Couture Dentistry

Where every smile tells a story

The man had flown in from Oklahoma with one day to spare and a wedding on the calendar. His front teeth had gaps and chipped edges, the kind of thing he’d stopped mentioning out loud but never stopped feeling. He didn’t want anything dramatic, just enough to feel like himself again in the photos. Dr. Nazayat Parvez, affectionately known to her patients simply as Dr. Naz, sculpted same-day composite veneers onto his four front teeth, closing the gaps and smoothing the chips. A couple of hours later, she walked him to the mirror, the way she always does.

What happened next surprised even her. He cried. He hugged her more than once. Weeks later, he told her that fixing four teeth had changed his whole life, including his first family vacation in years where smiling wasn’t something to manage around. “He was wedding-ready,” Dr. Naz remembers. “All he wanted was to live authentically, without restriction.”

That’s the goal at Couture Dentistry.

A Practice Built on Precision

Couture Dentistry, a Living Magazine Readers’ Choice 2026 award winner, was founded by Dr. Nelson Lo, whose own path to dentistry began, unexpectedly, in computer engineering. After earning his degree at the University of Illinois and working as a software consultant, a conversation with a family friend and cosmetic dentist changed his direction.

Dr. Lo realized dentistry and engineering shared the same foundation: structural soundness. “A lot of dentistry is based on structural soundness,” he says. “When performing full mouth restorations in one day, it’s imperative that it’s done right the first time.”

That same precision runs through Dr. Naz’s practice at Couture Dentistry.

From Montessori Classroom to Dental Chair

Dr. Naz’s path to dentistry started long before dental school. Raised by a mother who worked in social work and instilled the importance of healthcare, she grew up a kinesthetic learner in a Montessori classroom, where a love of both art and science took root. In college, she looked for a career that combined those interests with a sense of purpose and enough balance to have a life outside of work. Dentistry checked every box. “I never realized the joy and purpose it would bring,” she says, “until years later.”

The Art and Science of a Smile

That blend of art and science still shapes how she works today. Rebuilding a tooth or a smile means weighing biology, bite mechanics, and a patient’s own facial features all at once, a kind of puzzle-solving Dr. Naz describes as part engineering, part sculpture. “It’s a delicate balance of biology, engineering, architecture, sculpting, and psychology,” she says. “We wear many hats, and I wouldn’t change it for anything else.”

The psychology part matters most to her. In her experience, interest in cosmetic dentistry is almost never really about looks. “There is always an underlying reason why people want to fix their smile,” she says. Maybe it’s an old sense of childhood insecurity. Maybe it’s years spent taking care of everyone else, and this is the first time they’ve chosen themselves. Patients have told her that a new smile gave them the confidence to take vacation photos again, or the nerve to stop hiding when they laughed.

For Dr. Naz, that’s the real work: helping people feel aligned with how they see themselves.

Treating the Whole Picture

Dr. Naz is currently pursuing certification with the Kois Center and travels quarterly for continuing education. The training pushed her to think beyond any single tooth. “Our job is not to just fix dental problems,” she says. “We have to become a kind of forensic odontologist and figure out the root cause of what we’re trying to fix.” Before recommending treatment, she gathers exams, X-rays, scans, and photos to build a plan suited to each patient’s mouth.

“The ultimate purpose of this comprehensive approach,” she says, “is to address the patient-specific root cause so their dental treatment lasts a long time. We want their return on investment to be as high as possible, saving them money, time, and headaches.”

Meeting Patients Where They Are

Dr. Naz knows most people don’t love visiting the dentist, and she’s found that hesitation is rarely about the dentist’s chair itself. It’s about trust. With this awareness, she starts every new patient relationship by learning their name and asking about their life: a hobby, a trip, whatever comes up. “It shows them I remembered,” she says. Over time, that familiarity turns anxious first visits into an office patients are glad to walk into.

For anyone unsure whether cosmetic dentistry is right for them, she doesn’t push. Instead, she shows them. Real before-and-after cases, or a no-commitment preview of their own future smile, built in about 15 minutes. “The goal is to see if it’s worth it to them,” she says. “And it’s okay if it’s not.”

A Team That Feels Like Family

Dr. Naz has worked alongside Dr. Lo and the Couture Dentistry team for five years. In her interview for the position, the office manager described the practice as a “unicorn office.” She understands why now. “They showed me how to treat patients as people, not just a clinical problem to solve,” she says of Dr. Lo and the team. Patients notice the difference. The office runs less like a clinic and more like a group of people who genuinely enjoy each other’s company, and that ease tends to carry over to nervous patients.

Life Outside the Office

Outside of work, Dr. Naz spends her time with her husband, family, friends, and her golden retriever, Skittles. She loves to cook. “If I wasn’t a dentist, I would definitely be a food critic,” she jokes. She’s also a beginner but enthusiastic pickleball player, and she also loves singing. Building a home recording studio is on her list of future projects.

Her Advice to Anyone Waiting

If there’s a smile someone has desired but never sought, Dr. Naz has one message: don’t wait. “It’s not selfish. It’s an act of self-care that affects the relationships around you,” she says. The confidence, the willingness to show up fully in photos and everyday moments. She’s watched it ripple outward in her patients, the same way it did for the man who flew in from Oklahoma with one day and a wedding to get ready for.

Couture Dentistry offers a complimentary consultation for anyone ready to take the first step — meeting Dr. Naz and getting that beautiful smile they’ve always wanted.