publive-image

DentalX is an award-winning dental clinic in North York, Toronto, providing a full range of comprehensive dental and oral hygiene services. Founded in 2013, the clinic’s kid-friendly, family dentistry care provides patients with a relaxed spa-like environment. DentalX offers affordable oral healthcare rates, and the best dental hygiene treatment options in Toronto. The clinic has a multi-lingual staff of dentists and dental professionals that speaks languages, including English, Spanish, Albanian, and more. DentalX’s goal is to make its customers visit the clinic with an all-around positive experience, and it wants all the patients to leave with a fresh, healthy smile. 

Meet the Trailblazer 

Anaida Deti is the CEO of DentalX. She immigrated to Canada from Albania 18 years ago with her husband. They had only a few hundred dollars with them and a big dream of building something but not much else. Anaida did not speak English so she had to start everything from scratch. She worked seven days a week while going to school full time. After a few years of finishing school and getting her licence as a registered dental hygienist, Anaida founded DentalX in 2013. DentalX started with only her, booking appointments in her car and seeing patients in the late afternoons or Sundays after she worked all day for other dental offices. Now she has about 12 staff members and an award-winning dental office. 

Anaida founded Mission Kind (Kids In Need of Dentalcare) to help children aged 6-16 obtain much needed dental work at no charge. She is a coveted speaker at dental conventions and seminars. Her passion and dental expertise have garnered her media coverage on Rogers Daytime Television, Sirius XM Radio’s What She Said, GlobalTV, CTV, CP24, CTV NewsChannel, Newstalk1010 and more. Anaida has been featured in the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, Elevate Magazine, Parents Magazine, Focus Magazine and more. She is a dental blogger for Huffington Post, Thrive Global and Inside Toronto. Her blogs are usually featured on the Oral Health Group website. 

Anaida loves to help the community. Every December DentalX offers free dental/dental hygiene services to people in need. In December 2017, the clinic offered free services to 30 people from the Red Door Family Shelter. And not only that, it had a whole day planned for them, with lunch, a magic show, where Santa made an appearance and gave the kids Christmas gifts and much more. This story was featured on Global News and Yahoo Canada, to name a few. In December 2019, DentalX offered free services to teenager moms that cannot afford dental services. The clinic had a whole day planned for them and their kids. Anaida always comes up with great ideas to help the community and educate them on oral and dental health. 

Offering Relaxable Ambience to Patients 

DentalX is a full dental office, offering all dental services from dental cleanings and check-ups to complicated extractions and implants. Anaida wanted to do something different compared to traditional dental offices. DentalX is an alternative option for the public where the clinic focuses more on the preventative side of dentistry by offering longer dental appointments which include deeper oral hygiene instructions, including visuals. 

The DentalX office looks different as well; it feels more like a spa than a dental office. The clinic offers different relaxing techniques for the patients making the dental appointment more enjoyable and less scary. 

Dentalx specializes in seeing nervous patients that do not like going to the dentist. The clinic’s warm environment and techniques make them more comfortable. It is an amazing feeling when patients come in and tell dentists at the clinic they look forward to their appointments. 

Inspirations to Achieve Dreams 

Ever since Anaida was a young girl, she wanted to be a dentist, an orthodontist to be specific. Dentistry was something that had always fascinated her. This does not mean that she wasn’t terrified to go to the dentist! Sure, she was, but she also found it very interesting. Anaida used to say that when she became a dentist, she would help all the people who were scared like her, to actually look forward to their dental appointments. Anaida’s first dental appointment was at 7 years old, she remembers the dentist, the nurse and her mom holding her down because she was so terrified. That scarred her for life! Anaida’s next dental appointment was when she was 19 years old and she only went because she was in extreme pain. Dentistry has changed since then thankfully. Now Anaida sees kids looking forward to their dental appointments, adults as well. 

Anaida says, “I remember thinking: one day I will have my own clinic. People around me called me a dreamer and said I was crazy, but guess what, they were wrong! Never give up on your dreams, no matter what others may say!” 

Challenges of Standing Out in the Crowd 

Commenting on the challenging times Anaida recalls “After opening the doors to my very own dental office, the honeymoon feeling however was short-lived. If I thought the problems were now over, I was very wrong, they had not even started. I waited for the phone to ring and the door to open, and waited and waited. And then there was the issue of finding the right staff. It was a huge risk especially when you know there is a dental office in every single corner and your competition is dentists that pay thousands of dollars in marketing and advertisement.” Luckily, patients and staff believed in her vision and saw something that in other dental offices did not exist, a relationship between her and them. Anaida’s passion for the dental field and taking care of her patients was transferred in the best way possible that made them believe in her. 

