It’s the Flying Dentist

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…It’s the Flying Dentist

You’ve planned the perfect summer weekend escape that includes a social agenda ranging from some fun in the sun to glamorous evenings rubbing elbows with the jet set. Sounds fabulous? It is. But what happens if you are about to swing into water-ski action and the absolute unthinkable happens? You land face first and get up a little off keel and with one less tooth. Or you bite down too hard into a canapé and chip a tooth or lose one playing touch football with the Kennedy’s at Hyannis Port?

Someone shouts, "Is there a dentist in the house?"

Then suddenly from up above you see it-the Mercedes of sky vehicles-a 30-foot long Twin Engine Beechcraft  Baron coming in for an emergency landing. Who is it, you ask?  It’s Dr. Clifford Williams, NYC DMD, often referred to as the Red Baron of Dentistry. With drill in hand, the crowd cheers, and the tooth is saved just in time for the big gala at 7pm.

According to many of Dr. Williams’ patients, this is not a far cry from reality. For the last three years, Dr. Williams has flown into numerous landing strips to replace broken crowns and fillings, and to bond teeth due to sporting activities or general mishaps in local areas such as the Hamptons, Montauk, Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. He has even gone nonstop as far as West Palm Beach and Chicago. Dr. Williams has 24-hour access to all airports. Because he is an instrument rated pilot, not even poor weather including rain, fog or cloudy conditions can prevent him from rescuing dental emergency victims.

"Making flying house calls started out as a fluke. One of my patients was playing tennis in the Hamptons, when a ball came directly at her face and knocked out her tooth. She had an important charity event to host that night and couldn’t find an open dentist office anywhere. She called me to ask if I had any colleagues in the area, and since no one was available, I decided to fly there to help her out. Luckily, she did not break the tooth at the gum line, which means that I was able to grab onto the bit of tooth structure left and make a temporary composite resin so that she could functionally chew and be presentable for the rest of the weekend. After that incident, word got around and now I get calls on a regular basis. I guess you can say I’m on weekend air patrol," Dr. Williams says with a light chuckle.
But Dr. Williams says that summer dental injuries are no laughing matter.
A study published in General Dentistry, the clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry investigated 72,000 adult emergency room patient visits. Of those, 2,895 visits were for the treatment of dental conditions, representing 3.8 percent of all the hospital emergency room visits. Visits most often occurred between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. with the highest number of visits on Saturday and Sunday.
Dr. Williams indicates that aside from sports related injuries, the number one cause of dental emergencies in the summer occur at swimming pools. Swimming underwater and quickly coming to the surface can cause someone to hit the hard ledge, loosening the front tooth. Also, falling on slippery, slick cement or ceramic pool surfaces sends many people headfirst into the ground, often causing chipped or displaced (loose) teeth. Diving into shallow waters and hitting the bottom pushes the tooth up and can fracture the whole bone.
While-U-Wait Dental Care
"There are many things that can be done to ‘McGyver’ a dental emergency. Even if I am en route, I often tell my patients to follow a couple of first aid steps to save their teeth if they’ve either been knocked loose or knocked out. If a tooth is displaced (loose), push the tooth back into its original position and bite down so the tooth does not move. For an avulsed (knocked out) tooth, pick the tooth up by the crown, not by the root---handling the root may damage the cells necessary for bone reattachment and hinder the replant. If the tooth cannot be replaced in its socket on site, do not let the tooth dry out. Place it in a container with a lid and use low-fat milk, saline solution or saliva. Take ibuprofen, not aspirin. Aspirin is an anti-coagulant, which may cause excessive bleeding. And sit tight, until I get there with the appropriate dental equipment," explains Williams.

Everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink
During flying house calls, Williams typically carries up to 50 pounds of dental supplies which includes a tiny laboratory drill, a bonding light, composite resin (bonding material), Novocain, a syringe, a couple of cartridges, a few needles and, if necessary, a portable air compressor. To set up ‘shop’ requires only a chair for the patient near a kitchen sink. "In an office environment, a suction machine is used so that the patient constantly has water in his or her mouth. In someone’s home, I will either have to use the sink for rinsing purposes, or depending on the extent of the tooth damage, I may bring a hand held electrical device (110 volts) that has its own water supply, which will allow me to do a fair amount of tooth shaping," says Williams.

Dr. Williams stresses that not all dental emergencies can be treated off-site. In cases where a patient may need root canal work due to trauma to the tooth or extensive repairing, he often suggests to fly them back if land or ferry transportation is scarce.

The Cost for Door-to-Door Dental Service?
No, you can’t use frequent flyer miles toward the bill, however insurance companies will still honor plans for the actual work. Additional fees include the cost for the round-trip plane usage, gas and landing fees. The total price usually averages $1000 plus the procedural fee.

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