The smile maker
He creates smiles the minute he smiles at you — in a soft, almost shy manner with his eyes reinforcing his smile.
And then he creates more smiles by using keen skills, state-of-the-art technology and calming bedside manners.
With Dr. Ralph Figaroa Delas Alas (Dr. RFD), founder of the chain of Urban Smiles Dental Clinics, you’d wish the dentist is always in.
As you and I know, people with healthy teeth tend to smile more freely and frequently, which enhances overall charm. You know how it is when you know you’ve got spinach stuck in between your teeth — you won’t smile at all.
Dr. RFD is also a registered nurse, which perhaps explains his bedside manners and soothing demeanor whenever he is attending to a patient.
But he also once was a helper in his parents’ fish stall at the Farmers Market in Cubao.
“We were selling tuna, bisugo, bangus. I was helping them when I still in grade one, two and three. I grew up in a very simple family. We were living in one of the informal settlers areas in Cubao. We were renting a house for P1,500 per month. That’s why from that house in Cubao, Quezon City, I had to walk for 15 to 30 minutes going to Farmers Market.”
Though he would spend time helping sell fish in his parents’ stall and helping them take care of his youngest sister, Ralph, “a proud product of a public school,” was still focused on his studies.
In high school, he was the beneficiary of a scholarship program of then Speaker Sonny Belmonte.
He finished both grade school and high school with flying colors — and with a smile. He took up Biology at the University of the Philippines Baguio before transferring to the St. Joseph’s College of Quezon City to take up Nursing. After passing the board exams, he became a reviewer for the nursing licensure exams himself, teaching six days a week for six years. He would teach all over the Philippines — from De La Salle Lipa, De La Salle Dasmariñas, Ateneo de Naga, Ateneo de Davao, Saint Paul Iloilo.
With his savings, he and his best friend Ruel Apostol, now the CEO of Urban Smiles Dental Clinic, set up their own laundry shop — Urban Wash Laundry and Dry Cleaners.
He also built a home for his parents and bought his dad’s dream car.
It was then that he decided to study some more. Already a nurse, he took up Dentistry at the University of the East and Our Lady of Fatima. While still a student, he opened the first Urban Smiles Dental Clinic in Manila in 2013, hiring other dentists. In 2017, he passed the board exams and became a full-fledged dentist. And so it came to pass that the son of one of the vendors in the Farmers Market eventually became the dentist of Jorge and Stella Araneta!
Today, Urban Smiles has 80 dentists in its 15 branches in Metro Manila. As early as 2013, Dr. Ralph created the Project Share a Smile, the CSR arm of Urban Smiles Dental Clinic. The clinic’s first dental mission was in Sultan Kudarat and on Sept. 18 this year, Dr. Ralph will be leading a dental mission in Tondo, one of the quarterly missions he undertakes.
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Dr. Ralph’s clinic at One Ayala in Makati boasts Filipino-inspired interiors with materials sourced from Cebu to Romblon. The sea is the unifying theme of the clinic — there’s a LED wall showing the ocean’s depths in the foyer, while bamboo poles on the ceiling are arranged in a wave-like pattern. The main couch in the reception area has a paddle beside it. If the interiors are breathtaking, more boggling are Dr. RFD’s equipment.
But the charm and appeal of Urban Smiles lie not just in its technology and calming interiors — it’s in Dr. Ralph. He is a smile personified.
What makes him smile?
“As a dentist, it is seeing patients walk out of our clinic smiling and more confident than when they walked in. That’s the best kind of smile for me. Of course, personally, my family, my team, my patients, they remind me every day of the joy of being a dentist. Whenever I create a ‘smile makeover’ in my patients, I make sure that I have time to converse with them. I have to know their character, what they want, what they don’t like, because it should be mirrored in the smile design that I’m creating every time I do the smile makeover.”
Because a smile changes lives, not just in those who give them, but also in those who receive them.
You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez
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