Dr. Stephen Zelie, D.D.S. was my personal dentist for nearly 30 years. Earlier this year he retired, and he was good enough to sit down with me and chat about his career on the patio of his beautiful home, west of Denver.

When you hear the word dentist, everyone has an immediate reaction. The show Seinfeld even featured this joke during its famous “Yada Yada” episode: “You know what the difference between a dentist and a sadist is, don’t you? Newer magazines.”

I never feared my dentist, and once I was old enough (I started seeing Dr. Zelie when I was 5 years old) to be more relaxed as he conducted business inside my mouth, I actually looked forward to seeing Dr. Zelie each and every time. On this week’s show, he takes me back to how he got started, remembers some of the strange ways they tested dental aptitude in the early 70s, and how he built his business over the nearly 40 years he was in business.

He also shares with me some funny anecdotes about a former colleague who’s now in jail (unrelated to anything dental malpractice related, I assure you), some of the stranger things he saw during his career, and where he goes from here.

One of the goals of this show is to shed more light on some of the things we experience everyday. And if you’ve ever feared your dentist, fretted over what he’s thinking while you’re laying there, or wondered if dentists ever have to deal with anti-fluoridation weirdos… this is your show. Big thanks to Dr. Stephen Zelie for taking the time to sit down with me.

This episode is available for download on iTunes or for streaming on Stitcher. As always, you can find it, and all 64 other Jon of All Trades episodes, at our homepage.

Also, please check out the Google+ page of Drs. Tiffany Manzo and Erin Cettie, who bought Applewood Dental from Dr. Zelie, here.

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