Cosmetic & implant dentist — Sterling, Virginia
Meet Dr. Tarek Badawy
I’m Dr. Tarek Badawy, a cosmetic and implant dentist in Sterling, Virginia. I opened Westlake Dental Care in June 2019, and I still think of dentistry the way a friend of my father’s described it to me when I was a kid trying to decide on a major at Cairo University: “it’s like art, you’re drawing with your hand.” I’d started in economics and political science. That one sentence sent me to dental school instead.
I’ve been doing this a long time, in two countries, and the reason I show up has stayed the same. I want to make a big impact on somebody’s life. That is not a slogan; it’s the actual test I use to decide if a day went well.
The path here
Two countries, one reason to show up
I graduated dental school in Egypt in 2004 and went straight into a residency built around oral surgery, eight of twelve months in the OR, then into an Egyptian hospital system where you see everything, fast.
I moved to the United States full-time at the end of 2009 to sit for U.S. boards. That’s its own kind of training: proving what you already know all over again, in a new system, in a second language of dentistry.
I know how DSOs work.
Dr. Tarek Badawy
From 2014 to 2019 I worked inside two DSOs, the corporate dental groups. I learned how those systems are built, what they optimize for, and where a patient’s interests can quietly stop being the priority. When I opened my own practice in 2019, independence was the whole reason.
- 2004
Graduates dental school in Egypt; residency built around oral surgery, eight of twelve months in the OR
- 2005
Begins a master’s in oral surgery at Cairo University; teaches other students
- 2009
Moves to the United States full-time to sit for U.S. boards
- 2012
Completes AEGD (Advanced Education in General Dentistry), then a General Practice Residency
- 2014
Virginia license; five years inside two corporate dental groups (DSOs)
- 2019
Opens Westlake Dental Care in Sterling, VA, independent by design
- Now
Training in digital smile design; board member, Alliance of Independent Dentists
Credentials
I keep this list short on purpose. It’s a floor, not a pitch.
- FAGD
- ICOI FELLOW
- INVISALIGN GOLD
- SEATTLE STUDY CLUB
- DIGITAL SMILE DESIGN
- ALLIANCE OF INDEPENDENT DENTISTS
FAGD (Fellow, Academy of General Dentistry). ICOI Fellow (International Congress of Oral Implantologists). Invisalign Gold. Member of the Seattle Study Club. Board member of the Alliance of Independent Dentists.
Digital smile design is the framework I lean on when I’m planning a smile, because it starts from how a face actually moves and speaks, not just how teeth look sitting still in a photo. None of that replaces judgment built from years in the chair. It’s the scaffolding around it.
Why I do this
Two patients stay with me
The first was a woman so afraid of dentistry that she was unable to make herself walk through our front door. She stood in the hallway outside our office holding a print magazine we used to publish, working up the nerve. My office manager went out and brought her in. Over time, through Invisalign, a full upper arch of veneers, some extractions, implants, and bone grafting in her lower jaw, she became someone entirely different in our chair. Today she comes in for regular visits, cracking jokes with the team. That change, from petrified to comfortable, is the whole job in one patient.
The second was a man who told me he had not smiled since he was six years old. He worked as a hockey referee at the NHL level, and that job is what paid for a full-arch restoration of veneers and crowns. The day I seated his temporaries (the provisional set you wear while the final restoration is made) he looked in the mirror and started crying, silently, right there in the chair. I said nothing. There was nothing to add.
I tell those stories because they’re the honest answer to “why dentistry,” not to sell anything. I want to be in the room for that moment, the one where someone sees themselves differently for the first time in years.
How I practice
Independent, in the room, unhurried
We’re independent. Not part of a DSO, not answering to a private-equity growth target. Decisions about your treatment plan get made by me, in the room, based on what I see.
Most of my clinical focus lives here:
- ImplantsSingle tooth through full-arch, including bone grafting
- Invisalign
- Full-mouth rehabilitation
- Aesthetic smile design
If you’ve been told “no” somewhere else on a complex implant case, that’s when I want the second look. Many of my patients pay out of pocket, and our Membership Club exists for exactly that. Insured patients are just as welcome; we file insurance.
We’re moving our consult space toward something closer to a living room than an exam room: sofa seating, a round table, frosted glass for privacy. The conversation about your smile shouldn’t happen in a room built to feel clinical.
What to expect when you meet me
Your first visit with me starts with a conversation, not a treatment plan. I want to understand what’s bothering you, what you’ve tried before, and what “better” would actually look like for your life, not just your teeth.
From there we talk through options honestly, including what’s likely, what varies person to person, and what we’d want to evaluate further before committing to anything. If smile design or a full-arch case is on the table, that’s often where a Smile Reveal consult comes in. It’s a chance to see a preview of the plan before you decide anything.
Questions patients ask about Dr. Tarek
The next step
Book a Smile Reveal with Dr. Tarek
A conversation first, treatment second. See a preview of your plan before you decide anything.