Podcasts · Dental Leaders Podcast

#341 Underestimated — Rawa Jawad Quinn

6 May 2026 · 1 h 55 min

Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist-turned-tech founder whose restless energy and refusal to be underestimated have shaped every chapter of her career. In this episode, she tells Payman about growing up in Chelsea after her Iraqi family fled Kuwait with nothing, studying in Liverpool, and working across 16 dental practices before channelling her frustrations into Medicube — a consent and patient communication platform built to give associates the consistency they've never had. The conversation takes some wonderfully unexpected detours into quantum physics, telepathy, AI-driven futures and the spiritual experiences that Rawa can't quite explain but absolutely trusts. There's also plenty of practical wisdom on occlusion, practice culture and what it really takes to bootstrap a dental tech start-up while raising a three-year-old without a nanny.

In This Episode

00:00:45 – Introduction and welcome

00:01:25 – Growing up on the Kings Road and childhood in Chelsea

00:03:30 – Studying dentistry in Liverpool and reinvention

00:07:00 – Dyslexia diagnosis and learning differently

00:10:10 – The itch beyond dentistry

00:14:00 – Fleeing Kuwait, starting over in the UK

00:16:25 – Why her parents' medical careers put her off medicine

00:18:05 – Ambition, being underestimated and self-belief

00:23:15 – Spirituality, connectedness and trusting intuition

00:26:10 – Wanting it all — motherhood, marriage and a start-up

00:31:00 – Lessons from 16 dental practices

00:36:25 – Working in corporates and at Bupa

00:41:20 – NHS vs private practice

00:45:15 – The birth of Medicube

00:48:30 – How Medicube works and pilot results

00:55:55 – Finding a co-founder and the UCL connection

00:58:50 – Funding through grants, awards and bootstrapping

01:03:25 – AI, the Turing test and the future of work

01:10:25 – Robots, relationships and what makes us human

01:22:55 – Physics, multiverse theory and keeping an open mind

01:28:40 – Blackbox thinking

01:33:40 – A patient with buyer's remorse after crown preps

01:36:55 – Occlusion, full mouth rehabs and the Dawson Academy

01:43:20 – Tech conferences and the reality of being a founder

01:47:05 – Fantasy dinner party

About Rawa Jawad Quinn

Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist based in Belfast, currently working at Bupa, with a particular interest in full mouth rehabilitation cases. She is also the co-founder of Medicube, a dental tech platform that streamlines consent, treatment planning and patient communication. Rawa trained at the Dawson Academy and Chris Hall's programme, and has worked across 16 practices spanning NHS, private and corporate settings.

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)