Today on Wedding Secrets Unveiled!, we’re exploring a brand-new topic—dentistry! Looking and feeling your best on your wedding day is a top priority, but for many, their smile can be a source of insecurity. That’s why we’re joined by the expert Dr. Naomi Goldman of Levy Goldman Dentistry in Peabody, MA. Dr. Goldman shares her top tips—and crucial mistakes to avoid—when preparing your teeth to shine on your big day. Whether you’re considering professional or at-home whitening, veneers, or Invisalign, this episode is packed with valuable insights to help you make the best choice for your wedding smile!
Meet Dr. Goldman.
I’m a general and cosmetic dentist in Peabody, Massachusetts, so just in the North Shore of Boston. We really like to focus on creating an awesome patient experience for our patients. We’ve revamped the whole office to create a spa-like atmosphere as much as possible. I know there’s so much dental anxiety out there. So, we just wanted to make patients feel super comfortable when they come into our office.
Dental Prevention & Care
Another thing we really focus on is patient education and prevention. So, we take a more comprehensive approach to dentistry and trying to find problems before they become big problems. We have a couple of scanners in our office, and it not only identifies problems, but also tracks change over time. We can overlay these digital models of your teeth, and we can see changes over time. Then we can see problems to address as they come up – rather than when they become a bigger issue. So, we do a lot of prevention that way, and we also do a lot of cosmetic dentistry.
I have built my practice from just advertising on Instagram. Most of the patients that come to see me from Instagram are like 25- to 45-year-old women – that’s my target. That’s the people I love treating the most, probably because I can relate to them really well. Not to say that I don’t have men that come in or women that are older or younger than that, but the majority, I would say, are in that range, and I just love treating them. And I have a lot of people that come in before their weddings and want to improve their smile before their wedding.
Bridal Dental Care
Well, perfect – and that’s why you’re here, because your target audience is our listeners! So, with that being said – let’s talk about the basics. How can someone elevate their smile for the wedding day with bridal dentistry?
With the at home products, the thing that everybody is doing wrong is that they’re starting to whiten. They put a crest white strip on, and their teeth start to lighten. Then they go, and they drink coffee the next day. What happens with your teeth is when you start whitening, they become more porous. So they will absorb stain faster than they normally would, and they also absorb whitening better as you progress through the days. It becomes important to whiten day after day but not eat or drink any staining foods while you’re doing that. Most people can’t go a week without coffee. So, for the majority of people, I just recommend doing an in-office treatment. You only have to avoid staining foods and drinks for 12 to 24 hours, and then you’re done. It’s also just a lot faster, because the strength of the gel is much higher than what you’re using with an at home product.
If you’re using a whitening toothpaste, is that the same? Or is it just the whitening strips?
No, we’re just talking about the whitening strips. The reason why it’s different is, I think there’s a few whitening toothpaste that actually have peroxide in them. I think the Colgate whitening one actually has peroxide in it, which is the active ingredient in whitening agents. But most whitening toothpastes do not. They are they’re not actually whitening the inside of your teeth. All that they are doing is they’re removing surface stain with an abrasive material.
I wouldn’t necessarily just try and use that to whiten your teeth, because it’s such a low percentage of bleach. If you want to use that as your toothpaste, great. You might notice a slight whitening effect. But I wouldn’t try and use that as like a real whitening treatment, because it’s just too low of a percentage. You’re not going to see big results with it. Hopefully that clarifies things. Another little tip with that is you can dilute some hydrogen peroxide and dip some floss in the hydrogen peroxide. Then floss your teeth to remove surface stains between your teeth as well over time.
Love that little nugget! This might be a naïve question – but what type of floss do you recommend?
I hate those little plastic floss picks. They’re the number one most loved thing by all patients, and they’re the number one most hated thing by all dentists. You can’t properly achieve what flossing is supposed to achieve with them. When you’re flossing, the goal of flossing is to remove the bacteria that’s sitting under the gums. But really what makes the gums healthy is tracing that tooth surface all the way under the gum. And you can’t really do that with a floss pick. You’re just going to be kind of cutting your gums because you can’t get that angle. A really good string loss or a water pick will also do it, because the pressure of the water just goes naturally under the gum tissue and removes those bacteria for you.
