Dr. Sandra Garcia Martin set the road to becoming an accomplished dentist at 18 when she moved from the Canary Islands to Barcelona and started studying dentistry. Her further development saw her skip over the Atlantic to the United States and New York and then back over the Atlantic again when she settled in London. She’s been building a noticeable career there over the past fifteen years.

However, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Dr. Martin’s career is just how easily it could have never happened. “I’ve always been very creative. I love art, painting, playing instruments, producing music,” she says. “Dentistry wasn’t a part of the plan, even though I did try to follow in my family’s trade of medicine and spent some time interning at a hospital. I even interned at a vet.”

What changed everything for Dr. Sandra Garcia Martin was when she witnessed how big of a difference a single session with the dentist can make in a person’s life. That struck a chord with her, and even though the subjects at dental school didn’t, she managed to power through it. Hungry for more knowledge, she moved to New York, eventually finding her true calling.

“I chose cosmetic dentistry because it allowed me to explore both the transformative power of dentistry and my creativity,” Dr. Martin says. “I think I have a good eye for smiles, so I found my niche in designing them.”

Artistic as it might sound, Dr. Martin’s pursuit of the perfect smile – or at least the best smile she can give to a patient – also relies on tools she uses to turn her vision into reality. Increasingly, those tools are digital. Dr. Sandra Garcia Martin is a prominent user of Digital Smile Design, a tool that lets her and her patients see the treatment results before it even starts. It’s not just an image editing tool for dentists, though, as it requires a trained professional to operate.

“I want my patients to have a Ferrari in their mouth, not a Renault or something ordinary, but the best there is,” Dr. Martin says. “And it gets expensive because this is an expensive profession, but I think that doing things the right way, not cutting any corners, and investing in the patients’ well-being ultimately pays off.”

Dr. Martin’s philosophy didn’t go without notice. It was recognized by the grateful patients, many of whom are household names, recognizable from the TV, the movies, or the music streaming platforms. Her colleagues have also appreciated her methods, so she started teaching some of them.

“I’ve done many courses in my life, and I thought there wasn't one for dentists that they could watch in their home and understand how to do things,” Dr. Martin explains. “It gets costly to fly out somewhere to do a course. So, I was keen on doing a high-end, well-recorded course that includes everything from the beginning of a patient consultation, through photography videography, to how to prepare and perform everything, and include possible complications.”

Whether it’s through her work with her patients, the education she does with her peers, or her health advocacy and charity work, Dr. Sandra Garcia Martin is focused on helping people transform their lives, just like she saw that dentist do with the patient when she was still deciding on her path in life.