Performing Surgery on Live TV: Behind the Scenes on The Doctors

Many people ask me the following question:

“How is it to do live surgery for the Doctors show? It is definitely a challenge.”

I remember my first show with them, about 3 years ago, when Dr. Sears, the pediatrician, host for the Doctors, had a wisdom tooth that he had forgotten about on the upper left side. Because it was hard for him to clean all the way in the back of the mouth, it got a cavity and was affected by periodontal disease, which caused him to lose bone around it. So Dr. Sears asked me if I would take out his wisdom tooth live on the show. We thought it would be a great way to educate everyone watching. I did live surgery before for the dental implant course I teach at UCLA, so I thought it would be similar….wrong!

Dr. Sears procedure was televised directly to the studio at Paramount where the show is being taped, so I had cameras around me. My assistant got really nervous and forgot to suction.

The field producer was adjusting my microphone on my blue coat and told me we had 7 minutes to take the tooth out. “Don’t take it out too fast, in 2 minutes, for example, but don’t take too long. Try to fit it into the 7 minutes. And, while your extracting it, educate us on why we should take out wisdom teeth, at what age, etc,etc…. Is that it!? I really felt the pressure on! What if I broke the root inside? It would take me 20 minutes to get it out. I tried not to think about it, and imagined how everything would go smoothly. And it did.

“It’s a boy!” I said right after I removed it, and everyone broke out laughing.

In great health,
Dr. Sanda

To discuss your upcoming surgery with an award-winning periodontist and nutritionist contact Dr. Sanda Moldovan to schedule a consultation.