Bit by bit, his star-studded client list is growing

At first glance, William Dorfman, DDS, might seem like any other dentist, a purveyor of repairs and reminders to floss.

But this being Los Angeles, where few professions have more than a degree or two of separation from someone who knows someone in the entertainment business, his bachelor of science from UCLA and doctor of dental science from University of the Pacific -- along with his affiliation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (he’s a fellow) -- led him first to the edge of the spotlight, then into it.

Dorfman, the man Ozzy Osbourne sees when he has a toothache, is a celebrity dentist. And his proximity to the famous has brought him a spot of celebrity himself -- he’s regularly featured on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover,” “perfecting” troubled smiles.

Where did it all begin? Sixteen years ago Esther Williams walked into his office. When Williams was in the chair, she caught Dorfman’s hand: “Are you old enough to be doing this to me?”

Dorfman must have impressed her because, as the film star and onetime swim champion left the office, she quipped: “If I were 50 years younger, I’d marry you -- and you’d have been smart to marry me. I made a lot of money.”

That encounter, which Dorfman recounts with the same polish he gives so many pearly whites, was the beginning of the constant parade of stars that come to get their smiles enhanced and maintained. “They make their living on the way they look,” Dorfman explains.

What are the celeb patients like? “It’s like having any other patient,” says the dentist. “I have non-celeb patients too. And the celebs and civilians interact well. We’ve had no problems so far.”

In fact, Dorfman says, Matthew Perry was in one day and a little girl poked her head in from the hall, pointed a finger and shouted “I know you!”

“You might have seen me on TV,” Perry blushed and admitted.

“Not you,” the child shouted back, pointing directly at Dorfman. “You. You’re the dentist.” “Perry and I just cracked up,” Dorfman says.

Dorfman seems to enjoy working and laughing with stars like Perry, Brooke Burke, Josie Bissett, Hunter Tylo, Ali Landry, Nia Long and the Osbournes. “They’re like everyone else, except, like I said, they earn their living on how they look,” he explains. “If they’re a bit nervous I just tell them fun stories. Have a good time and, well, sometimes medication is important too.

“Like, in the case of Ozzy, he wants nitrous oxide.”

Determining how much the celebrated musician would need to feel comfortable would seem a daunting task. But the celebrity dentist has an accurate measure of Ozzy’s tolerance. “I know when he stops saying ‘More! More!’ -- he’s had enough.”

-- Carolyn Patricia Scott