Why Did I Become A Doctor South Africa

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Some conversations end before they're finished. Ours with Dr Avi Jagathpal was one — so we asked him back, which we've never done with anyone else.
We start somewhere unexpected: a Bryan Johnson tweet, and whether any of us would actually want to live forever. Avi's answer, that the beauty of life is precisely that it's limited, sets the tone for everything after it.
Then we get into the work. What it's like to practise in a field where the science keeps moving underneath you — and what that does to how you think about the treatment you did last week. The zirconia crowns that were the best thing since sliced bread until they started failing in patients' mouths. Why so much dental material reaches the market untested, and what happens when the lab bench and the human mouth disagree. The in-house milling machines quietly reshaping how some dentists treatment-plan. Healthy tooth structure ground away in the name of an instant result, and the one-way road that starts once it's gone. Turkey Teeth, and the couple who spent half a million rand only to be told all of it had to come out and start again.
Running through all of it is a question about restraint: when to treat, when to wait, and when to hand a patient to someone else entirely. Avi's answer — send them to the best person for the job, even if that isn't you — is the line that stayed with us.
And then the human stuff, which is where the episode really opens up. Why clinicians are so hopeless at asking to be paid. The practice manager who stops the place being run as a charity. A two-year-old who comes to work every single day. A piece of paper on a fridge that turned into fifteen goals and fourteen achievements. And why a man who plainly loves his profession would still hesitate before handing it to his own children.
GUEST Dr Avish "Avi" Jagathpal — prosthodontist, Capital Prosthodontics, Pretoria — https://capitalpros.co.za/
START WITH PART 1 "The Face You Know, The Story You Don't" — https://whydidibecomeadoctor.com/2389691/episodes/16891921-the-face-you-know-the-story-you-don-t-dr-avi-jagathpal
WATCH THIS EPISODE https://youtu.be/RKSFm5zpqiE
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by guests on Why Did I Become A Doctor are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcast, its hosts, or producers. Content shared on this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered medical or professional advice.
Guests appear in their personal capacity. Episode titles, descriptions and editorial framing are chosen by the producers; guests do not review or approve them. Any links to guests' practices or professional pages are provided for reference only, and are not an endorsement or recommendation.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
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This episode is brought to you in partnership with MedicalBrief. Stay informed with trusted reporting, expert insights, and analysis that matters to healthcare professionals. From breaking news to in-depth features, MedicalBrief keeps you up to date with everything happening in healthcare. Subscribe free at https://bit.ly/3Pei7o1.

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Dr Bongiwe Nhlangulela, known to most people as Dr Bee, is a family dentist and the founder of Dr Bee Inc Family Dentists, with practices in Sandton and Constantia Kloof, Johannesburg.

In this conversation with Dr Yash Naidoo and Dr Yakshen Lindy, Dr Bee traces her journey from growing up in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape to boarding school in KwaZulu-Natal, where she recalls being the only black girl in her class and learning to assert herself in spaces that were not built with her in mind.

She talks about her own dental struggles, and the jaw surgery that followed, and how the experience changed the way she saw herself. Shadowing her childhood dentist showed her what a smile can do for a person's confidence, and it was enough to make her turn down a full scholarship to study medicine and choose dentistry instead.

Dr Bee speaks candidly about nearly failing her way through dental school, community service spent extracting teeth for up to 50 patients a day, and a harsh introduction to private practice that, in her telling, left her in serious tax debt after a profit-sharing arrangement went wrong. She explains how that experience taught her to know every corner of her own business, and how she rebuilt from a single rented room into the group practice she runs today.

She also reflects on building an authentic social media presence, becoming a key opinion leader for oral care brands, stepping back from the online world, and the kind of practice culture she wants for the young dentists she now employs.

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
• YouTube
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• LinkedIn
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🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with MedicalBrief. Stay informed with trusted reporting, expert insights, and analysis that matters to healthcare professionals. From breaking news to in-depth features, MedicalBrief keeps you up to date with everything happening in healthcare. Subscribe free at https://bit.ly/3Pei7o1.

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Dr Nikita Sahadew got into medical school and turned it down. On the advice of her small-town GP in Verulam, she chose podiatry instead, a profession she says has only around 400 registered practitioners in South Africa, trained at the only university on the continent that offers the degree.