Quick question – with the whitening, if you do the strips then drink red wine or coffee, it’s kind of being counterproductive, right?
I feel like it just negates all the work that you’re doing. So, you’re whitening, you’re getting a little brighter, then you’re re-staining and you’re going back. That’s when people say, “Oh they don’t work for me”. No, they don’t work because you’re just re-staining. But they don’t write that on the box – like to avoid coffee for two weeks.
But it’s not like it’s making it worse. You’re totally just wasting your time.
Yeah, and you’re saving your time with the in-office treatments. The number one complaint is sensitivity, because the gel is really strong, and people can get a lot of tooth sensitivity from that. Sometimes it deters people from doing the in-office whitening. But we, in our office have found this amazing, perfect, little in office whitening treatment that works super well and doesn’t create sensitivity. Because of that, we do so much whitening in our office. Like, every single day we have patients coming in for whitening. All the patients that come in for their cleaning, they stay for whitening after. They just love this whitening product so much, and it’s only 25 minutes. So that is something that we get a ton of people in for. Brides often come in right before their wedding, and they just do that whitening treatment.
Do you have to be a patient of our yours? Or would you take people who are not a regular patient yours and do the whitening as part of their bridal dental care?
Yeah, we have a lot of people that come in that aren’t regular patients. They just want to come in for the whitening. And for the most part, I’m fine with that. We usually do a general check of their teeth before we just throw some whitening on them. Because if they’ve got much bigger issues, I would tell them to address the issues first and then come back for whitening. Most people that are coming for whitening don’t have those significant issues, so it’s fine. A lot of times they end up switching to our office if it’s convenient for them, because they just like our vibe.
What other cosmetic changes or procedures that you suggest people do if they want to brighten their smile?
The second most popular treatment that we do before weddings is Invisalign. Most people think that Invisalign is like a two year procedure for everybody. But for the people that I treat in my office, the majority of them are four-to-six-month treatment times. The reason is because many of the people I see are people that had braces in the past, and their teeth crowded because they didn’t wear the retainer. I feel like 90% of the people in that age group are in that category. They all had braces before, and so that’s why we can do a shorter treatment, because their bite has already been addressed by that first round of braces. All that we are really addressing is the cosmetic aspect, and there is some functional aspect to that.
When the teeth are straight, they’re going to function way better. But it’s actually a pretty simple treatment, because most people just have a narrow arch. Everything has gotten narrower over time. All that we do is we broaden everything back out and resolve the crowding. So, a four-to-six-month treatment time for most people is common. Sometimes we go to eight months, but usually that’s when the patients aren’t super compliant, and it just takes a little bit longer. I feel like that is such a dramatic difference for most people.
A note about veneers and bridal dental care…
You can talk about getting veneers and all of that, but if your teeth are not straight, they’re not going to look as white. It creates shadows. Getting a clean look, creating this straight, broad smile, and then throwing a whitening session on at the end of it is like the number one favorite treatment, because it is so transformative for people. On top of looking good, like I mentioned, straight teeth function better. When your teeth are straight, it’s easier to avoid getting food stuck in your teeth and it is so much easier to brush and floss. This is how they were supposed to be. There’s no weird angles and edges for you to try and get into with your brush. Your toothbrush is just missing all of these areas when your teeth are all angled, and that creates inflammation, bone loss, decay, all these other problems, chipping, cracking. Then you need crowns and you need scaling. You need all these other procedures because your teeth aren’t straight, so the cosmetic aspect is really the bonus. That’s why people come in. Then I educate them about all these other benefits they’re going to get by doing the treatment. It’s like a no brainer. So that’s my second most popular pre-wedding treatment.
What else is a common pre-wedding dental procedure?
The third would be veneers. In my office, I really like to do the most noninvasive treatments that I can, so I usually recommend composite veneers for most of these young patients. I don’t like to remove tooth structure to do porcelain veneers. Sometimes you can do a case of porcelain veneers without having to remove tooth structure. It depends on the shape of the patient’s teeth, the position of the patient’s teeth. There’s a lot that goes into that decision, but most people can do composite veneers, which is a procedure where we don’t remove any tooth structure. Instead, we layer material over their existing tooth structure, and are able to correct color, shape, length and some positional aspects and just create a super uniform smile that way, and it also creates a really broad smile because it’s all additive over the existing tooth structure. These really tend to last a long time because the material is thick enough and it doesn’t stain, which is the one of the biggest questions I get asked with the composite.
