one has rightly said “Smiles are the art we create and the joy we share. My passion is growing beautiful smiles and letting their confidence ripple far beyond the chair. I truly live this purpose, literally and figuratively through dentistry and prosthdoontics – grow each smile’s story, elevate it, and share its brightness with the world.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As always, nothing worth doing has ever come easy. And this has been true for me as well. When applying to dental Prosthodontic residency , I was on waitlist for Five out of the Eight I applied, And did not get through any. Then the second time, on waitlist for Four out of Five and inexplicable did not hear from the sixth school – the Ohio State University. On contacting the school, I found out that my application was missing some documents but I wasnt informed, how these disappeared, just my application rejected. I contacted the then program director and as luck would have it, he liked my application, invited me for an interview after the regular cycle and offered me the position the same day and here we are now!
Another life changing incident was when I decided to build start-up dental practice a few years ago. As is common in these situations, the landlord delayed giving us the possession of the space, then expected us to just be okay to take the space with only the pre-final permits, since it was the final day for him to had over the space of he would be a default for breaking the lease! On top of it, my construction manager stopped answering our phone calls two days prior to starting the project and we got the news that he had a family emergency. However, on further investigations, we found that his costs had shot-up far beyond the initial estimates he had received from general contractors, so he just assumed that we will not be able to afford it and decided to just ignore and stop answering us. Then me and my business partner had a fall-out as well and we had to shelve the project. We had to settle out-of court with the landlord to get out of the project and then part ways. But as fate would have it, this current practice I own, Clover Smile Studio – the day it came on the market, I submitted an LOI, met the previous owners and already had a handshake deal while taking some time to figure out the actual process of buying this practice.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Clover Smile Studio?
This is a Cosmetic and dental implant office. We specialize in Cosmetic dentistry including Veneers and Smile makeovers as well as implant dentistry including single dental implants as well as full mouth implant based dental rehabilitation. One of our most popular service is “Special Occasion smiles” to get people ready for their big day be it weddings, birthdays, graduations or any other events important to them. We have improved several smiles for weddings through teeth whitening, veneers, crowns and implants.
Our other very popular offering is the DIIOR smile – Definitive Immediate Implant-based Oral Rehabilitation. In other words, full mouth reconstruction and rehabilitation using dental implants to provide a whole new set of permanent fixed teeth.
We are very proficient at wisdom teeth extractions from the simplest to the most complex.
We also provide emergency dental services often with same day treatments, and have had amazing results especially with cosmetic and esthetic dental work.
We also offer in-office full sedation or general anesthesia for patient who need extensive work, for our DIOOR smile patients and anyone else who would like to avail of these services.
We employ the latest in dental technology including 3D xrays (CBCT), Intraoral digital dental scanners, 3D printing among other things.
What are your plans for the future?
The future holds many more smiles transformed – through our special occasion smiles and through our Full arch dental Implant services – the DIIOR smile protocol, not just in Austin and the surrounding suburbs but all across Texas and beyond.. I am an Implant educator as well and passionate about teaching these skills to other dentists and provide access to these highly specialised services for entire communities at large.
I look forward to expanding my practice and having multiple locations in other cities in Texas in the next 5 years and beyond. I have a lot of prosthodontist friends all over the globe and I plan to collaborate globally on Smile makeovers and Implant rehabilitation as well, clinically as well as through education.
Pricing:
- Single dental implant starts at $3500
- Single jaw 8 dental veneers start at $7000
- Teeth whitening starts at $700
- DIIOR smile starts at $22,000
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cloversmilestudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clover.smile.studio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CloverSmileStudio and https://www.facebook.com/teethdesigner
