It was 15 years ago when I first came to Dr. Specker's office after a nighttime, severe, forward-fall upon my face which broke my teeth, where too many crucial hours passed before morning came when I could at last get emergency dental attention. It was not known then that smoking destroys teeth and gums --- and 43 years of smoking 2 to 3 packs a day had weakened my dental condition, such that I lost many teeth by this accident.
Good thing I went to Dr. Specker's and not somewhere else. For while he is by profession a dentist, he is, by avocation, really an artist/designer/engineer. Inventor and innovator is he, such that were one to need bridges, partials, dentures, no dentist elsewhere can design a set as exquisitely refined as he. Dr. Specker's appliances and prosthetics are finely molded, extremely lightweight in the mouth, and so thin and translucent that they even show spidery threads of "capillaries" in the delicate pink resin, just like real gums and tissue. The teeth have slight vertical grooves and little surface bumps, just like real teeth. My mother's set by contrast does not look fully 'believable.' That's how 'cosmetically' natural Dr. Specker's appliances look.
The pièce de résistance is his invention of posts and o-rings to hold the appliances in place. His own conception, his prosthetics are oral Snap-On Tools for the mouth. No more being held by old-fashioned, clumsy and ugly clasps! That's the typical way prosthetics and appliances still are affixed, and which describes my mother's set, from another excellent dentist in a famous medical building near Dr. Specker's office. Her's is unwieldy and heavy, so thick that it is completely opaque, crudely molded and fashioned, and so extremely uncomfortable that she refuses to wear it at all, even for her treasured dinner-dances. She'd rather be toothless in her uppers in appearance than be in an agony of discomfort. On the other hand, Dr. Specker's approach to prosthetic appliances is so unique that he is invited by dental schools across the country, to teach his methods and the making to graduate dental students.
His talent in dentistry is as a creative artist, his skill is as an oral-health practitioner. He is most generous and fair, and believes in his work --- so much so that I have a strong sense of his frustrations from rare glimpses that reveal his inner feelings; as such, realist though he is, he is also an idealist, which thus reveals his heart. He is not gifted in interpersonal relations, diplomacy, sensitivity, and sometimes even kindness. Rather, it is the women of Dr. Specker's office who carry that 'burden,' who save the practice . . . or, it has for me, anyway --- for in fifteen years of association with this dental office, I've become not the best of patients, surfacing only once every several years and vanishing between times. He is fortunate indeed, to be blessed with an astonishingly wonderful, uniquely warm and caring, exceptional staff. Wanda, Gail, Irina, and Maggie (who is Mrs. Specker) are the true reason I have remained his client, for often I have seriously considered running off to someone else.
There is Gail, an improbable dental hygienist, so gentle and personable, her workings so effortless and serene. Irina is simply superb as the chairside assistant. Dr. Specker went through MANY assistants just to find Irina, and she is indeed a prize. Her Russian conscientiousness and superlative, fine-grained skill are beyond compare among American chairside assistants. (My fellow yankees can now throw rotten tomatoes at me.) The empathic Wanda is most astounding of all, and keeps her dental expertise in low profile --- but the secret is that she is a dental assistant par excellence, rather like being the 'senior' dental assistant of the office ... as well as just being super in office administration. And Maggie is like the patient office manager, the blessing angel who sort of holds the place and personnel together, including hubby. Each woman is remarkable for the sensitivity dentistry calls for.
Above all else, the women of Dr. Specker's office, and his heart's dedication to his ideals and vision which result in both his beautifully natural, post and o-ring innovative complexes and his most excellent treatment plans, are what keep me going there . . . every few and far-between years. Without these singular women, he would have got, at most, only 4 stars. Wanda, Irina, Gail, and Maggie are what give him five. read more
