This dentist office feels different. A look inside pearl.
In a good way? You decide.
At pearl. uptown, I felt spoiled. I walked down a red carpet that was unrolled on the sidewalk and opened the glass door to the lobby of the brand-new dentist office.
I was immediately offered a flute of champagne (declined).
I ran into Paula Bartlett of #thesavageway, who helped promote the June 17 grand opening. The office had a soft opening for the past couple of months as it gained clients.
The vibe here, according to Bartlett, is: “We want to make you feel special.”
And calm. There are five treatment suites, each with the option of donning noise-canceling headphones if you can’t handle the sound of a drill.
And if you just can’t handle your wandering mind, each one also has two flatscreen TVs. One in front of your surprisingly comfy chair, and one above, for when you are reclined and your dentist or hygienist is peering into your mouth.
Don’t bother getting stressed out about what to watch. Dental assistant Christy Crowder has show recommendations. “The most popular is ‘Orange is the New Black,'” she said. “‘Scandal‘ is one of them, and ‘Friends.'”
As for being one of five all-female staff members here, she said, “It’s a lot of fun … We go down the hall, we’ll be dancing.”
Did I mention there’s hip music playing?
Don’t freak out, but one aspect of your dentist visit might interrupt your Netflix viewing: images of your mouth projected from this device:
Really, it’s meant to enlighten you. To allow you to see what your dentist is seeing.
Then there is the Nomad system, a digital x-ray machine that, according to Crowder, gives off 80 percent less radiation than the traditional x-ray machine. This means the dentist or assistant can be right in the room with you when she uses it. It looks like a laser-beam gun, no?
Now it’s time to meet the dentist, Dr. Jenny Gandhi, 32. “I wanted to change the perception of dentistry,” she said, by reducing the fear factor and feelings of unease.
“I always knew I would start my own business,” she said. “I have an entrepreneurial spirit … That’s why I went into dentistry — because I wanted to do something in health care, but where I could own my own office.”
The waiting area in that office has a giant TV:
Her husband’s career as a physician led her, and them, to Charlotte. “When we came to Charlotte for his fellowship,” she said, “we fell in love with this city.” They have been here for two years.
Why she parked her office in uptown: “Uptown has that age group that I want to treat. My age group, really. So we have a lot of 25- to 50-year-olds uptown.”
Her favorite part of the office personality: “The culture when you walk into the door. What you see today is really what you get … You feel good.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2015 at 11:00 PM.