Her husband, Dr. Irwin Smigel, whose achievements in aesthetic dentistry have been documented in a permanent exhibit unveiled by the National Museum of Dentistry, created the first whitening toothpaste to brighten the smiles of his first generation bonding patients in the mid 1980's. With his patients in mind, Dr. Smigel created the toothpaste as a small gift to keep their smiles white, strong, and healthy between visits. Originally retailing out of Dr. Smigel's Madison Avenue office, patients were lining up three-deep to get some of this miracle toothpaste. One of those patients happened to be an editor at Mademoiselle Magazine, and sure enough the following month the toothpaste received a laudable write-up. The groundbreaking toothpaste took off. Overwhelmed by the response but armed with strong foresight, Lucia saw an opportunity to turn the toothpaste into a viable operation. Way ahead of the tooth whitening boom, Lucia expanded the brand into a twenty SKU product line.