Julian's Story

"There was no choice. It just became my place."

Julian didn't come to Smile Designs looking for a dentist. He came to drop off his girlfriend, Dakota. But watching the way the team treated her, visit after visit, planted a seed.

He'd been putting off Invisalign longer than he wanted to admit. The drive from West Palm Beach felt like a reason to keep waiting. Then Dr. Sergio walked him through a treatment plan, and the excuses ran out.

"He just put me so much at ease. There was no choice. It just became my place."

Why the treatment plan matters

Smile Designs is a 2025 Gold Invisalign Provider. That designation comes from Align Technology and reflects the volume and consistency of cases treated here; it means Dr. Sergio has done this hundreds of times, across a full range of complexity.

It also means something else. Dr. Sergio is a Harvard-trained prosthodontist — a specialist in how teeth fit together, how bites work, and what a smile needs to function long-term. When Julian's plan included reshaping certain contact points to create room for precise movement, that decision came from specialist-level thinking.

"Doc talked about potentially shaving teeth and helping work through the alignment. He explained everything and that's when I knew this was serious, thoughtful care."

Nothing to be nervous about

Julian had been avoiding the dentist the way a lot of people do. What he found on the other side of that first visit was something he didn't expect.

"When you're in the right place, you're put at ease. Things are explained in a way that's plain, simple, straightforward. You sit in that chair, take a deep breath. The gentle hands just make it easier."

Don't put it off. That's the advice he'd give anyone still waiting.

"You can have the smile you want if you just make the decision to do so."

Halfway there. Already different.

Julian started last summer. He's halfway through his trays. Treatment begins with a 3D scan, no impressions, and an AI-generated projection of where the smile is going before the first aligner is ever worn. He still remembers seeing that first preview.

"Maybe a month or two in, I had this reaction that was hilarious because the change was barely visible. But I could already see it working."

Now, at the midpoint, it's not barely visible anymore.

"I can already notice the difference. It feels great. I'm excited to compare the projection versus what we actually achieve and I'm already seeing that we're getting there."