We were lucky to catch up with Lejla Streets recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lejla, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

After completing Dental School at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine as part of the Army’s HPSP Scholarship, I was directly commissioned as an Officer in the AMEDD Army Dental Corps. Unlike a civilian dental practice, I was repeatedly exposed to soldiers who had unexplained tooth or jaw pain. Of course, as a new graduate out of dental school, we had barely any training outside of “fixing” teeth. As I am driven by understanding the Why to a given problem, I took advantage of phenomenal mentorship and Continuing Education courses during the years I was Active Duty. I was able to link the biopsychosocial model to soldiers’ ailments. I realized that those who are repeatedly exposed to stressful environmental and social events were at a higher risk of behavioral limitations in treating their Oral conditions. Unfortunately, diet and self-care tend to be the two first things that are most disregarded when placed under stress for over 24 hours a day.

After my mother’s diagnosis of a rare orofacial dystonia, I emersed myself in understanding TMJ Disorders and Orofacial Pain. With that, I sought out advanced training in airway and dental sleep medicine. That catapulted my drive to become a Diplomate in Dental Sleep Medicine and seek a Certification in Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine.

With all this knowledge and training acquired, I saw my limitations in providing appropriate care in the Army. Military health facilities are primarily concerned with ensuring soldiers are readily deployable and do not have any active disease in their teeth that would prevent them from being able to be present downrange. I wanted to treat chronic pain patients, and decided to establish my own private practice where I could achieve just that. With zero experience in business ownership, I sought after as much training as I could from all sources to include audiobooks, numerous podcasts, and my mentors.

Fortunately, my love for bridging dentistry and medicine has brought me to where I am today, and my yearning to learn more has not halted. My mission is to continue providing care to patients who have ongoing chronic pain, but to also prevent it from occurring in our youth. Through my own two children, I was inspired to learn more about pediatric development and Oromyofunctional Therapy. Parents have very little to no guidance from their pediatricians or family dentists in regards to facial development, proper nasal breathing, proper tongue resting posture, non-nutritive sucking habits, and mouth breathing and how all those things affect a person’s development starting at infancy. There is significant evidence that early intervention in correcting habits that prevent proper facial and jaw development can significantly reduce the risk someone develops Orofacial Pain and Obstructive Sleep Apnea later in life. Lets just say that I’m on a mission to do just that.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Lejla Streets, I grew up mostly in Boston, Massachusetts and came down to Pinehurst, NC after being directly commissioned to serve for 5 years on Fort Bragg. I fell in love with the idea of dentistry during my last year of being in undergrad at the University of Rochester in the absolutely frigid Rochester, NY. I have a passion for creative art, science and helping others.

I own my own dental practice, and while offering general dental treatments to include exams and fillings, the overall focus of my care is to bridge medicine and dentistry to address the Whys of a person’s conditions. I am a Holistic provider, and see the importance of functional therapy as a primary route to treatment. I focus on airway, I address TMJ related pain and disorders, I provide orofacial myofunctional therapy in children and adults 4 and older, and I have an absolute passion for cosmetic dentistry.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

For many medical providers who are looking to open up their own business, either private or bigger banks have phenomenal start-up loans. Of course, you are required to have substantial savings in your account (at least 10-20%) in order to be funded a loan. Most people don’t know that a start-up dental construction loan is well over $500,000, to include working capital that allows your business to sustain for the first few months while you build your patient base.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I can’t say this enough: Social Media marketing and connecting with other small local businesses. I heavily regret buying into SEO-based companies that promise to deliver phone calls, most which end up in spam calls. Podcasts that have helped me tremendously (especially to boost morale in not giving up): The Dental Marketer, The FFS podcast, and The Thriving Dentist. For audiobooks, I’ve enjoyed the following: The Bullet Proof Practice, Becoming Remarkable, Start Up Unscripted, Dental Practice Hero and Everything is Marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smilesinthepinesdental.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/smiles_in_the_pines
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/smilesinthepines

Image Credits
Credits: Lisa Miyamoto Makana Photography LLC