The Balancing Act of Personal and Professional Life 

Anaida thinks the most difficult thing as a female leader is to juggle family and business at the same time. During the time she opened her business in 2013, she also got pregnant with her daughter and had a complicated pregnancy. “My daughter was a twin, but I lost one of them which made my pregnancy high risk and the doctor told me I had to be in bed for the 7 months remaining. I replied that was impossible. She made me sign and told me I was nuts for doing this. Unfortunately, I had no choice. I tried to be very careful, I was very scared, knowing I would never forgive myself if something happened to my daughter. But she is a fighter just like me, we made it and this amazing little girl completed our family. I worked till the last day of my pregnancy.” 

The delivery went well and her daughter was just perfect. Three days later, however, Anaida  returned to work. When the people saw her at the door, they could not believe their eyes. For the first two months, she drove home for lunch to breastfeed her and went back to work again. It was hard.  

“When people say to me, they cannot do something because it is hard, I tell them what I had to do when I was pregnant with my daughter and after I had her,” she added. 

We face challenges every day with daily tasks. The hardest thing Anaida finds is to balance business and family and prioritize tasks. Being a mom of two, with a teenager and a toddler, life gets difficult. My family encourages me to do better every day.  

Anaida’s days start at 7:30 am with getting herself and the kids ready for school. After dropping them off to school, she makes her way to the office where she takes care of daily tasks. Anaida sees patients and performs all duties as a dental hygienist. She manages the office as well as taking care of the payroll, hiring staff, dealing with patients and different problems as they arise. Anaida takes care of the marketing for the office. She overlooks all things that happen in the office. Her workdays are 12+ hours long, Monday to Saturday. After work, she still has things to do at home with the kids, and housework. Anaida never goes to sleep before midnight. She is very busy and doesn’t have much time to do anything else. “I have my plate full with my family and business. At this time, it is sad to say that I do not have a hobby. My very limited free time is going out with my husband and my kids,” Anaida mentioned. 

When asking to have dinner with someone, Anaida says, she is a big feminist and she really likes strong women, and she probably would choose Oprah and/or Michelle Obama. 

Achievements that Define Success Journey 

Anaida has won several awards: 

  • Corporate Vision Magazine Most Influential Leader in Healthcare 2020 – Toronto, as part of the Corporate Excellence Awards 2020 
  • 2019 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, Bronze winner for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada 
  • 2019 Woman of Inspiration Indigenous Leader Award 
  • 2019 Urban Hero Awards - Business Category winner, People's Choice 
  • Gold Winner of the 2019 Female CEO of the Year in Canada 
  • 2019 Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award – Canada, Gold Award 
  • 2019 Winner for Excellence in Industry Woman of the Year in Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Biotech, Health Products & Services 
  • 2019 Gold Stevie Entrepreneur of the Year in the Health Products & Services category 
  • 2019 Bronze Stevie Company & Organization of the Year in the Health Products & Services category 
  • 2019 The Winner Awards for International Business Excellence 
  • 2019 North York Mirror’s Readers Choice Award Winner for the Best Dental Office 
  • 2019 Top 75 Canadian Immigrant Awards Finalist 
  • 2019 Peak of Success Award 
  • 2018 Silver Stevie Winner for Women in Business for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada 
  • 2018 One Planet Awards Gold for Female Entrepreneur and Female Professional of the Year 
  • 2018 The Bizz Award Business Excellence Awards 
  • 2018 Veuve Cliquot New Generation Award Finalist 
  • 2018 Top3 outstanding women for Entrepreneurship and Business in the GTA from The Waterfront Awards 
  • 2018 Women of Inspiration Awards Finalist from Canadian Business Chicks 
  • 2018 CDHA Superhero Competition Finalist, Top 21, out of 818 nominations across Canada 
  • 2018 North York Mirror’s Readers Choice Award Winner 
  • 2018 CHCH TV Business Excellence Awards for Business who Gives Back 
  • 2018 ODHA Community Service Award 
  • 2017 Urban Hero Honour Award in the Health category 
  • 2016 Patient's Choice Award Winner by Opencare 
  • 2015 Mompreneur Award of Excellence Finalist 

A Wise Advice to Women Leaders 

On advising to women leaders, Anaida tells them that nothing comes easy, if you work hard and put your mind to it, everything is possible. 

Anaida thinks being successful is subjective to everyone. She loves what she does and every morning she cannot wait to go to the office and start her day. The best part is to do what you love and get recognized for it.