Transforming Lives from the Inside Out

 

Who is this happy, energetic, Orthodontist in a Bow Tie?  I had to find out more about Dr. Salins after seeing the photos of completely transformed smiles he engineered on Instagram.  I invited him to be on the show, and he accepted.

Having been in the business of working with kids and their teeth for more than a decade now, Dr. Sheldon Salins takes his work of transformation seriously. What he does in his office is more than just attend to your teeth. Anyone who has been there will tell you that he is an artist of transformations. That was my single, biggest take-away from our interview.

 

Dr. Salins is eager to share lessons from various stages in his life, ranging from his family, upbringing, education, and relationships to his practice.

He is very proud to show off the work ethic he learned from his parents, who were immigrants from India, that moved from Canada to Florida, for the warm weather.  Anyone would be proud if their parents set the example of entrepreneurship he was raised with. If you looked at the orthodontist Dr. Salins is today, words like ‘dedication,’ ‘commitment,’ ‘hard work,’ love,’ and ‘diligence,’ come to mind, all of these from the important life lessons that he picked up from his parents.

Dr. Salins loves to see the world, not to mention the love and positive energy with which he talks about his work. He found a way to put these together by being a participant in a number of educational and philanthropic trips around the world. 

On an invitation from a former Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek Murthy, who was a friend of Dr. Salins when they were kids in Florida, he embarked on a sex education trip to Banglor, India.  He has shown that anyone can touch the world in more ways than just the field they are professionally trained in. He also took a trip to Uganda to do dental work with the orphans there.  Dr. Salins is also a member of Impact Club Union City which donates thousands of dollars to local causes here in the Tri City Area.  

From his website: Sheldon Salins D.M.D., M.S.

Dr. Sheldon Salins is a Board Certified Orthodontist with a Doctorate in Dentistry from Harvard University. Dr. Salins earned his Master of Science degree and completed specialty training in orthodontics at the University of California at Los Angeles. His dream was finally fulfilled when he went to UCLA for his orthodontic residency, where he obtained critical specialty training for three additional years to create smiles that look beautiful and last a lifetime.

Dr. Salins remains involved in many dental organizations and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. He is the Past-President of the Southern Alameda County Dental Society. He is also an active member of the American Association of Orthodontists, the Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists, the American Dental Association, the California Dental Association, and the San Mateo County Dental Society.

He is also part of the clinical faculty at the Craniofacial Anomalies Center in Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

As I said, Dr. Salins creates transformations.  When he sees one of his patients on social media that only smiles with their mouth closed, or hides their smile with their hands.  Nothing is more satisfying than to see the big grins in their pictures after he is done transforming that smile.  He is great at social media himself.  You will have to listen to our interview to hear the story behind his Bow Tie.  

If you ever see a kid in Dr. Salin’s office, you might notice how relaxed they are. Sharing an insight into how he gets them to take their minds off the fear of dentist, Dr. Salins replies that he doesn’t “Ask typical questions [such as] Did you brush? Did you floss?”

Instead, he takes a rather conversational approach. In his own words,