Must Dentists Be the “Bad Guy?”

There must be something funny about dentists. Or maybe something insidious. At least that could be what much of the public has gleaned from dozens of memorable dentist portrayals in film and television. Indeed, my own family greeted the news of my acceptance into dental school with the obligatory congratulations and an unsolicited but detailed recounting of Laurence Olivier’s haunting performance as a Nazi war criminal dentist in Marathon Man (1976).

We can only wonder how many dental patients sit nervously in reception areas, alternating between visions of Steve Martin’s Dr. Orin Scrivello drilling teeth with sadistic delight in Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and a pre-Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston playing a smarmy, suggestive Dr. Tim Whatley in Seinfeld (season 6, 1995). The audience squirms when a carbide bur is skewered into the fingernail of the dentist character in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) but also takes satisfaction in knowing that he deserved it. Even family films help indoctrinate children (indentrinate, perhaps?) about the roles dentists play in society. Afterall, Dr. Phillip Sherman, a dentist, provides the driving conflict in Finding Nemo (2003) when he plucks the titular clownfish from his ocean home.

Why are so many of these dentist characters the villain? And why are so many of these characters men? Older white men at that. What does the representation of dentists in fiction say about the real-world perceptions of our profession?

Dentist characters often carry wealth, privilege, and power. The power inequity between provider and patient plays on actual anxieties. Globally, nearly one-sixth of all adults are fearful of dental treatment.¹ Moviegoers fear characters at liberty to cause pain without remorse. Of course, films will also strip a dentist character of their power, usually for laughs, by stressing that a dentist is not a “real” doctor, like a physician, such as in The Hangover (2009). Does that make dentists funny? In a humorous scene in A Serious Man (2009), Dr. Sussman finds lower incisors inscribed with a mysterious message, but the dentist is not exactly in on the joke.

What insight do these fictional characters offer for actual dental practice? If this is the way the world sees our profession, then perhaps we dentists have an overdue responsibility to improve how we project our profession to the world.

In national polls, dentists rank among the most trusted of all professions, albeit trailing nurses and medical doctors.² Poll results like this are encouraging, but we can do more to overcome the tired tropes of the old man in a white coat brandishing a needle.

The dental profession is growing more diverse. In 2022, 53% of US dental school graduates were women and only 48% of graduates identified as Non-Hispanic White.³ However, concerted efforts are needed to raise the percentages of Black, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native dentists to match the proportions of these populations in the country at large.⁴ Likewise, there is much work to be done to enhance access to dental professionals where oral health care needs are greatest, especially in underserved rural areas.

Dentists are positioned to be strong voices and effective advocates for health in our communities. Working collectively within professional societies, or collaboratively with other members of the healthcare team, compassionate dentists have found ways to advance health at a population level.⁵ For much of the general public, however, it is uncommon to see oral health framed as a priority. When voters in the cities of Berkeley and San Francisco were asked to consider potential soda taxes, advocates of the policies frequently noted that sugary drinks are linked to obesity and diabetes, but tooth decay was rarely part of the public conversation.⁶

No time is better than now to transform perceptions. In 2022, the World Health Organization officially recognized oral diseases as a major global health burden. The subsequent WHO action plan ambitiously seeks to lower the prevalence of oral diseases worldwide, including through expanded access to essential services and addressing risk factors, like tobacco use and sugar consumption.⁷ Of course, as another film warns us, we might consider stopping short of demands that our patients avoid all sweets entirely. Dr. Wilbur Wonka, dentist father to Willy in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), so strongly forbade sugary treats that his son grew into a reclusive and eccentric chocolatier, whose magical chewing gum once transformed a child into an oversize blueberry.

Each patient encounter is an opportunity to influence dentistry’s reputation. Do not leave a chance untaken to defuse anxiety, reduce discomfort, and demonstrate genuine empathy. A little humor can soften and humanize (yes, my favorite dinosaur is a floss-iraptor). Putting our diverse, caring, and authentic selves forward, much of the public will see dentists as real people, not caricatures.

The more positively we project our profession, the more we can hope for theatrical reflections like Hermey in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), the kind elf and subduer of the Abominable Snow Monster who finds success and satisfaction in his dream occupation: a dentist.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin W. Chaffee

Benjamin W. Chaffee, DDS MPH PhD, is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the California Dental Association and Professor of Oral Epidemiology and Dental Public Health at the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry. His research interests include tobacco-related behaviors, caries management, and advancing oral health equity.