hands down.  this is coming from someone who works primarily with men – being in the car business.  nothing against boys.  they rock too.  but there is something special about the breadth of responsibility and the depth of compassion that makes me in awe of my gender.

meet ramona and dr. ami doshi.  

i had to get my old silver fillings replaced saturday morning at 9am.  who the hell picks saturday morning at 9am to get drilled on?  i guess i do.  i was dreading it.  i had only met ramona, the dental assistant and dr. doshi the dentist the week prior.   this was dr. doshi’s office and instantly, you can tell it was going to be a different experience.

first of all, they take appointments 2 saturdays a month for those of us (all of us?) that work during the week.  next, when you check in on facebook to her practice, you get a full size tube of extra whitening toothpaste (value $6!).  next, you sit down on a gentle massaging chair and just about the time you notice that the chair is moving, you hear the sounds of lindsey stirling coming from the computer in the office playing pandora.  unlike other experiences i’ve had, this isn’t one of those dentist offices that is run by hygienists and the dentist just makes an appearance, more like vice versa.  ramona, a young, vibrant, full of life hygienist, born in romania and lived there until she was 15 now is married with 2 small boys.  she makes sure you’re extra comfortable .  dr. doshi is young as well and also has 2 small boys.  she is originally from india. she takes digital pictures of your entire mouth and then shows you on a hd tv what your mouth looks like and what she is observing.  you don’t have to just believe her like in the old days of dentistry.

now that you have the layout, here’s my point:

while i’m getting massaged in the chair, head back, pandora playing, laughing gas on high (morning!) dr. doshi and ramona go to work as a team on my teeth.  everything’s normal at this point.

but then they start talking about their kids, recipes and questions ramona has for dr. doshi on her son playing football because her boys are just a couple years older.  ramona respects the dr and is attentive to her needs as she drills endlessly and  a steady stream of mist is spurting  from my mouth.  but you can tell that they are friends.  ramona tells me that dr. doshi brings in the best samosas she’s ever had and then we launch into a full conversation about india.  ramona wheels her chair around and punches some bollywood music.  dr. doshi talks about the rich culture and many types of music of india.  i’m smiling behind my glasses and pink pig snout laughing gas mask at the fun repertoire

this is when it hit me i wanted to write about these two.  because this is business run and managed by a woman.  attention to detail, attention to care and confident enough to bring her whole self into the office.  you don’t have to be a woman to appreciate it either.

as i leave and ROF comes in, wondering what is going on because we’re all giggling.  as she checks me out, ramona gives me a free whitening pen for referring ROF.  she also gives me a piece of paper where she wrote down all the music i was asking about.  nice difference.  and nice pen considering on my end it wasn’t so much as a referral but killing 2 birds with 1 stone by making his appointment along with mine.   sigh.  i love it.

Tags: Birmingham, dentist, dr. ami doshi, old fillings, strong women, women businesses, women owned businesses