Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Among my best gifts this season was that my dentist was available when I broke my tooth at the office holiday party and that a dermatologist was available when I decided that a weird rash on my leg was was from a dangerous woodchuck tick bite (which, as I had read that morning, had struck down a grandmother in Maine).

Even though I knew I really didn’t have Powassan disease from a woodchuck tick, I do like knowing sensible medical people are available.

Now I read at Narratively that there is a 24-hour dentist in New York.

Alissa Fleck writes that many patients wind up in Isaac Datikashvili’s office “because they put off getting help until the last minute, when the pain becomes unbearable.

“According to Datikashvili, this phenomenon stems from a deeply ingrained dental phobia, a fear that’s implanted during childhood when kids typically experience some sort of traumatic—and occasionally anesthesia-free—procedure. …

“Once out of high school in Philadelphia, he immediately began working as an EMT, and he grew accustomed then to a sporadic schedule that has given him a unique advantage …

“ ‘When it was time to start applying to graduate schools I could go to medical or dental school,’ he explains. ‘My uncle was a dentist and I followed in his footsteps. I realized I didn’t want to be a general dentist and just do cleanings, though, so I put together the two things I knew how to do.’ By this, he means dentistry and emergency care.”

Patients call him at night and “on the holidays, when no other dentist can be reached. ‘We get very busy around Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Labor Day, Memorial Day… ‘ he says, noting that he’s on call  364 days a year; Datikashvili’s only day off is Yom Kippur , when he’ll refer emergency callers to colleagues.”

Read more about him here. Who knows? You may need him if you break a tooth some New Year’s Eve in New York.

Photo: Emon Hassan