I have a question for you in regard to financials: do you find that any of these treatments end up being covered on anybody’s insurance?
To start, I have to say that dental insurance is not like medical insurance. It’s not truly an insurance. Instead, you have a yearly maximum of say, $1,000 or $2,000 so I would say it’s a dental benefit. It’s a dental coupon, but it is not truly insurance. And they really don’t want to pay for much cosmetic work. But what they do sometimes pay for is Invisalign. What you would want to look for is whether you have an ortho benefit in your insurance plan, and you would have to make sure that it’s over for someone over 18.
A lot of people have an ortho benefit for patients under 18 in there. Usually that benefit is going to be separate from your yearly maximum. So, say you have $2,000 a year to spend, and you have $2,000 of ortho benefits, that’s going to be a lifetime benefit. You can use it one time, and it is not going to go towards your yearly maximum. They have a lot of little rules and things that you have to look out for. But it is sometimes covered. And I’ve seen the most I’ve seen is $5,000 of coverage it. I’ve seen it one time. Not many patients have it. I would say 10 to 20% of people will actually have any insurance benefit that covers ortho, but it’s worth checking for sure. And yeah, other than that, not much is covered.
And not getting into the nitty gritty of cost, but what is the range that you would look at for a whitening treatment or Invisalign?
In my office, our whitening treatment is $195 a session. We also offer a five-session pack for $650 which brings it to $135 a session. And like I said, so many people like to do that whitening after their cleaning. They get the five pack, and they can use it whenever. However, most offices generally charge $500 to $600 for their whitening and they’re using a completely different product than what I’m using. So that is generally what you’ll find out there. For Invisalign, in my case, average cost is $5500, sometimes up to $6000 in my office. If you see an orthodontist, it’s probably going to be that. Then for veneers, composite veneers are generally $1600 per tooth and porcelain, you’re looking at $2000 per tooth. So getting up there in the price. The good news is we do offer financing, and I think most offices offer financing. Our financing happens to be 24 months interest free, so most patients take advantage of that, because there’s no interest on it, and it helps people break down those payments.
For the whitening, how long does that last?
I would say six to 12 months for the average person.
When you’re planning a wedding, there’s an elevated stress level. Does that do anything to your smile?
So, with stress often comes clenching, especially for us women who kind of hold it all in our jaw. I find men don’t. Men just grind. They don’t clench, but and they don’t get the headaches usually that women get. With clenching, you get headaches. So, I do have a lot of people that come to me for Botox in their jaw – just to relax the muscles. I find that when you’re clenching, you often get into this tension pattern and in the tensor that the muscles get, the more likely you are to clench, and just disrupting that pattern sometimes helps to relax everything.
If it’s not enough, another thing I recommend is just doing a night guard on top of the Botox to protect your teeth. The Botox will kind of weaken the muscle and prevent you from clenching as hard, but if you’re still clenching, you’re going to want to protect your teeth with some sort of night guard so that you’re not breaking your teeth before your wedding.
Alright, so some simple questions for you: what is your favorite toothpaste?
I really love crest 3D white. The only downside of that toothpaste is it is more abrasive than your typical gum health toothpaste, or overall cavity protection toothpaste – because it works to remove surface stains with an abrasive. I have found that personally, when I use that toothpaste, my teeth are super white, and when I stop using that toothpaste, they are not as bright. So, it is working to remove the surface stain from my coffee every morning. I would just kind of be weary that if you already have thin enamel – you probably don’t want to use a whitening toothpaste, and maybe you just want to do a whitening treatment every six to 12 months instead.
Any other tips for toothbrushes or toothpaste for bridal dental care?
The other thing is, if you’re using a whitening toothpaste, you want to be mindful of how hard you’re brushing, because 99% of people are brushing too hard. I’d say almost 100% of people are brushing too hard. Even I am brushing too hard. I have a toothbrush that tells me that I’m brushing too hard every morning and I’m still brushing too hard. So, I mean, if I’m brushing too hard, I can be sure that most people are, especially if they don’t have a toothbrush that’s lighting up red at them when they’re brushing. So, one thing to be you know that that is great to get is a toothbrush with a pressure indicator on it. My favorite one is the Oral B-IO brush, and I think series six and up will have the pressure indicator light on the handle. It will also tell you if you’re brushing too soft for whatever reason. But I never get that indication it’s either good or it’s too hard. And I know that with my patients who have purchased that brush, they have all said that they were brushing too hard. So, I think it’s important so that you’re not scrubbing away your enamel to at least be made aware of how hard you’re brushing every day.
