My Story

Looking back to the early 1970s, my initiation started in the belfry of the renowned Dedham Church. As well as being a choir boy, I literally learned the initial sonic ropes as a bellringer — my first real encounter with rhythm, resonance, and the way sound moves through a space.

Teeth fascinated me instinctively long before dentistry was ever a plan. Ancient and crystalline, they seemed symbolic of survival, ancestry, and voice. My early interest in crystals and geology reflected this attraction long before I entered dental school.

I've been involved in dentistry since 1982, qualifying in London in 1986 after training at the prestigious Guy's Hospital. From the beginning, I felt pulled toward a more holistic, integrative approach to dental care than what I'd been taught.

Early in my career I set up The Dental Confidence Centre in Belgravia — the UK's first designated centre to help people overcome their fear of the dentist, using hypnotherapy, hypnohealing, and NLP tools. It was featured on ITV and was, looking back, way ahead of its time.

Around the same period I appeared on numerous radio shows, was a Dental Expert on Channel 5, and was an advisor to Chelsea FC. It was a strange, formative stretch of life — on television talking about teeth one week, quietly developing a completely different philosophy of care the next.

Dentistry never felt like a conventional professional path to me. Even before formal training, I was immersed in music, rhythm, spirituality, and expanded states of awareness. I developed the habit of listening deeply, not only to words, but to what lay beneath them.

While my clinical education refined my technical skills, it was an eighteen month cultural journey through the wilderness of Australia and Southeast Asia between 1989 and 1990 that shifted my life profoundly. Immersed in land based wisdom and indigenous teachings, I recognised that dentistry was not simply a trade I would practise. It was a path of service.

From that point forward, my career has been guided less by ambition and more by alignment.

My depth of empathy was shaped early in life. Growing up in emotionally complex circumstances cultivated a heightened awareness of human vulnerability. Rather than hardening me, those experiences encouraged introspection, music, and spiritual exploration.

That sensitivity became one of my greatest clinical strengths. Pain, in my view, is not something to suppress or override. It is something to understand. Healing begins with presence, with curiosity, and with the courage to ask deeper questions.

I developed a style of practice grounded in listening. I do not rush. I do not dismiss fear. I create space.

In late 1990, after contracting typhoid fever during that journey through Southeast Asia, I experienced a near death episode that reshaped my perspective entirely. In that moment, layers of identity and ambition fell away, leaving clarity. I spent time with shamans in the Sumatran jungles during my recovery — an experience that stayed with me for the rest of my life.

When I returned to dentistry, my perception had changed. Patterns became visible. I observed how gum disease often appeared alongside suppressed emotion. Jaw tension reflected unspoken truths. Recurrent issues frequently coincided with overwhelm or self destructive behaviours.

The mouth revealed itself as more than anatomy. It became a gateway where breath enters, nourishment begins, and truth is expressed. For me, the link between oral health and emotional wellbeing could no longer be separated.

I did not abandon science. I integrated it.

Clinical excellence, anatomical precision, and pathology remain central to my practice. What I added was awareness of the nervous system, breath regulation, emotional safety, and intentional presence.

Patients do not need to subscribe to any spiritual belief. They simply report feeling calmer. Pain perception shifts. Healing responses improve. Trust builds naturally through experience.

Dental fear is rarely about teeth. It is about vulnerability. It is about loss of control. It is about shame or inherited anxiety.

The mouth is an intimate space that requires surrender. When fear is dismissed or rushed, it intensifies. When patients are given time, explanation, and choice, anxiety softens.

Through hypnotherapy and attentive listening, I have witnessed emotional release within the dental setting. These moments have reinforced my belief that healing is layered and deeply individual.

When I founded Mortiboys Dental Spa in East Horsley in 2000, I designed it intentionally as a sanctuary. Light, sound, scent, and atmosphere were chosen to calm the nervous system before treatment even began. Patients were not entering a place of threat; they were entering a space of care.

Over time, the clinic became known for its calming presence. Patients relaxed more quickly. They communicated more openly. Treatment outcomes improved as nervous system regulation improved. For me, environment is not decoration. It is part of medicine.

My philosophy is reflected in the innovations I've since developed, including The Dental Shaman Ozone Waterflosser. Designed with both practicality and intention, the device incorporates a patented ozone generating system to support gum health and biofilm management.

Beyond function, the messaging reframes oral hygiene as a daily ritual of care rather than a task to complete. Technology, in my view, should support biological intelligence rather than override it.

Selling the clinic marked a natural transition rather than a conclusion. I felt that chapter was complete. I sensed a calling to teach, write, and share my philosophy more widely. Free from daily clinical management, I began focusing on The Dental Shaman Movement, encouraging integration between modern dentistry and broader wellness awareness.

My aim is not to replace conventional care, but to enrich it.

That mission has grown into something bigger than I first imagined. I've written a series of books — Dental Health Rescue, Your Smile Is Your Medicine, The Sacred Smile, and the forthcoming novel The Smile Gate — each one drawn from decades of clinical practice and lived experience.

I founded and edit Conscious Smile Magazine, a publication bringing together voices from across dentistry and conscious business. I host a podcast exploring healing, fear, and transformation. And I was honoured to contribute my own chapter, my own Hero's Journey, to Sir Marco Robinson's global Start Over movement.

In 2026 I was featured in CIO Think as an iconic personality shaping the future of dental care, and in Brainz Magazine discussing healing through dentistry and consciousness. Being recognised not simply as a clinician, but as someone broadening the conversation around oral health and its connection to the whole person, means more to me than any award ever could.

Dentistry is gradually shifting toward a more integrated model. Oral health cannot be separated from systemic health. Inflammation in the mouth influences the heart, brain, immune system, and overall vitality.

I see future dentists becoming educators and guides who help patients understand prevention, nervous system balance, and long term oral wellness. This shift is already underway.

When asked what I hope The Dental Shaman represents, I speak of remembrance. A remembrance that healing was never meant to be feared. A remembrance that science and compassion are not opposites. A remembrance that the mouth carries meaning beyond mechanics.

When the mouth feels safe, confidence returns. Expression strengthens. People engage with life more fully. I don't see myself as rejecting tradition, but as inviting the profession — and everyone who reads this — to remember dentistry's deeper potential.