“Good dentistry,” noted a British Dental Journal article from April 2006, “involves a mix of … dental skills, knowledge, techniques and dental equipment and materials to achieve the best results in much the same way as an artist requires skill, technique and various tools and accessories to create a painting. The paint palette provides a striking and distinctive image, which highlights the important role played by the tools and materials in the end product.”
For Dr. Edward Burg, owner of TEAM Family Dental – formerly Kamy Dental – in Manahawkin, the crossover between art and dentistry is even more evident.
After college, where he majored in political science and minored in art, Burg, who turns 52 later this month, worked as a sketch artist at a Park Avenue advertising agency in New York City. At the time, he remarked, “I had no idea I would become a dentist. I’d always wanted to be an artist for Marvel Comics.”
The self-proclaimed “comic book nerd,” with a penchant for, particularly, Spiderman and the X-Men, pointed to a few of his drawings from the past, including Billy Joel and Ronald Reagan, the latter signed by the former president himself.