Meet Our Team at Mint Hill Smiles - Women-Owned Dental Practice in Mint Hill, NC

Meet the team · 2019 — Today

Meet the women behind Mint Hill Smiles.

We met on the first day of dental school at the University of Michigan in 2011. Two women who had both worked hard to earn their spot, who both had big ideas about what a dental practice could be, and who both believed that dentistry did not have to feel the way most people expected it to feel.

We had no idea then that we would end up building one of Mint Hill’s most trusted practices together. But looking back, it makes complete sense.

Five-star reviews

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Founded in Mint Hill

Growth since year one

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Free smiles donated

Goal by 2030

Our story.

After four years of dental school, sharing classes, sharing stress, and sharing an apartment, Dr. Marvelli and I went our separate ways to complete Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency programs. After our advanced training she went back to Michigan and I landed in upstate New York, where I spent a few years working alongside my father, who is also a dentist, before making the move to Charlotte.

When we decided to open a practice together in 2019, we knew exactly what we wanted to build. Not a corporate chain. Not a high-volume, in-and-out operation focused on production above all else. We wanted a place that felt different from the moment you called to make an appointment. A place where the team genuinely knew your name, where the doctor had time to actually talk with you, where patients who were scared could finally feel safe.

After a crazy late halloween night where we ate take-out and scrambled to make the office presentable, we opened the doors to Mint Hill Smiles on November 1, 2019. We were starting with zero patients and hoping to build something bigger than ourselves.

Three months later, the world shut down for COVID-19.

We want to be honest about how hard that was. We had just hired our first team members. We were building something new and then everything stopped. There were PPE shortages, infection protocol uncertainty, and the entire dental industry paused. We figured it out together. We protected our team and we came back and we grew faster than either of us had imagined.

By 2025, Mint Hill Smiles has grown 4x from where we were after our first year open. We now have four doctors, a full hygiene team, treatment coordinators, an HR director, a dedicated patient experience team, and an insurance and billing operation. We have over 800 five-star Google reviews. We have taken mission trips to the Dominican Republic to provide free dental care to communities with little to no access. And we are building a new larger office just down the road to serve more of our community for decades to come.

Mint Hill is growing exponentially and in some ways we got lucky. But I’d like to think part of it happened because we cared about the patients, about the team, and about building something that was genuinely worth building.

The founders

Two doctors. One vision.

Dr. Shalini Kamodia

Dr. Kamodia grew up watching her father practice dentistry and understood early what the profession could be when it was done with real care for the patient. She completed her undergraduate degree and dental school at the University of Michigan, then her Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency in Florida. Working alongside her father was the best education of all. After living in upstate New York she decided to make Charlotte home.

As the Integrator at Mint Hill Smiles, Dr. Kamodia runs the systems, processes, and operations that keep the practice functioning at the level patients deserve. On her clinical days she sees patients for a full range of general dentistry from fillings and crowns to implants and clear aligners. But her deepest passion is something more specific.

Dr. Kamodia specializes in pediatric airway orthodontics through Sleep Better Charlotte, our dedicated airway practice brand. She has completed advanced training with the Airway Health Sciences, the Breathe Institute, and both Vivos and Myobrace. Her focus is on children ages three to fifteen whose breathing, sleep, and development are being affected by narrow palates, mouth breathing, and airway restrictions that often go undiagnosed for years. She finds this work deeply meaningful, not just because of the clinical results, but because addressing a child’s airway early can change the trajectory of their health, their development, and their life.

Outside the office, Dr. Kamodia is a mother to two rambunctious toddlers and two labradoodles. She is a dedicated weightlifter who trains before most of Mint Hill is awake, and someone who loves cooking. The cookbook collection in our reception area is hers.

Dr. Stephanie Marvelli

Dr. Marvelli is the Visionary behind Mint Hill Smiles. She is the keeper of the culture, the why behind the what, and the person who makes sure what we do every day connects to something larger than production numbers and appointment schedules.

She completed her undergraduate degree and dental school at the University of Michigan alongside Dr. Kamodia, then her Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency at the VA in Ann Arbor before moving to Charlotte to build Mint Hill Smiles from the ground up. Her clinical specialty is implant dentistry. She is the doctor patients come to for complex implant cases, full-arch restorations, and the more involved surgical work that requires a steady, skilled hand and significant experience.

