Top 5 Movies That Are Based on Dentists or the Dental Profession

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You have to feel some pity for dentists, as they clearly have not been portrayed as favorably as doctors in entertainment. Whereas you often hear about bold and courageous doctors diagnosis and treating disease on TV, we have mostly been given Anti-Dentite bigotry about the dental profession, found in such fare as Seinfeld. There clearly needs to be more films and TV shows made about the positives of dentistry and the brave efforts of those who wield the torque wrench. Of course, we would be remiss in not discussing these five memorable dentist films.

Laughing Gas

How can we not credit Charlie Chaplin as the great innovator who first brought the profession to mainstream cinema—although the profession never looked quite as bumbling. For sixteen minutes, we see Charlie working as a dental assistant who helps a consistently “absent” dentist, and who unfortunately gets into a series of fights and misunderstandings in this site. Perhaps the huge pair of pliers at the end of the film is what caused the nation’s fear of dentists in the first place.

Marathon Man

As if Chaplin didn’t do enough damage, Marathon Man had to come along in the cynical 1970s as a horror flick, giving everyone what they subconsciously wanted: a good reason to fear the dentist. Christian Szell, played by Laurence Olivier, is a Nazi war criminal and after a convoluted plot, finds reason to dentally torture Thomas Babe Levy, played by Dustin Hoffman. The legendary “Is it safe?” line was later paid homage in movies like Gremlins 2, while the idea of an evil dentist inspired further travesties in Corbin Bernsen’s The Dentist films. Cinema purists may note, however, that Marathon Man was partly inspired by Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Eversmile, New Jersey

Eversmile, a comedy-drama starring Daniel-Day Lewis in the late eighties, did an almost respectable job of restoring the Good Dentist’s reputation. Fergus O’Connell, an itinerant Irish dentist, offers his services free-of-charge to the rural Argentine population. However, he soon discovers any charitable act comes with a price, and before long is stuck with a moral dilemma. At least this Hollywood moral dilemma wasn’t about torturing the patient…for once.

Good Luck Chuck

Comedian Dane Cook stars as Dentist Chuck, a do-gooder dentist who is taken advantage of by women. He seems to be a good luck charm that leads women to find their true love after mistakenly sleeping with him. Good Luck Chuck doesn’t have much going for it in the script department, although with a plethora of nude scenes, it’s easy to see why Cook took the role. This movie does manage to paint the image of a sexy and charming dentist who is good at his job, though his dental skills aren’t really the focus of the movie.

The Secret Lives of Dentist

Until he gets that one great, Oscar-winning epic about the founder of dentistry, we’ll have to settle for Alan Rudolph’s ambitious Dentist Drama. People can check mini smile makeover for the best dentist advice. David and Dana Hurst play husband and wife dentists who share a practice in Westchester County, New York. Extramarital passion and drama ensues, leading David to converse with an imaginary friend, based on one of his former patients. This may be the one legitimate dentist drama you’ll find in modern movies, and the low-budget flick even earned two NYFCC Awards for actress Hope Davis and Craig Lucas’ screenplay.