"Dr. Aaron appeared on Fox 43 News on October 31, 2009 for their Halloween program (back right). He is dressed in his cowboy garb, including chaps, bandana, vest and cowboy shirt. He reviewed the benefits of good brushing habits and limiting sugar frequency to limit cavities."
***********************************************************************************(Photos below courtesy Lancaster Intelligencer Journal)
Local dentist does more than corral cavities; He overcame ADHD to achieve success and his empathy helps him treat young patients with humor to alleviate their anxieties.
Like all successful performers, Stephen D. Miller routinely sends his audience home wanting more.
But there's nothing routine about Miller, a Manheim Township dentist who delivers eccentric, "biting" humor to pediatric dental patients.
Fueled by the driving effects of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Miller disarms anxious and sometimes screaming children so well that they can't wait to come back.
"I consider it ADSD, attention deficit hyperactivity superiority," Miller said. "I'm like a Maserati on Route 30. It's only a problem because of all of the cars in the way."
Kids are blown away by Miller's pivoting animation, speedy 20-minute visits, and the office's almost magical cowboy/playground theme that features covered wagons, a rocking horse, Tex Ritter music, a Buffalo head and singing big mouth bass on the wall.
"It beats traumatizing the kids," said Miller, before joking, "actually it does?'
The "show" begins when patients enter Miller's waiting room to see cowboy cartoon murals, a play gym with a sliding board and a lounging Tasmanian Bearded Dragon lizard crunching on crickets in a glass tank.
Miller initiates a one-way chat by greeting all patients (and family members) with a cowboy hat or feather, sunglasses and a mirror that allows kids to see what he's doing. They're walked to a three-chair exam room situated in a virtual romper room.
Once in the world of Hopalong Cassidy and the happy trails of Roy Rogers, Miller hits patients with a barrage of nonsensical gibberish.
"You're the best in the West; now did you order the buffalo wings or the fired shrimp?"
"Close your mouth before a bug flies in there."
"Your sister told me you pick your nose and bite your toenails, is that true?"
No space is wasted in the 1,300-square-foot office that features an all- accessible "inner-play area" for the patient's siblings.
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Liza Graybill, 8, daughter of Bill and Donna Graybill, Lititz, rides a pony in Dr. Stephen Miller's dentist office. |
Patients are treated amid the kiddy-chaos of a clanging toy train to the right, a hobby horse rider straight ahead, and a radio-controlled car racing around a cigar store Indian below.
"The idea is, if children see other children they feel more secure," Miller said.
Miller shares 10 to 15 childhood stories during a single visit, such as how he tormented his sister, (now a psychologist) and re-creations of his favorite western TV shows. "When cowboys pulled a rope in front of charging horses on TV they stopped. But that didn't work so well when I tried with moving cars," Miller said.
He said his hyperactivity led to loads of mischief, "growing up, the police were my best friends."
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Dr. Stephen Miller cares for patient Noan Zern, 8, son of Andrew and Kim Zern. |
Kathrin Gentils, who recently took her two children to Miller, compared him to comedian Robin Williams.
"He talks non-stop, but he is very funny. My kids can't wait to go back," she said. "My son got his first checkup and he even let the doctor floss on his teeth. I never would have dreamed that to be possible." Despite picking up the added "out of network" insurance costs, Gentils travels about 20 miles to Miller's office.
"(Miller) is the complete opposite of the dentist I had," Gentils said. "He traumatized my daughter by threatening to kick (parents) out of the room."
Following graduation from Temple University dental school, Miller developed the idea for an "open office" while serving as a family dentist in Germany during a three-year stint in the U.S. Army.
A Montgomery County native, Miller, 62, has often tweaked his approach during his 32-year practice in Manheim Township. The western theme is about 10 years old.
He has renounced sedation techniques, which tend to be unpredictable, "some kids did great and some kids fought it." He prefers behavior modification treating the patient not the disease.
"You talk them through it with short visits and let Mom hold the child in her lap," Miller said. "There's no secret, it's not like a sterile hospital setting?'
When an injection is required, Miller uses a slight mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen that is flavored with strawberry or bubble gum, making patients "tickley and distracted."
"I tell them it's buffalo tongue," said Miller said, whose office attire consists of denim, cowboy boots, a western shirt and turquoise jewelry.
Typically about a half-dozen kids arrive in the office each day wearing cowboy outfits. Each week Miller sees up to five children of former patients as well as about 15 Amish families, who relate to his curious style.
"Honest to God, (Amish) get my humor; they even tell me jokes," Miller said.
Miller's unique style has led to an extraordinary business challenge: His older patients refuse to leave. A real problem for a practice that adds 80 new patients each month.
"I had a patient call because she was traumatized with her dentist," said Miller. "I said, 'You're 27, you're a woman, you can't even fit in the chair,' "Miller said.
Miller has been treating children for 35 years. "I'd rather dig ditches than treat adults; they're boring," Miller said.
That thought jogged Miller's memory of a 5-year-old girl who recently made a fist during an entire procedure. It turned out she had brought him a handful of caterpillars.
"She brought them to me as a present. Of course, by the time she opened her hand up, I got five dead caterpillars," Miller said.
"You just don't get that from adults."
