Get Ready for a Spooktacular Smile: Orthodontist Turns Office into a Haunting ‘Beetlejuice’ Lair for Halloween
Doctor Beetlejuice! Doctor Beetlejuice! Doctor Beetlejuice!
Call his name three times and he will help give you the perfect smile.
Long Island orthodontist Scott Mateer dressed up as the famous pale-faced, green-haired ghost this week when his entire office was transformed into a “Beetlejuice” experience for Halloween. Mateer was so dedicated that he even temporarily destroyed his own teeth by painting them with enamel to recreate Beetlejuice’s rotten smile.
“My teeth look very dirty,” Mateer said. “Don’t brush your teeth like I do!”
That advice was given to patients who visited him, past the otherworldly waiting room, past the attic with Maitland’s model village, past the graveyard where Beetlejuice’s tombstone lay, through dizzying hallways lined with slanted doorways, and down the sandworm. They went through the ceiling and into the dental chair where Bob and Beetlejuice with their shrunken heads were waiting.
When you sit down… Now it’s showtime!
“I’ve said that line many times,” Mateer said. “I was telling people they should take off their braces and say, ‘It’s showtime!’ every time they smile.”
the ghost with the most
It’s always showtime in October at Mateer’s office as employees prepare for what has become a highly anticipated Halloween tradition using previous themes. etc. Rooms become meticulously recreated sets, staff become highly detailed characters, and patients become unexpectedly immersive spectators.
“Over time, it morphed from what I thought was a good costume to more of an experience,” Mateer said. “We did ‘Stranger Things’ three years ago, but once you set a precedent, everyone is asking for more.”
So the ghost who had the most gave more.
Upon entering the waiting room, there was no need to stamp a number like Beetlejuice when the number of patients in line was 9,998,383,750,000.
All they had to do was check their appointment times at the front desk, which extended to the ceiling and was surrounded by wood and corrugated metal that matched the movie. And yes, there were actually number ticket dispensers and a “Now Serving” counter.
Behind the desk window sat Miss Argentina, a red-haired, green-toned receptionist portrayed by Dakota Falk, the office’s actual receptionist.
“Every year we choose a theme and try to do something bigger and better than the previous year,” she said. “We start two months in advance. It takes a lot of time and requires a lot of preparation. It’s good teamwork and good team building skills.”
The juice runs out.
Employees at Mateer Orthodontics in New York dressed up as ‘Beetlejuice’ characters for Halloween. (Photo source: Matir Correction)
The office’s waiting room floor, a mix of ceramic tile and carpet, was covered with black-and-white peel-and-stick checkered tiles.
“I thought it would be very temporary,” Mateer said of his new tiles. “It turned out to be a little more robust than we thought. It looks really cool. “I’m worried about when I’ll have to take it back.”
The mannequins were styled as ghosts from the famous waiting room scene, including a charred skeleton smoking a cigarette, a witch doctor, and a magician’s assistant cut in half. Some patients who entered quickly left without being seated next to them, assuming they had taken a strange and unusual turn.
“They go in the door, close the door and come back in,” said Kristy Roocke, a treatment coordinator dressed as Delia Deetz. “Because you’re not sure if you’re in the right place.”
Once past the waiting room, they might run into a dental assistant like Bob (aka Sonia Lopez), who came around the corner at full speed when a little head popped out of a big yellow suit. Or Lydia Deetz (Amy Coscia-Edmonds) in sunglasses and a red wedding dress, her daughter Astrid Deetz (Felicia Cook), Soul Sister (Tiana Nolan), or Beetlejuice’s heartbroken ex-wife Delores (Briceyda Ortez).
And of course, there’s some juice lurking somewhere in the Dutch offices.
“We have elements of the old movie and elements of the new movie, and I think we did a great job of putting it all together,” Mateer said.
Mateer also brought together the film’s fictional town of Winter River, Connecticut, by recreating Adam Maitland’s village model that stands in the attic of the Deetz home. He created a template for each tiny house to fit the size and scale of the movie, then built them using shoe boxes, cladding, wallpaper prints, and hot glue.
You are working with a professional here!
Scott Mateer of Mateer Orthodontics created a mock-up village model for a “Beetlejuice” experience at his office this Halloween. (Photo source: Matir Correction)
“I learned a lot about the craft. That’s what it is,” he said. “We really tried to make it almost exactly like the one in the movie.”
Like his costume, his homemade makeup used silicone adhesive to attach green moss to his face. He rubbed dirt on his black and white striped suit, and on Halloween Eve he’ll do the same to change out of his formal attire into a maroon tuxedo. He made his black boots look tattered using a tool he had previously used to clean his retainers. He ignored all the lessons he had learned in dental school by allowing his teeth to turn brown and rot.
“It just added to the costume,” Mateer said. “I noticed his teeth were rough and I had to get them. I hope it goes well.”
Otherwise, see dr. Please say the name Beetlejuice three times.