We had the good fortune of connecting with Spark Dawg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Spark, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The thought process behind starting my own business was pretty simple. I’m from Texas. And in Texas culture, almost everyone wears Grillz. So it made sense for me to find a way to sell a (legal) product that all my peers wanted.
Lucky for me, I had an Uncle who owned a jewelry shop. And with him as my “gold plug,” I started slangin’ grillz my Senior Year of High School & haven’t looked back since.
Now I’m virally known as #TheHoodDentist

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
For work, I run my own jewelry business that specializes in removable gold teeth aka “Grillz.” That’s pretty much how I came up with the name #TheHoodDentist.
What separates The Hood Dentist, from your local dentist is the fact that your local dentist is gonna charge you anywhere from $3 to $10k to replace a single missing tooth with an implant when The Hood Dentist can cover up that 1 missing tooth with a 3 piece gold grill for a couple hundred dollars.
The thing I’m most proud of as far as being The Hood Dentist is the amount of clients who have gotten teary eyed after receiving their grill from me because they haven’t smiled in 10+ years due to the embarrassment they felt for missing teeth. The fact I give my clients a reason to smile again makes me feel like I’m doing The Lord’s work.
I got to where I am today by staying consistent. It definitely wasn’t always easy, but with the help of social media outlets like TikTok, I was able to reach a global audience that turned into global clientele. Once I started goin viral on TikTok for the gold grillz I was making for clients who had missing teeth, I no longer had to rely on local clientele because I get flooded with so many orders from across the globe. I went from pulling up on local clients or having them pull up on me, to now spending most of my time back & forth from the post office shipping out mold kits daily.
1 of the most important lessons I’ve learned along the way is that you have to constantly reinvest into your business to maintain it and make it flourish.
I want the world to know that aside from being known as #TheHoodDentist, I’m also a National Recording Artist signed to a Grammy Award Winning Producer named Drumma Boy and we’re currently working on debut album as we speak.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m technically still a “newbie” to the city. I’ma transplant from Killeen, TX so I’m still not all the way familiar with all the “hot spots” but what I can say is all roads lead to Bonfire ATL every Sunday. If you know, you know.

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?
I wanna shout out “Neechie” reppin Team SPARK-A-LOT. The coolest rapper/tattoo artist/skate boarder I know fasho.

Website: http://www.TheHoodDentist.com

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/SPARK_A_GRAM

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SparkDawgMusic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sparkakasparkdawg

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SparkDawgTheHoodDentist

Other: Follow Spark Dawg #TheHoodDentist on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@sparkdawgmusic?_t=8d9QnkpCEAw&_r=1

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutAtlanta is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.