FLORIDA MOM MAGAZINE - September '08 - Colleen Olitsky - Smile DesignsBy: Michele Gillis Photos: Carrie-Lynn Smith
 Dr. Colleen Olitsky had her life all planned out.
She knew that one day she’d be a mom, so when she and her husband, Dr. Jason Olitsky, opened Olitsky Smiles: Studio of the Smile Stylists, a unique boutique style dental office that is dedicated to performing cosmetic dentistry treatments, in Ponte Vedra Beach they planned their work week accordingly.
“We only see patients Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” she said. “The rest of the week we are off and spending time with our son, Chase. Jason also teaches classes in Chicago, so we travel there quite a bit. My family is in Philadelphia, so we also travel there quite often.”
Olitsky grew up in Collegeville, Pa. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Ursinus College. She met Jason while at Temple University School of Dentistry. They graduated school in 2001 and moved to South Jacksonville Beach. They opened their business in Ponte Vedra Beach in March 2006.
Chase was born on May 11th, Mother’s Day of this year.
“When we started the practice, I knew that one day when we had a family, I wanted to work three days a week and spend the other four with my family,” she said. “Yes, I could make more money if I worked more, but I want that balance in my life. I want to spend that time with my family. I don’t want my kids to grow up not being with us or being in daycare all the time. So, I said let’s just do it this way from the beginning so when we have a family, we were already doing it. We wouldn’t have to go from five days to three days and figure out how to do it.”
Olitsky reads a lot of business, marketing and self-help books and said they always say to envision your life five or 10 years down the road and practice that way from that day. 
“I went back to work six days after he was born,” she said. “We had a big smile makeover that had to be done by a certain day. My mom was here helping, so I had him on a Sunday and went back to work that next Saturday. It took four hours. At first I felt guilty leaving my six day old, but the other part of me thought it was a nice break. That first week is all about survival.
I just needed to survive.”
When her mom left, she hired a babysitter who comes to the office with her and they have a nursery set up there for the baby. But, it hasn’t been easy.
“She’ll take him for walks and get him out of the office for an hour or two and then come back here,” she said. “It’s hard though. I’ll be helping Jason put in veneers and I can hear him crying in the other room. I know he’s ok, but I still feel guilty sometimes.”
Since they don’t have any family here, her support system comes from within.
“We are all by ourselves here, so we just take him with us everywhere,” said Olitsky. “We go to Roy’s and Bonefish Grill. We walk there because we live right there. We just do our thing and he just comes right along. We are just trying to do our thing and just incorporate him into our life.”
Olitsky said that 90 percent of their business is smile makeovers.
“One thing that is unique is that we do only see one patient at time,” said Olitsky.
Since they are both dentists, she works as his assistant on each cosmetic dentistry case. 
“We drive to work everyday and say ‘We have the best job in the world. We change people’s lives’,” she said. “If you already have nice teeth, it’s hard to understand. But, I’ve been there, I’ve been through it.”
Olitsky knows what it is like to have bad teeth, so she can put herself in her client’s shoes.
“I am missing two teeth in the front, so I have a bridge and the rest are all veneers and you can’t tell,” she said. “I was born without those two teeth. When I was younger, I had little flippers in there to kind of replace them and when I was in high school, I had little bridges put in, but I never had a nice smile. Jason did my teeth about three years ago.”
When people get their smiles done, Olitsky said they usually undergo a major transformation.
“They are more outgoing and it leads them to start working out, losing weight or doing their hair differently,” she said. “We’ve done some before and after photos where you wouldn’t recognize them. They felt better about themselves and starting caring about themselves more. It’s amazing.”
At the end of the makeover, they do a photo shoot with the makeover patient to celebrate their smile.
Some of their smiles can also be seen on “America's Next Top Model” winner Whitney Thompson, the Jacksonville Roar cheerleaders and local news anchors.
Visiting their Web site, www.smilestylist.com is comparable to visiting a fashion show in New York.
They have dozens of before and after photos, a studio tour and mounds of information for the consumer to make an educated decision before even calling the office. Olitsky and her husband talk to you from the site and tell you about their practice personally.
“We like to have fun and have a good time,” she said. “They kind of already get to know us before they come in. It’s a big hurdle in itself for someone who is embarrassed of their smile to come in talk about it and admit there’s a problem. It’s a hard thing. The Web site allows them to get to know us a little bit and they feel a little more comfortable coming in for the first time.”
Before they opened their own office, both she and her husband worked for Smilecare and just didn’t like the assembly line of patients. They knew when they opened their own office they wanted to do it differently.
“We would see 30 to 35 patients a day,” she said. “It was hard trying to get them in and get them out. When we started getting into cosmetic dentistry, we realized you can’t do that in that environment. We knew when we opened our own practice that we wanted to mainly focus on cosmetics and just take it slow and see one patient at a time.”
Patients pay out of pocket for cleanings and routine maintenance, but can be reimbursed by their insurance company. Cosmetic dentistry is not covered by insurance.
Most people come in for a consultation first because they are just not satisfied with their teeth. Patients could do something as simple as getting their teeth whitened to getting a whole new smile.
A smile makeover can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000.
“I normally say it costs as much as a car depending on what kind of car you are thinking about,” she said. “It just depends on your goals and your budget. Some people come in and just do their top teeth, well that can be in the $10,000 to $18,000 range. But if they do top and bottom then it’s getting closer to the $30,000 to $35,000. If they do their back teeth too, then it pushes up to $45,000 to $50,000.”
They do have financing options available.
“It’s something you can save up for,” she said. “If your smile is important to you then you can give something else up. We do a lot of young people here who gave up living in this apartment verses that apartment or getting this car verses that car. You can find something to give up it just depends on what is important to you.”
Olitsky has written a book on cosmetic dentistry treatments and how to choose a cosmetic dentist, but she’s not quite finished it. She did complete a condensed version of her book. You can pick up a copy of “Your Mini Guide to Smile Enhancement Procedures” at their office.
|
|