She also owns the human side of Mint Hill Smiles and has built a team culture that has made Mint Hill Smiles a place people love to work. The warmth you feel when you walk in, the way the team greets you, remembers you, and actually seems happy to be there is not an accident. It is something Dr. Marvelli tends to carefully.

Dr. Marvelli has navigated every stage of growing this business while also becoming a mother. She has taken maternity leave and handed the wheel to a team strong enough to hold it. She will tell you that building a practice that runs without requiring you, every single day, has been one of the most important things she and Dr. Kamodia have done.

Dr. Marvelli is also the mother of two wild toddlers. Between running a busy practice and being a wife and mother she finds time to maintain her passion of rock climbing.

Associate doctors

The doctors who care for you.

Dr. Priyanka Shrestha

Dr. Shrestha grew up in Kentucky and received her undergraduate degree at Berea College and dental school at the University of Kentucky. She moved to Charlotte with her husband after dental school and joined the Mint Hill Smiles team in 2022.

She is a self proclaimed Harry Potter nerd and is still waiting for her letter from Hogwarts in the mail. She and her husband love to travel. Their favorite trip has been traveling to Nepal. She is both a dog mom and has an adorable infant boy at home.

She has become one of our most valued clinicians. Her clinical strength is in restorative dentistry, where precision and attention to detail make the difference between a good outcome and a great one. She is also one of the friendliest and fun-loving people you will ever meet.

Dr. Lina Ramirez

Dr. Ramirez was born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Miami, FL at an early age with her parents and two brothers. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami and her Doctorate of Dental Medicine from the University of Florida College of Dentistry.

She practiced dentistry in both Florida and NYC before moving to Charlotte in 2024 and has been with Mint Hill Smiles ever since. She enjoys spending time with her husband and family and their rescue dog, Kevin. She loves dancing, traveling, hiking, baking sourdough bread, and keeping bees. Her favorite trip has been hiking the O Trail in Patagonia.

Dr. Ramirez has built a following with the local hispanic population. Her clinical focus is on full mouth rehabilitation. She brings precision and outstanding hand skills to every appointment and patients love her straightforward and direct approach.

The broader team

The people who make it work.

The four of us are only part of the story.

Mint Hill Smiles has a hygiene team, a dental assistant team, a business team, patient experience coordinators, a remote insurance and billing operation, an HR director, and an executive assistant who keeps the whole machine moving. These are people who chose to be here. Not because it was the only option available to them but because the mission at MHS means something to them. They show up differently because of it.

Our core values are what we call BEST: Be Compassionate, Engage Fully, Strive for Growth, Take Responsibility. Those values are not a poster in a break room. They show up in how Andrea walks a new patient through their gum disease diagnosis with patience and warmth. In how Arianna takes the extra time to make sure a patient understands their treatment plan before they commit. In how Chrissy leads her dental assistant team with the kind of quiet accountability that keeps everything running even on the hard days.

We run every team member through a 90-day onboarding process. We hold quarterly personal, professional, and financial conversations with each person about their goals in and outside of work. We invest in training, continuing education, and professional development because we want the people here to grow.

Our mission

5,000 free smiles by 2030.

Everything we have built, the team, the technology, the training, the new building we are working toward, is connected to a goal that sits at the center of why Mint Hill Smiles exists.

We are going to donate 5,000 free smiles to our community by 2030. We are at 1152 right now.

That number represents free dentistry days in Mint Hill where we open our doors to community members who cannot afford care. It represents our annual dental mission trips to the Dominican Republic, where our team travels to provide treatment to communities with little to no access to dental services.

Every patient who chooses Mint Hill Smiles is part of how we get to 5,000. When you come here for your care, refer someone you know, or leave a review that helps more patients find us, you are contributing to the capacity we have to give back.

We are so grateful for every patient who has trusted us with their care since 2019. You are the reason we show up every day and you are how we get to where we are going.

We would love for you to experience what Mint Hill Smiles is all about.

We serve patients from Mint Hill, Matthews, Indian Trail, Stallings, Weddington, Midland, Albemarle, and southeast Charlotte, NC. We accept most major insurance plans including Delta Dental, Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United Healthcare. If you do not have insurance, our Brush365 membership plan was built for you.

Call (704) 323-7577 or visit minthillsmiles.dentist to book your first appointment. We are at 11300 Cresthill Drive, Suite 105, Mint Hill, NC 28227.

Come see us. We think you will feel the difference.