Meet The Man Behind Huda Beauty's Smile

Dr. Michael Apa is not your average dentist. In fact, he says that what he’s doing has nothing to do with dentistry in the traditional sense at all. Is this because we don’t see the average dentist jet setting around the world first-class on Emirates? Or the string of celebrities we see posing with him next to his infamous gold Apa sign in his practices? Or maybe it’s because he’s built a global dentistry empire with offices based in New York, LA and Dubai? Well, yes, but also so much more…

- Carmel Harrison

Dr. Apa never actually wanted to be a dentist. “I wanted to be a pediatrician, but it was considered a major achievement to go to dental school in my household,” he explains. “I was like, yeah I’ll do dentistry, and then I kind of just put blinkers on. I did three years of college and went straight into dental school.”

He’s the opposite of the old scary dentist that you remember from childhood. The one with the big frightening chair and the sterile practice with broken toys, the one hour waiting time that caused your nerve levels to reach petrified by the time you walked into his room. In fact, he’s friendly, easy to talk to and slick, just like his state-of-the-art luxurious dental practices. You won’t find him in one of those haunting white lab coats either, he prefers a well-tailored suit by Brunello Cucinelli and loves the finer things in life, like his fancy drive to work – “I get driven around like an idiot in a G Wagon. I sit in the back and it’s one of the most uncomfortable cars to be driven around in. It’s like you are a piece of popcorn, popping around over every speed bump and cobblestone. It’s just terrible, I should really get a Range Rover,” he laughs.