Website puts dental humor in the spotlight

Dentists have long been the punch line of many a joke, whether they like it or not. And with the advent of e-mail, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media sites, it's become easier than ever before to share the latest dental barbs, cartoons, photos, and video clips.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, according to Kendell Buxton, D.D.S., a private practice dentist in New Mexico. In June, he and two fellow dentists -- Nathanial Farley, D.D.S., and Kent Howell, D.M.D. -- launched DentalToons.com, "the ultimate source for dental humor," according to the company's website.

"Let's face it: people are obsessed with poking fun at the dental world! We've chosen to embrace this fact by bringing you DentalToons.com," the website states. "Our hope is to entertain the dental community by collecting into one convenient place all the humorous dental photos, comics, videos, jokes, and anything else that makes the dental-minded chuckle. Now who says the dentist is no fun?!"

The idea for the site started while they were in dental school at Ohio State, where they graduated two years ago, Dr. Buxton said.

"We'd be studying our brains out, and we'd pass funny dental videos back and forth that we found on YouTube or wherever," he told DrBicuspid.com. "We thought about doing the site back then, but we didn't have time."

As time went by, he added, "We realized there is a lot of funny dental stuff out there, so we've been collecting it." Much of the material comes from friends and online sources such as YouTube and worth1000.com. DentalToons is also interested in submissions from fellow dental humor aficionados.

DentalToons.com

All images courtesy of DentalToons.

A woman phoned her dentist when she received a huge bill. "I'm shocked!" she complained. "This is three times what you normally charge."

"Yes, I know," said the dentist. "But you yelled so loud, you scared away two other patients."

"We are hoping people will send us their own things, and we are trying to get permission to use other stuff," he said. "There is so much material out there, such as dental comics that we are working on getting the rights to."

Most of the images and videos have captions written by Dr. Buxton and his partners. For many of the jokes, Dr. Buxton draws the stick-figure illustrations himself.

"We're hoping people will just come to the site and have fun," Dr. Buxton said. "Dentists are always the villain or the schlub. I think going to the dentist is just an uncomfortable thing, and they [patients] want to lighten it up."

DentalToons is just the beginning, he added.

"We've formed a small company and have other websites in the works -- not just dental comics, but information that might be useful for dentists," he said. "The younger generation uses the Internet for all kinds of stuff. I wish there was more out there."

Copyright © 2010 DrBicuspid.com