Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Elannan DDS. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Erica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Dr.Erica Elannan, a native of St.Augustine, Florida, at the age of 17 years old, was one of 18 students selected worldwide for the rigorous, 6-year combined BA/DDS dental program at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Out of the original 18 students, Dr.Elannan was one of only 11 students to complete the program, graduating the program with honors in cosmetic, restorative & reconstructive dental surgery. Dr.Elannan completed a typical 4-year BA degree in only 2 years, subsequently entering in with the University’s 80 conventional 4-year DDS students to obtain her Doctorate of Dental Surgery, all in a mere 6 years rather than the typical 8-year dental curriculum, in 2003. Throughout this rigorous academic program, she also played tennis for the University on a full scholarship. Dr.Elannan developed her aesthetic skills & artistic vision by completing a Cosmetic Internship in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr.Elannan graduated from the dental program at 23 years old, making her one of the youngest dentists practicing in the country. After graduation, holding board certifications in multiple states, she began her career opening a Cosmetic Surgery Center in St.Augustine, Florida.
Dr.Elannan remains an avid proponent of community service. Through various publications, ranging from local to International, and educational seminars, she focuses on identifying the possibilities and offering society choices in quality dental care.
A perfectionist, she strives to create natural smiles of distinct, unparalleled beauty, ultimately changing lives and awakening inner self-confidence one smile at a time. She created Smile Nuvo to redesign & redefine today’s Dentistry.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As the saying goes, nothing in life worth attaining is easy to come by, and the saying rings true with respect to opening Smile Nuvo. My Fiance & I are with business partner John McPherson. I began the concept of Smile Nuvo 3 months before the outbreak of Covid. So I had no idea how challenging it would be to acquire lending for a small business scratch start-up practice. And how difficult obtaining a lease space would become, given available lease spaces were being refused to us as being reserved for emergency covid treatment facilities. I could not have managed to open my dream practice without the due diligence and painstakingly hard work of my Fiance. His perseverance & determination in securing financing and the lease space and managing the build-out was remarkable & unprecedented.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Smile Nuvo?
After having practiced dentistry for over 20 years, I have dreamed of creating an office unmatched in interior beauty and innovation and providing the best technology, equipment, and materials offered in Dentistry. Details matter to me, every single one. Since I’m a perfectionist by nature, my vision was to create a dental office interior and experience which communicated to the patient the care and exacting precision detail I would provide in their oral care. My patient’s comfort and care are my top priority, and my team and I go to great lengths to provide the best care and the most painless care possible with compassion and empathy. Quality and true compassion seem to be a thing of the past in our country, and I aim to resurrect that concept. I listen to my patients’ fears, concerns, want, and needs and customize treatment plans to give them the most cost-effective and best quality options. I hate seeing patients throw good hard, earned money after bad. My goal is always to build trust with patients and take things as fast or slow as they want. My team and I go above and beyond to cater to our patient’s comfort by providing not only sedation dentistry with IV sedation, twilight oral sedation to nitrous oxide.
I am a comprehensive, surgical esthetic dentist. I compound my topical anesthetic, which makes injections practically undetectable. We even offer a comfort menu to patients. It includes lavender hot towels post-treatment, blankets, neck pillows, custom lip balms in mint and strawberries and cream, and bose headsets to listen to. And watch anything of their choosing, personalized post-operative care bags with custom ice packs, medicaments & restorative shakes. We perform resin fillings, all-porcelain crowns, veneers, whitening, bridges, implants, implant-supported permanent dentures, removable dentures & partials, extractions and bone grafts, TMJ therapy, laser, and surgical periodontal therapy, as well as general cleanings. We perform all cleanings with advanced period technology which equates to an oral spa treatment and optimizes oral health. My focus is complex reconstructive multi-discipline dentistry. My passion is making smiles as beautiful as they are functional & healthy. I love the complicated jigsaw puzzle cases. The last primary difference between Smile Nuvo and other offices is I’ve had my team for years, and we are like a family who enjoys our patients and ALWAYS have fun. It’s by no means a silent library environment Dentistry isn’t my job. It’s truly my passion.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Initially, when I first entertained what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told my mom I wanted to be an artist. She told me to use my artistic talents in healthcare as she had been a hygienist and my father was an OBGYN. I contemplated her advice and decided as a freshman in high school I would be a plastic surgeon, so my father asked one of his colleagues from medical school who was a plastic surgeon if I could observe surgery cases over the summer. I’ll never forget this patient who had countless procedures done all at once, basically, a full-body reconstruction, which fascinated me and left me completely speechless at the possibilities. However, when she came back for her post-op at the end of the summer, I was amazed at her results. Still, when she smiled when thanking the doctor for his incredible work, I was shocked that all the painstaking hours in the surgical suite created the body of a 30-year-old on a woman with the smile of a 70-year-old all looked fake and incongruent. I remember going home that day and my dad asking me how the day went. I told my father I didn’t want to be a plastic surgeon anymore. I want to be a dentist. People should put their money where their mouth is because they realized today that an average-looking person with a healthy, beautiful smile says much more than a perfect body. The smile communicates youth, health, confidence, education, and much more.
Contact Info:
- Website: SmileNuvo.com
- Instagram: smilenuvo
- Facebook: Smile Nuvo
