{"id":338262,"date":"2025-10-28T11:38:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338262\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:38:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:38:22","slug":"dentist-turns-office-into-nightmare-before-christmas-experience-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338262\/","title":{"rendered":"Dentist turns office into \u2018Nightmare Before Christmas\u2019 experience \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dentist appointment in late October’s peak candy season might seem like the nightmare before Halloween<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But not so much when the orthodontist is dressed as Jack Skellington and his office is the universe of \u201cThe Nightmare Before Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Halloween — this is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! \u2013 at Mateer Orthodontics in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally — dentists and orthodontists — kids primarily don\u2019t want to go to those appointments,\u201d Mateer said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re going above and beyond to make this an enjoyable,\u00a0 welcoming experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mateer<\/p>\n

The staff continued its holiday tradition<\/a> by transforming each room of their dental office in Commack, Long Island, into a different setting from the classic holiday-crossover animated movie. So much so that it confused an Amazon driver who entered the waiting room with packages in hand, noticed a large functioning fountain in the shape of a dragon, and asked, \u201cIs this the orthodontist office?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, it is, but the orthodontist was dressed in a black pinstriped suit, oversized bowtie and custom-made silicone skeleton mask with a mouth that moved when he talked.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatients were pretty amazed,\u201d Mateer said. \u201cI think the quality of the mask combined with the fact that it moves when I talk, people have been pretty floored by that. They\u2019ve also been really shocked by how amazing the staff looks and just the overall presentation of the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mateer<\/p>\n

What\u2019s this? What\u2019s this? A worm hovering above a holiday-countdown clock in a waiting room also occupying a pumpkin head welcoming patients to \u201cHalloween Town.\u201d Oh, and that dragon fountain made by one of the staffer\u2019s husbands from soldered and painted foam, PVC piping, a water bin and pump.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s this? What\u2019s this? A front desk featuring a fireplace and blackboard covered in Christmas equations, with Sally answering phones, the Mayor typing away and Dr. Finkelstein being pushed around in a wheelchair. \u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s this? What\u2019s this? Rows of holiday themed trees leading to \u201cChristmas Town,\u201d Sally\u2019s room and Oogie Boogie\u2019s fluorescent hallway.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s this? What\u2019s this? A hill shining in the moonlight alongside patients being treated in dental chairs by a witch, werewolf and skeleton who specialize in braces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like it was crazy having a skeleton orthodontist,\u201d said Alex Morganstern, 12. \u201cLike, it doesn\u2019t feel real. It feels like you\u2019re in a book or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mateer<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the next chapter in Mateer\u2019s Halloween history. The office theme has become a highly anticipated experience \u2013 with previous transformations like \u201cBeetlejuice<\/a>,\u201d \u201cStranger Things<\/a>\u201d and “Harry Potter.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Mateer has gone from dressing as Voldemort to Vecna to Beetlejuice to Skellington \u2013 all of whom have one thing in common: bad teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere must be some sort of subliminal message there that I want to like fix their teeth,\u201d Mateer joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t wait to come in and see what he\u2019s going to be every year,\u201d added Kristy Roocke, a treatment coordinator playing the blue-skinned and stitched rag doll Sally. \u201cEverybody is excited and our schedule is always jam packed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the staff is always decked out.<\/p>\n

\"Mateer<\/p>\n

Bouncing between Halloween and Christmas towns on Monday were Boogie\u2019s Boys \u2013 Lock, Shock and Barrel. Sitting behind the front desk was the Mayor, wearing a decorated lamp shade as a head. Rolling around the hallways on a desk chair that was transformed into a wheelchair by painting two wheels and zip-tying them to each side was the mad scientist Dr. Finkelstein \u2013 complete with the duckbill-mouth made of foam clay and a skullcap that opened to reveal a brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually made the hat and the mouth,\u201d said receptionist Tatiana Espino. \u201cI did cheat and bought the brain on Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was one of the many expenses needed to bring the holiday classic to life \u2013 and this year\u2019s theme has some staying power beyond Halloween.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe figured it would be cool to be able to do something a little bit longer than two days and maybe kind of recreate this into Christmas, leave it up and make it Christmas Town afterward,\u201d said insurance coordinator Dakota Duffy, dressed in all red with a devil\u2019s tail as Lock. \u2018So, it\u2019s like a dual theme. Trying to be bigger and better this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mateer<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the pressure the staff faces every Halloween, which is why they begin the process as early as August and spent last weekend transforming the office from sunrise to sunset.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe all are worried that it\u2019s not gonna be enough,\u201d Mateer said. \u201cAs we were setting this up this weekend, it\u2019s kind of like, \u2018Well, maybe we should do this too to make sure it\u2019s over the top.\u2019 It spirals into a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Mateer was unable to breathe through his nose all day because of the very like-life, but very expensive and very tight mask he kept on nearly all day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made of silicone, so it doesn\u2019t move a lot and it comes down to about here,\u201d he said as he pointed to the middle of his chest.\u00a0 \u201cSo, it has to go on first, clothes on second. I pretty much put it on and said to myself, \u2018You\u2019re living with that for the rest of the day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the rest of the holiday season, as well.<\/p>\n

\"Mateer<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we leave it up and then once early November hits just start going around giving it a Christmas flair?\u201d he asked. \u201cThat\u2019s definitely a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the skeleton mask stays on from Halloween through Christmas?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent,\u201d Mateer said, \u201cand I just switch to a Santa costume.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dentist appointment in late October’s peak candy season might seem like the nightmare before Halloween. But not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":338263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,17810,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-338262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-halloween","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115451600295436964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}