“Halle Berry, Julia Roberts or Sarah Jessica Parker?” Dr Jonathan Levine asks me. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, ever since I set foot in Smile House on a cobbled street in New York’s Tribeca. With its fresh flowers and tasteful walnut and Hermès-orange colour scheme, it resembles a members-only club far more than a dental clinic. I’m briefly tempted to request a Martini.
For the past two hours, Dr Levine and his fleet of helpers – a hygienist trained in breathwork, a massage therapist who specialises in jaws, and a dedicated sleep dentist among them – have been hard at work building my “mouth map”. The process entails photographing, videotaping, X-raying and old-school prodding every crevice of my mouth and its surrounding “architecture”. We’re talking airway width, tongue posture, pH levels. The master Italian ceramicists in Dr Levine’s employ won’t be conscripted until a later appointment, should I decide to go all in (the Julia Roberts, as if it’s even a choice).
Friends of mine who are lucky enough to be long-time patients of the man they call “Dr Sexy” wax rhapsodic about the softness of his touch. I can verify that the experience of occupying Dr Levine’s exam chair is distinctly un-horrific. Using restaurant impresario Will Guidara’s bestselling Unreasonable Hospitality as his bible, Dr Levine manages to convince people – even one visitor whose single recurring nightmare involved losing her teeth – that a trip to the dentist might very well be pleasurable. (For double the pleasure, there is a “couples’ suite” down the hall.)
