Perfect not necessary on Brit makeover show

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Makeover patients typically appear to be ecstatic over their transformations. The doctors who perform them often have reason to smile as well, as shows swell demand for services in general and the TV Pygmalions in particular.

Nassif, who already had European patients familiar with his work revising unsuccessful operations by other doctors, has seen his overseas customer base increase in recent years because of exposure from “Brand New You” and a much-aired BBC segment he did.

Before, about 1 percent to 2 percent of his business was from Europe; now it’s as high as 15 percent, he said. Besides the results, he said, patients appreciate both the privacy they have away from home and the exchange rate of the soft U.S. dollar.

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Dr. William M. Dorfman, the first dentist on “Extreme Makeover” and part of “Brand New You,” is another beneficiary. The perfect American-style smiles flashed in the shows have turned out to be a bounty for Discus Dental, a tooth-whitening products company which Dorfman founded and partly owns.

Demand for one particular in-office whitening treatment has “skyrocketed. We can’t even supply the product fast enough,” he said.

For one Dutch dentist, however, participation in a makeover show left only a sour taste.

Dr. Harry-Paul Stassen took part in the “Make Me Beautiful” series filmed at a dental practice in Oosterhout, Netherlands. The program disrupted the office schedule and cost the practice money, since it was paying for half of each TV patient’s procedure.

But didn’t it draw interest from potential new business?

“We got a lot of calls from people who thought we were a combination of God and Santa Claus,” Stassen said. “They wanted us to do the impossible and do it for free.”

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