Abu Dhabi: Sama Tabrizi was just ten months old when her parents moved from Turkey to the UAE in the late 1960s. The family set up a dental clinic with a friend of her father’s in Al Ain, which set their base for the future beyond.
“One of my dad's friends, who was also in medicine, contacted us and said there's great need here,” Dr Sama narrated her story ‘It began with a telephone call.’
Her father’s clinic was simple: a steriliser, an X-ray machine and curtains dividing up the space. But patients brought gifts and artefacts, which decorated the corners of that room.
She flipped through the old images of her father’s hardwork and said, “So you see how primitive everything looks. Like this is just the whole dental practice.”
Friendships grew beyond the clinic walls, and Fridays often meant visiting patients at home. The welcome her family received, she recalled, helped make the UAE feel like home.
“The bond of friendship and loyalty and the hospitality was greatly felt, and it really touched our hearts, which is why we are here forever,” she added emphasising, that they are here, to stay!
She recalled Musabeh Obaid Al Dhahiri, one of the first individuals to write a handwritten newspaper in the UAE, was also the landlord of her father's clinic.
The practice’s official certificate dates back to 1981, and the family said it has maintained an “A” record for five decades.
‘Just poke a hole in the egg’
Their mother volunteered with children with special needs for 25 years, creating work from recycled materials, and even received the Abu Dhabi Award in 2009.
In 1981, her mother joined an Arabic school in Al Ain because she wanted to learn the Arabic language. That is where, she even made many projects using upcycling and recycling material.
She looked at the images of her mother’s projects from the 1980s. “We always learned not to break an egg, but to just poke a hole.
Till today, that's our practice,” she added, a tribute to her mother’s recycling works. When her mother passed away in 2018, the news was shared by the country’s leadership, and many important figures attending her memorial.
A chair, the sunlight and skills
In 2000, 2001 and 2002, three dentists from one family took their skills to the banks of a river in Bangladesh. For two weeks each year they set up from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon, working by sunlight alone.
With their patients sitting by a tree or on a simply a chair by the wall, they had no electricity or even the fancy dental chair of the present with a light attached to it.
They treated roughly 2,500 patients for each visit. “That was what happened,” she said with a smirk. She also accompanied her father on visits to schools, providing oral hygiene instructions, a practice she still carries forth.
In 2013, Their father Behzad Tabrizi, had a haemorrhagic stroke. “He recovered, and he opened one of the branches, the second branch in Al Muwaiji.” Where is it?” I asked with curiosity. “In Al Ain. Two branches in Al Ain.”
Solar-powered mobile dentistry
Covid-19 was a steppingstone unexpectedly, because that was the same time when they introduced a mobile dental service. Dentistry on wheels!
She said the family developed a solar-powered mobile dental clinic after its dental camps in Bangladesh highlighted the need to bring care directly to people. Throughout the journey she had one constant powerhouse of support, her brother, Dr Anis Tabrizi.
The clinic runs entirely on solar power and is equipped with a mobile X-ray unit, allowing the team to diagnose and treat patients on site, including complex surgical cases. They take it to labour camps, and she said its ability to reach patients became especially useful during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Sama described it as an innovation that grew out of the family’s grassroots humanitarian work.
Giving back to her home
Easier to say, that every day of her life counted, as we trace her contribution to society.
Her background maybe in dentistry, but as a human, she had more responsibility. “We got the certification from the Authority of Social Contribution, Ma’an, which is an organisation under the Abu Dhabi Emirate,” she said and with their support, they treated 1,000 labourers for free.
Humanitarian practices have been a part of their lifestyle. They grasped a lot of it as children, and they did what they did with passion.
They continued their collaborations with the Emirate Red Crescent and even signed MOUs with the Emirates Cancer Society. “We are treating cancer patients for free. Those that do not have insurance, but of course we must select what we can do,” she added.
They also became accredited by the Department of Health to give clinical medical education training programmes for students. An observation program lets students explore the dental clinic work and decide whether dentistry is a suitable career path or not.
Her next move is to reach areas in need. A memorandum of understanding signed with Gulf South Utilities in March 2026 supports the proposed use of a solar-powered mobile dental van in Africa and parts of India. The van is intended to reach remote communities with limited access to dental care.
Fifty years on, the chair has become a van, the curtains have given way to solar panels, and the river’s edge has become a road that winds towards Africa and India.
Dr Sama Tabrizi arrived in the UAE as an infant, carried in her parents’ arms. She has spent a lifetime carrying it back, one patient at a time.