Polish Your Pearlies at Smilepod

Traditionally, going to the dentist was on par with being stuck in a traffic jam for a really long time or being dumped by a casual fling in terms of desirability. However, with the sneaking ubiquity of the Hollywood smile, more and more are opting to spend extra time in the dentist’s chair, and with this buccaneering spirit comes a beauty parlour-style chumminess not found in NHS waiting rooms of yore.

Smilepod, a walk-in hygienist tucked away on a side street between Covent Garden and Soho, is staffed by three dentists who possess the training to fill and drill yet, for the moment, use their powers only to clean and whiten.

These powers would surely meet their match I thought to myself. My gnashers have taken the flak for an enthusiasm for such discolouring chemicals as are found in coffee, red wine and the white devil that is sugar. The enamel has rubbed off to the point that, in a certain light, you can see the shadow of my tongue flickering through like an ominous puppet. Finally, a night time teeth grinding habit has caused the long suffering dears to wear away until one day, like Venice and Amsterdam, they may be completely submerged.

Dentists don’t like it when you have troubled teeth. It makes them sad and angry like teachers faced with pupils that don’t do their homework. Usually my trips to the dentist are tinted with the vague shame and guilt that comes from having teeth that require two sides of A4 to explain what is wrong with them.

Yet from the moment I entered the cosy, street-level waiting room adorned by pictures of Marilyn, Audrey and the Mona Lisa, each with the Smilepod logo (a white half moon smile inside red lips) for a mouth I felt disinclined to adopt my usual timid silence.

Maybe it was the osteopath from next door who sat casually chatting to Angelique, the amiable Oxfordian dental nurse cum receptionist with the megawatt smile. Apparently, he’s always dropping in for a chinwag in between clients.

Maybe it was Diogo, the Brazilian dentist who soothed me with the words, ‘they’re not as bad as you make out’. Or maybe it was the fact that although my smile may remain more Susan Boyle than Susan Sarandon, there is now a cleanliness that makes the hand scaler, ultrasonic scaler and polishing strips (basically mini sandpapers) seem like acceptable things to have had in my mouth.

Cosmetic dentistry is not a substitute for good old fashioned oral surgery but a glimpse of what a happy white smile resembles can be the jewel that makes those crowns seem worth the trouble.

Smilepod
23 Rose Street
Covent Garden
WC2E 9EA

Tel: 020 7836 6866

Monday to Friday 9am – 7pm
Saturday 11am – 6pm

www.smilepod.co.uk