"I've known a great many dentists over 75 years," Mr. Mailer said. "And I don't remember ever looking forward to seeing any of them."

Show business people seem almost to regard Dr. Lowenberg as one of their own. Four years ago, a patient who is a producer suggested that Dr. Lowenberg try directing a play. "It was about a man and a woman picking each other up in a bar," Dr. Lowenberg recalled. It was staged way off Broadway, and though hardly a critical or a commercial coup, the experience clarified his true calling. "When I had the choice of being a director and being a dentist," he said, "I knew I would never direct again."

The low-key Dr. Lituchy came to work for Dr. Lowenberg as a Columbia University dental student and still seems slightly awed by his charismatic mentor.

"He's a brilliant businessman," Dr. Lituchy, 40, said of Dr. Lowenberg, 52, noting his idea to hire a masseur to rub anxious patients' shoulders in the waiting room, or to massage their feet as they recline in the chair.

Dr. Lowenberg estimates that half his mid-six-figure income from his thousands of patients comes from what he calls smile makeovers.