Rita Poddar: An award-winning Scottish businesswoman with cosmetic dentistry and facial aesthetics experience

Rita Poddar is responsible for the Dr Pod facial care brand and is the clinical director of three clinics in Scotland, with a thriving facial aesthetics practice. Here, she tells us a little about herself, her career, and her priorities.

“I always wanted to incorporate some kind of art into my career.”

“Being an artistic person, I always wanted to incorporate some kind of art into my career and also being an altruistic character, I always wanted to help my fellow man. I always knew my career would be in the profession of treating and helping patients, working alongside professional colleagues that I could assist, and they could assist me to become excellent in my craft.

I had a need for a holistic, minimally invasive approach to treating my patients and to develop the business head that I had grown up with from being around my grandfather who I watched as I grew up give 40 years to medicine and business in Scotland.

After a long deliberation, I decided that a career in dentistry suited all these desires. As I have progressed, I have realised that I am, and have reached a point in my career, where I am truly fulfilled with leading my teams of dental nurses, nurses, dental therapists, managers and dental surgeons and doctors.

To embellish my love for art into my career, I developed my special interests into minimally invasive cosmetic dentistry, oral surgery and aesthetics. I was able to perform neat, cosmetically pleasing treatments for my patients and use the least invasive methods. I was interested in reading and learning more and more about the latest innovations in cosmetic dentistry, especially where it involved removing as little of the tooth structure as possible under magnification.

I also am fulfilled in my career in teaching advanced face and neck aesthetics to my colleagues and peers. I again prefer the least invasive techniques with particular special interest in the improvement of skin quality and reversing some of the ageing effects of this.

I qualified from Glasgow University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery. I completed my vocational training in general practice in 2000 in Scotland. After achieving my VT number, I worked in two practices as an associate till 2003. In October 2003 I purchased my first general dental practice in Glasgow city centre. I was awarded my diploma in Member of the Joint dental faculties in 2012 from the Royal College of Surgeons England and more recently I have been awarded diploma in Member of the Faculty of Dental Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

I currently own 3 dental practices and currently lead a team of 8 associates, 2 therapists, 1 practice manager and 15 dental nurses.

For the most part of the last 20 years, I have undertaken over 20,000 facial aesthetic treatments on over 2000 patients. I believe this to be an underestimate of the actual number that I have done.

In 2011 I was invited to train with Dr Zein Obagi a world-famous dermatologist on learning about cosmetic skincare. He only trains a total of 45 people a year and I was very lucky to travel to Beverly Hills to be trained by him in his own clinic and training institute. I gained an USA recognised diploma from him in Cosmetic skincare in the ZO Skinhealth range and was appointed part of the ZO Skin Health Faculty in the UK that same year.

About 7 and a half years ago I developed a special interest in suture suspension non-surgical facelifts. I was trained by Dr Bob Khanna and realised that the use of PDO sutures placed strategically in the face, jawline and neck could create a natural looking lift without the patient needing to go under the knife with a plastic surgeon or maxillo-facial surgeon in the correctly selected patients’ cases.

The first pharmaceutical company that approached me was an Austrian company - Croma Pharma - who provide one the world’s top aesthetic injectable portfolios. In 2020, I was then approached by an aesthetic pharmaceutical company, who manufactured their own PDO sutures for facial threadlifting. They asked if I would be able to provide teaching in my PDO threadlifting procedures in 2020 to other medical, dental and nursing colleagues on their behalf.

I was also approached by Sinclair Pharma another pharmaceutical filler company that asked me to present and teach on their latest hyaluronic acid filler Maili launch. I have always been an advocate of safe and natural facial aesthetic treatments and over the last 20 years have developed some safe, effective and minimally invasive techniques. I also provide PDO threadlift training for La Belle Forme, Glasgow Day Surgery. This course is CPD approved.

In my career I have won multiple awards for entrepreneurship and business from 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 onwards. Scottish Asian Business Awards, Scottish Asian Women’s Awards, Scottish Dentistry Awards, Scottish Hair and Beauty Awards. With this recognition I was invited to a lunch with Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street in 2011 to discuss the work I had done with training teams and showing great leadership qualities.

I was again invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to a lunch at The Savoy in London to discuss support for him and the Conservative party.

I have been a speaker for the Royal Bank of Scotland for their business accelerator program to help young businesses to reach out and ask for advice. A presentation I gave was live streamed to all RBS business customers in the UK in May 2018.

I have also been filmed and part of an episode of a CBeebies television program called “Woolly and Tig”. This episode was about encouraging awareness about children going to the dentist and how important that was.

In 2020 a Scottish dental practice owner’s group was set up to help practice owners navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges faced. I was made vice-chairperson and still currently hold that position where we continue to relay the problems faced by dental practice owners and relay this information to the Scottish Government in order to provide the best care for our patients.

Looking to the future I am hoping to continue to teach Facial Aesthetics to Doctors, Dental Surgeons and Nurses to continue to keep the standards and safety for patients high in this area of aesthetics. I have been extremely privileged in my career to have supported my associates and nurses and therapists within my own clinics. Supporting them in pursuing their own ambitions and learning new skills.

I am also very fulfilled by the experience of teaching my facial aesthetic skills to colleagues all over the UK and the feedback from my colleagues has been phenomenal.”

For her Glasgow based facial aesthetics clinic, visit: www.peppermintcosmeticclinics.co.uk

The Peppermint Group cosmetic dentistry can be found on www.thepeppermintgroup.co.uk

For the Dr Pod skincare brand, go to https://www.drpodbrand.co.uk/