Google’s Dentist

Status: Hoax
imageI'm a bit late on this one, but it's odd enough to be worth recording for posterity. It was the blog of Sam Gustard, "Google's first full-time on-site dentist." As the blog explained:

After they hear this people usually ask why we need our own dentist, or they roll their eyes about supposed extravagence like the well-known free meals at work and so on. Actually, I'm surprised more companies of their size don't have their own dentist. Just do the math (I had to do some math in my interview also): with 3000 employees visiting the dentist twice a year on weekdays, that's 24 patients a day, which is more than a full load. Do you want those people staying at work or leaving the office for several hours each time? On top of that, the after-hours service is key because people here are night owls, and a dental emergency could leave someone unable to work for quite some time during a key product release.

It seemed logical enough (why shouldn't big companies provide on-site dental service to their staff?), and quite a few people fell for it. But when curious bloggers asked Google directly about their dentist, Google denied all knowledge of such a person, revealing it to be a hoax. Since then the GoogleTooth blog has disappeared, though it's still in the Google cache. And below are a few pictures of the office of Google's dentist.

image image

Websites

Posted on Mon Oct 24, 2005



Comments

A lot of big companys used to have company doctors on staff (not the person to go to with a worker's comp case, by the way), so why not a dentist?

My employer has a staff pet psychic on call 24 hours.

Just kidding.
Posted by Big Gary in Dallas  on  Mon Oct 24, 2005  at  02:19 PM
Not that anybody cares what I'm saying but I've heard a lot of big law firms in London do actually have a Dentist in the office. I found this out whislt doing a A-Level in Law from my teacher who was a barristor.
Posted by JonnoV1  on  Tue Oct 25, 2005  at  12:39 PM
Anyone have an URL to this hoax site? Just curious, cuz I haven't found one.
Posted by Anguirus  on  Wed May 31, 2006  at  08:14 PM
It used to be at googtooth.blogspot.com, but Google actually shut me down with no warning at all. Perhaps I should have hosted the site at a non-Google property, if there are any of those left.
Posted by Sam  on  Wed Jun 28, 2006  at  08:40 AM
Well now, having a regular source of business like that in a corporate community would be pretty nice for a dentist.

Of course, you have to figure that the sounds of drilling and occasional screaming would become a distraction to the other workers in the office. Interesting hoax, I had never heard of this one before.
Posted by Dentist  on  Sat Feb 09, 2008  at  12:58 AM
Perfect http://wvw.estelad.ru/img/smile/ok.gif
Posted by mixer  on  Sun Feb 10, 2008  at  10:01 PM
I'm a dentist who loves and appreciates google. If anyone out there knows if google is interested in a dentist on-staff, please let me know.
Posted by Nikki  on  Mon Jun 02, 2008  at  02:12 AM
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