Meet Leena & Meena Ponnapalli | Dentist & COO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leena & Meena Ponnapalli and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leena & Meena, is there something you believe many others might not?
Over and over we have heard “Never do business with family”.

Starting a business is hard. Starting a business with family – your twin sister – is even harder. There are various things which can lead to a very nasty ending. However, if you go into a business with a clear understanding of each others roles and identify each others strengths and weaknesses, it can be very successful. Know that there will be good/bad days and be prepared for them.

A very large factor of a successful business with a close family member, is trust. Trust creates a safe space to openly discuss challenges and navigate difficult decisions. You have to be okay with having those unpleasant conversations and have a game plan if something goes wrong.

In our practice, we have very distinct roles. Leena does the clinical part of the job and Meena does the operational part of the job. Both of us understand we have to protect our relationship and nothing can come in the way of that.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our startup journey was a long one. We have been working towards this for 2 years. Through it all, we never allowed ourselves to be disheartened when we hit a bump. We are quite resilient people so all we had to do was keep on keeping on. It really helps we have each other to keep ourselves in check.

Everything we have done and are going to do in our practice will be with purpose. Which is why our Mission and Vision is “Dentistry with Purpose”. Purpose has varied meaning for us..
– We were purposeful on our move to Dallas (Leena is from Philadelphia, Meena is from Miami), we wanted to live close to each other as we grow older.
– We want to give back to our community. We have partnered with a wonderful non-profit called FETCH (Fostering Empowerment Through Canine Help). They provide highly trained psychiatric service dogs to women who have endured abuse. For every new patient seen in our practice, a donation will be made to FETCH – To fund, find, and train the ideal service dog.

We want our patients to know they can count on us for a comfortable visit. Besides having weighted blankets, noise cancelling headphones and a custom scent in the office, we also have our pet Franklin. He is a certified therapy dog and we hope he can help with those anxious moments.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our mom is probably one of the strongest women we know. It’s because of her we are the who we are. She has been a constant rock in our lives and we couldn’t have done this without her. Special mention to our best boy, our dog, Franklin. He makes us want to be the best we can be and we think its working!
So this shoutout goes to them.

In Leena’s words: Professionally, I am grateful to have met David and Davey Alleman from the Alleman Center of Biomimetic Dentistry. They came into my life at a time where traditional dentistry was starting to weigh on me. I felt like I wasn’t serving my patients to the best of my abilities. I was burnt out and frustrated. I knew I wanted to do better; but I didn’t know what that was. The Allemans’ were the missing link. Going through their year long mastership program renewed my passion for the field. They introduced me to Biomimetic Dentistry and as they say, the rest is history.

Website: www.214dentalarts.com

Instagram: @214dentalarts

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/214dentalarts

Image Credits
@capturedbyrachh