Halloween might be the spookiest time of the year, but one New York orthodontist is taking the holiday to a whole new level of creativity. Dr. Mateer and his staff at Mateer Orthodontics have turned their dental office into an immersive “Nightmare Before Christmas” experience that’s blowing patients’ minds.

Imagine walking into a dental office and finding yourself transported into Halloween Town. The waiting room features a massive dragon fountain, holiday countdown clocks, and staff members dressed as iconic characters from the beloved Tim Burton film. Dr. Mateer himself is decked out in a custom Jack Skellington costume, complete with a silicone skeleton mask that moves when he speaks.

This isn’t just a one-off costume party. The entire office has been meticulously transformed, with each room representing a different scene from the movie. From Sally answering phones at the front desk to the Mayor typing away, and dental assistants dressed as a witch, werewolf, and skeleton, the attention to detail is mind-blowing.

“Patients were pretty amazed,” Mateer said. “The quality of the mask combined with how the entire office looks has really shocked people”.

This isn’t the first time Mateer has gone all out for Halloween. Previous years have seen the office transformed into themes from “Beetlejuice,” “Stranger Things,” and “Harry Potter”. Each year, the staff begins planning as early as August, spending entire weekends creating an immersive experience that turns a typically dreaded dental visit into something magical.

Twelve-year-old patient Alex Morganstern captured the experience perfectly: “It felt like it was crazy having a skeleton orthodontist. Like, it doesn’t feel real. It feels like you’re in a book or something”.

The team is even considering extending the theme into the Christmas season, potentially keeping the Halloween Town aesthetic and gradually transitioning it to Christmas Town. It’s a creative approach that transforms a mundane medical appointment into an unforgettable experience.

Mateer joked about his recurring theme of portraying characters with notoriously bad teeth, saying, “There must be some sort of subliminal message there that I want to like fix their teeth”.

For patients at Mateer Orthodontics, a dental visit is no longer something to dread – it’s an adventure waiting to happen.