In this episode, she tells Yash and Yak how a teacher's daughter from Mountview Secondary ended up qualifying as one of only two podiatrists in her year, why her very first patient at Joburg Gen involved maggots, and how she built her practice, PodMed South Africa, from one patient in her first month. She talks about completing her PhD in diabetes while running a practice and raising two small children, her role as a podiatry representative on the HPCSA's Professional Board for Physiotherapy, Podiatry and Biokinetics*, and why she believes foot care is life-saving for diabetic patients.

Recorded before her PhD was finalised, this episode releases with Dr Sahadew newly entitled to the title. Congratulations, Doc.

Find her at PodMed South Africa on Instagram and TikTok.

*Note: At the time of recording, Dr Nikita Sahadew was the sole podiatry representative on the relevant HPCSA Professional Board. Since 1 August 2026, podiatry representation on the Board has expanded, and Dr Sahadew continues to serve as a podiatry representative.

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This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter (X)
• LinkedIn
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🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.

Nadia Shiba and Kamini Shanmugam join Why Did I Become a Doctor South Africa for a conversation sixteen years in the making: two best friends who became business partners.

Both raised in Lenasia, both lawyers by training, they each describe how they "ended up in insurance" almost by accident, fell for one of its most specialised corners, and eventually left the security of corporate to build their own claims-outsourcing business together. Today they handle specialist liability claims, from medical malpractice and professional indemnity to cyber and financial lines, and they make the case that good claims handling is far more human than most people assume. As they put it, the job was never about looking for reasons to reject a claim. It is about fairness, judgement, and meeting people on their worst day.

Along the way they reflect on growing up in a close-knit community, the friendship that has carried them from one workplace to the next, the leap into entrepreneurship, dealing with online critics, and why they started their own podcast to help close the skills gap in their industry. It is a warm, candid conversation about loyalty, reinvention, and finding meaning in a profession most people overlook.

#WhyDidIBecomeADoctor #WDIBAD #CareerJourney #Insurance #Entrepreneurship #Friendship #Lenasia

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter (X)
• LinkedIn
• WhatsApp Channel
🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with MedicalBrief. Stay informed with trusted reporting, expert insights, and analysis that matters to healthcare professionals. From breaking news to in-depth features, MedicalBrief keeps you up to date with everything happening in healthcare. Subscribe free at https://bit.ly/3Pei7o1.

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She could have studied dentistry. She chose instead to become the person who helps make sure you never need one.

Kaokie Sepuru, full name Mmakaoka Sepuru, is an oral hygienist who has been involved in the leadership of the Oral Hygiene Association of South Africa (OHASA) since her first year in the profession. In this conversation she makes a quietly powerful case for oral hygiene as a calling in its own right.

Kaokie grew up in Soweto, raised by a single mother, Iris, a teacher who later became a principal, always wanted more for her only child, and moved the family out to Northcliff. According to Kaokie, an aptitude test once told her she should be an accountant, but she knew she needed people and movement rather than a desk and numbers. She found oral hygiene almost by chance at a University of Pretoria open day, and she has not looked back since.

In conversation with Yash and Yak, she traces the path from shadowing an orthodontist, to a mobile dental truck serving communities across the country, to the Waterfall practice where she has worked for eleven years alongside specialist prosthodontist Dr Ashana Harryparsad. She explains why she calls herself a "floss fairy", why she believes prevention should come first, and how she has taught patients who cannot afford floss to improvise with what they have.

She is just as open about the parts of the job that rarely get spoken about: the patient who wept in her chair and called it a "safe space", the frightened children she has coaxed into trusting her, and why she measures her own success by how many people choose to come back. Her view is a simple one, that you do not have to be a doctor to heal people.

Beyond the chair, Kaokie's work with OHASA and with ITOP has taken her to Dubai, Nigeria and Egypt as a speaker and instructor, mentored along the way by Stella Lamprecht and Angelique Kearney. She speaks candidly about turning down work abroad, the ongoing and affectionate argument with her mother who still wishes she had become a dentist, and why she has chosen to build her life in South Africa.

Follow Kaokie on Instagram: @kaokie_xing

Subscribe for new conversations every fortnight.

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter (X)
• LinkedIn
• WhatsApp Channel
🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.