How does someone know if they’re losing their enamel?
One thing that people notice when their enamel is thinning is either the edge of their teeth becomes more see through, or their teeth start to look yellower. That’s because the inside of the tooth is naturally yellower than that enamel layer that’s sitting over the top. When you’re whitening, you’re actually whitening that middle layer, that yellow layer. It’s penetrating through the enamel and whitening the center of the tooth. But it’s almost like the teeth start to appear more gray and translucent, and that’s how you know you’re losing enamel. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
How can people protect the enamel?
Diet is the most important thing. You want to be healthy overall, but just in terms of teeth and whitening and also to protect your enamel – diet matters. One thing people don’t know is that if you’re someone who likes to get up, drink coffee and then brush, you could be brushing away your enamel. Coffee is acidic and will soften your enamel as you’re drinking it. If you don’t wait 30 minutes before brushing your teeth, you’re probably brushing away your enamel.
Saliva is trying to harden the enamel at the same time, and it will if you wait 30 minutes. In fact, it will kind of negate that acidic effect of the coffee. But so many people are having the coffee brushing the teeth and running out the door, and they’re doing damage that way. So, I tell people, either brush before you have your coffee, or have your coffee and wait 30 minutes. And if that’s not feasible, then you need to bring a toothbrush to work, or whatever it is.
Any other substances to watch out for?
Same thing with orange juice, which I know not as many people have orange juice, but it’s the same thing because it’s acidic. You want to wait 30 minutes before you’re brushing your teeth, so just being mindful of that. It can happen after dinner as well, if you’re having dinner and then brushing soon after, if you’re having those acidic foods like tomato sauce or things like that. You just want to be mindful of the same thing in terms of staining your teeth. One thing people don’t know is like spinach and blueberries are also extremely staining. It’s not just coffee and tea and red wine, tomato sauce. Spinach and blueberries are some of the most staining foods as well.
Wrap-Up Question
What are some key points that couples should be asking dentists or practices when they’re inquiring with to make sure that they are working with a professional dentist and company?
Get a feel for the dentist themselves. I feel like you know when you meet the dentist, you’re gonna know whether or not you feel comfortable with them. It I’ve had many patients come to me and say they saw another dentist, and they just felt like they were rushed out the door, or the dentist didn’t sit down and look at them and talk to them. They just gave a plan and walked away – that creates a bad feeling.
If you don’t get a good vibe, then find someone that you feel really comfortable with, because you’re going to invest a lot of money, and you don’t want to be halfway through an Invisalign treatment and hate the dentist that you’re seeing, because then you’re kind of stuck to finish it out.
More tips for choosing a dental practice…
The second thing I would say is to try to find someone that you can see before and after photos of their work, because everybody’s got a different style. It’s not to say that one is better than the other, but I mean with whitening, you’re just using gel. So, I mean that it is what it is. But with Invisalign or veneers, it’s good to see the style and how someone makes them look natural. If you want them to look a certain way, then find a dentist that makes them that way, because everybody kind of has a different style.
Make sure that it’s going to fit within your timeline. So, if you’re getting married in six months, and you go and you start an Invisalign and your treatment is eight months, you’re going to want to know that, because you’re not going to be finished in time. Also ask about whether or not they would be willing to take off your attachments for your wedding photos, and then put them back on if you’re not quite done with treatment. I’ve definitely done that for weddings. Discussing things like that to work within your timeline before your wedding, I think is super important.
What We Discussed
Introduction of Dr. Naomi Goldman (2:09)
Practice Philosophy (2:24)
Basics of Whitening Teeth (5:10)
Advanced Cosmetic Dental Procedures (13:49)
Financial Considerations and Insurance Coverage (19:07)
Impact of Stress on Smile and Recommendations (23:39)
Final Tips and Key Points for Listeners (31:18)
Links Mentioned in the Episode
Find Levy Goldman Dentistry Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
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