The World of Dentistry in Pop Culture: Film Version

Guess what? Believe it or not, dentistry has made a name for itself in pop culture! That’s right – check out where you can find the dental world referenced in the world of film… we have dentistry in television and dentistry in music versions, too!

• ‘Tis the season after all, so let’s kick this list off with one of the greatest holiday movies of all time: Home Alone! Remember when Kevin asks a woman at the store counter if the ADA has approved a toothbrush? He accidentally steals the brush when he flees the store because he sees his scary neighbor.
• Do you remember the horror comedy movie: Little Shop of Horrors? Perhaps most infamously associated with the dental world, this play-turned-musical is about a carnivorous plant that devours a sadistic dentist. It was first adapted for film in 1960, but arguably made more iconic and legendary through its 1986 release.
• In a more twisted take, in 1976 Laurence Olivier plays a Nazi war criminal in Marathon Man who torments Dustin Hoffman through dentistry. That is not something you have to worry about here!
• The 2011 black comedy Horrible Bosses features Jennifer Aniston as a less than desirable dentist… we’ll leave it at that.
• Meanwhile, in a more mild-mannered role, another Friends alum plays a dentist in the 2000 flick “The Whole Nine Yards.” Matthew Perry unwittingly lives in the same neighborhood as a Mafia hitman played by Bruce Willis.
• The 2002 comedy Snow Dogs stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as a Miami celebrity dentist who starts practicing in Alaska based on a new-found paternal relationship with sled dogs bequeathed to him by his mother.
• Let’s make a… Splash! Remember this 1984 film featuring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah? Remember the memorable fight between Dr. Walter Kornbluth, played by Eugene Levy, and Hanks’ character Allen Bauer inside a dental office? Spoiler alert: it’s where they decide to team up to free the mermaid from evil scientists who want to dissect her.
• Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2014 film Inherent Vice, adapted from a Thomas Pynchon novel, features Martin Short as a delinquent dentist.
• In the 2003 Pixar classic Finding Nemo, the young clownfish finds himself in an aquarium in a dental office.
• Ricky Gervais’ first major film role came in the 2008 comedy Ghost Town, where he portrayed a misanthropic dentist who can see dead people.
• A friend and associate of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, is best known for his role in the events leading up to and following the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Holliday is played by a memorable Val Kilmer in the 1993 film “Tombstone.” His profession? You guessed it: Dentist.
• Dr. Stuart “Stu” Price from The Hangover (and its sequels) is a dentist. During a moment of intoxication in the original film, he performs his own tooth extraction to prove that he is good at what he does. *No, we most definitely do NOT recommend doing this. And there’s more… Ed Helms, who plays Stu, reportedly was able to convince his own real-life dentist to remove his actual dental implant so that his character could have a realistic missing tooth. Again, certainly not recommended!
• Steve Martin plays a dentist in the 2001 black comedy thriller Novocaine. The film’s description? It’s a story about a straitlaced dentist who, because of one innocent lie, finds his good life turned upside-down.
• In the 2013 remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp, Willy Wonka’s father is a dentist who orders his young son to refrain from eating all candy.

What other films and movies have you come across that highlight the field of dentistry? Feel free to share in the comments; and tune into our posts about the world of dentistry as featured in television and music as well (linked in the first paragraph)!