Working in the dental industry, you can expect your fair share of stress, headaches and professional challenges, but it’s unlikely that your office has an atmosphere that could accurately be described as “sexually charged,” right? Dentists may be many things to many people, but few would call them “sexy” – until now. Word broke in Hollywood this week that none other than Jennifer Aniston is set to play a dentist in the upcoming film Horrible Bosses. That’s right: Brad Pitt’s ex-wife, the former Friend who launched a thousand copycat haircuts, is going to portray one of our own. And not just any dentist, mind you: Ms. Aniston will be playing a dentist whose aggressive sexuality toward her coworkers makes her one of the “horrible bosses” of the movie’s title.
If all of this sounds a little far-fetched to you, take a look at this news story about a dentist from Little Falls, New Jersey who is being sued for sexual harassment by three different members of his staff. The women claim that Dr. David Ulanet made numerous inappropriate comments and unwanted physical advances toward them between 2007 and 2010; in fact, attorney Robert J. Stack sums up the situation rather tidily by claiming that Dr. Ulanet “converted his dental practice into his own sexual playground.” Naturally, the victims deserve justice, and my intentions are not to minimize their plight. Yet the fact that a gorgeous movie star is slated to play a sexually voracious dentist – in a story not far removed from recent headlines – makes one wonder if the entire dental industry isn’t about to undergo a major image change.
Next stop: Desperate Dentists, starring Teri Hatcher? I smell a pilot in the works…
SOURCES:
Jennifer Aniston story (from Entertainment Weekly):
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/15/jennifer-aniston-horrible-bosses-aggressive-sexually/
Sexual harassment case involving NJ dentist:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/96632594_Dentist_office_called_sexual_playground_.html
Melissa is a musician and writer from Los Angeles. She has contributed dental articles to several dental blogs and websites around the web, including Millennium Dental, a cosmetic dentistry practice in Los Angeles famous for its celebrity clients.
So maybe it was the equipment allowing backflow into patients mouths during extractions (blecch), or inadequate sterilization measures, but whatever the case, Hepatitis B has been