Dr Degel [about the dentist]

It used to be you would go to visit your dentist with some trepidation about the pain you would have to endure. You would sit in the waiting room bored, staring into space, dozing, or reading last year's magazines.

The status quo may exist for some dentists who haven't kept pace with all the technological advances of recent years, but that's not the case when you keep an appointment with Dr. Clifford Degel and/or Dr. Carmen Every-Degel, the husband-and-wife dentist team that operates the Astoria Dental Group office at 32-17 Broadway in Astoria. For starters, you can wile away the time until your turn comes to see either Dr. Degel by watching an old movie on a video cassette player in the waiting room.

"We stock lots of old comedy classics like The Honeymooners or Abbott and Costello to get the patients in a good frame of mind," Dr. Clifford Degel told us during a recent interview.

If you're not in the mood for a comedy or other movie, you can play one of several tapes that explain the newer treatments or techniques that are available in this new age of dental wizardry where the Drs. Degel are among the practitioners.

"It's an educational tool for the patient," Clifford Degel explained. For instance, if a person is considering a dental implant, seeing the tape on that subject will give him a pretty good idea of how and what is done. It eliminates a lot of misconceptions of this procedure that many people have."

We looked and found the tapes a concise, easy-to-understand explanation of how, using the most modern method of replacing dentures, a single tooth can be replaced. Implants can also be used to support or anchor a bridge or set of dentures. We were amazed and enlightened at the same time. But there was a lot more of the same as we proceeded on a tour of the office conducted by the Flushing-born Degel.

Included in his arsenal of equipment, most of the ultra-modern high-tech variety, is an Intra-Oral Camera, with which the TV perched above the patient's chair in each treatment room shows the inside of the patient's mouth. We couldn't believe how clear the picture of the inside of patients' mouths are as transmitted from the slim pointing stick held in Degel's hand, which has a minute camera on its tip. This is another of the educational tools in the office, and a boon from both the dentist's and patient's point of view.

"Because of the magnification, we can spot things in the mouth we wouldn't ordinarily see," Degel explained. "For patients, they are able to see what we are explaining to them; that is, our visual diagnosis." He also demonstrated to us the TV system's capability for freezing the picture wherever the dentist wants to magnify a certain section of the mouth. Tapes, such as the one we had viewed earlier on implants, can also be played on this screen. If the dentist is telling you that you need an implant, he can show you what it's all about at the same time.

In another small room lives an X-ray machine called a tomograph which is the most recent development in its field. Degel uses the device exclusively in conjunction with dental implants because "the best analysis I can make of a patient's gums or bone structure is by using this machine." Degel said the tomograph "gives a type of X-ray that you get with a CAT scan but it's less traumatic than a CAT scan, which requires the patient to lie still in a tunnel-like chamber. "The tomograph tells the thickness of bone so you can see if it's capable of taking an implant," he explained.

Degel said he was the "first or second" dentist in New York City to acquire the $25,000 X-ray machine and now "there are less than half a dozen in use in New York City," he added.

Dr. Degel also has set up a laboratory in the office so that any parts, manufacturing or repairing can be done on the premises. This allows for quicker and more efficient service for his patients.

Dr. Degel is proud to offer BriteSmile state of the art bleaching system. BriteSmile can whiten your teeth 8-10 shades in just hour. There are no side affects and is completely safe for children 13 years and up. The results are truly amazing. There is no sensitivity with the product as with over the counter bleaching systems.

He also described bonding and an alternative method of doing fillings which use no mercury in the filling material, as well as porcelain laminate veneers, which are used for both cosmetic and restorative procedures.

Degel took over the Astoria Dental Group office in 1990, about a year after becoming a dentist. "When we came in here," he explained, "the practice was totally renovated, upgraded and modernized and we brought in all the most modern equipment to make it one of the most modern dentist offices in Astoria."

Born and raised in Flushing, Degel graduated from Archbishop Molloy H.S. and St. John University before attending Georgetown University Dental School in Washington, D.C., where he met his wife, also a student there. Dr. Carmen Every-Degel is from the island of Aruba, where the Degels have established a second home. There Dr. Clifford Degel pursues his other passion, golf. The doctors have 3 beautiful girls who are always keeping them busy.