Loretta Castellanos Nuñez has a reason to smile big! Only five months after the opening of the very innovative Smile With Zenitude, the inspired entrepreneur has created a retreat where clients don’t only come to look their best; they come to feel their best. “A serene setting with a tremendous amount of TLC,” is how she describes the state-of-the-art facility that fuses dentistry with medical treatments.
The eight years in the making, Nuñez says, were fueled by her passion for improving the outlook of dentistry combined with beauty through advanced technology. “My uncle Oscar Castellanos is a dentist, and at the age of 15, I visited him in dental school and decided that I wanted to become a dentist like him,” says the New York City native, who went on to complete her undergraduate studies at the University of Miami before moving on to dental school in Boston at the Henry Goldman School of Dentistry (BUSGD). “I chose this career early on and love it!”
The concept of Smile with Zenitude shows you reap what you sew. “Zenitude is the French word for zen,” says Nuñez. “Our relaxing setting with multiple fountains and aromatic delight achieves a sense of comfort that I have not experienced in any other office.”
The center, located at 604 Crandon Blvd., Ste. 205, in Key Biscayne kicked-off in mid-June and offers all of the specialties involved in dentistry, but stops nowhere near. Smile With Zenitude houses the Ageless Medical Institute, which offers rejuvenation therapy through the use of bio-identical hormones, nutrition, laser treatments, Botox and fillers that are administered by a plastic surgeon. Fellow BUSGD graduate Dr. Rita Marin is the center’s dental director, along with four other specialists who perform hygiene treatments, oral surgery, periodontics, orthodontics and prostodontics — what a mouthful!
As for the Ageless Medical Institute, Dr. Adonis Maiquez renders the hormone therapies, Daniella Toedtli is the nutritionist and Dr. Onelio Garcia is the cosmetic therapy plastic surgeon. “We want to reach out to people of all ages, especially to those who want to have the convenience of getting all their treatments done in one place,” says Nuñez about the institute that may very well be the only one of its kind. “We call the dental rooms ‘Smile’ rooms and the medical rooms are the ‘De-aging’ rooms. Our front desk is called the ‘Dental/Medical Concierge.’”
Also available is a V.I.P membership that grants patients access to emergency treatments 24/7 for a full year. Although treatments have a separate cost, a healthy lunch is provided for patients who visit during work hours.
Nuñez is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, hiring all personnel, and ordering all products and equipment. She also attends many community events to promote the office. “Most importantly, I work hard to keep the doctors and staff happy, because a happy staff produces satisfied patients!” Running the business, however, is not her biggest responsibility. “I wake up at 6:30 a.m. to hug and kiss my daughter, Kaelah Isabella, till she wakes up,” she says. “I prepare her breakfast and my day is non-stop after that.”
As busy as she may be, Nuñez makes sure to keep herself happy. “I love reading books related to field, but I also enjoy a good flick on a rainy day, alone or accompanied,” she says. With her kind of schedule, we’re thinking she could use the alone time, although she’s equally excited about spending time with loved ones. “We love to barbecue on the weekends and entertain family and friends whenever our hectic schedules let us escape from the daily grind,” she says.
As such, she launched Smile With Zenitude with the busy professional in mind. “I understand first-hand how difficult it is to keep yourself looking your best while you have to balance a career and family,” she says, mentioning her center is just a short, relaxing ride over the bridge from Brickell. “I pride myself on being able to offer an array of services that enhances confidence and overall self-satisfaction in less time than it takes to eat lunch.” At home and at work, however, the storyline stays the same. “My advice for anyone would be to never stop reaching further than you already have,” she says. “For myself, I strive for improvement on a daily basis.” And it seems when it comes to her business, the horizon is bright with pearly whites.