The Dentist (Music Video)

By PROJECT MONROE · Death Metal · From the album THE HORROR CONTINUES

Dr. Malcolm Voss keeps the sign outside reading “Voss Gentle Dentistry – Fear-Free Since 1991,” but no one who crosses the threshold ever leaves with less fear than they arrived with.

The man who used to be Patient 89 is now simply referred to as “the bodybuilder.” His name was Derek Holland. Dr. Voss never says it aloud anymore. He only remembers the way Derek’s cheeks split like wet curtains when the orthodontic wire reached its limit. The gold initials on those lateral incisors read D.H. They still do, dangling from a thin chain around Voss’s neck.

The pregnant woman, Patient 102, was named Lila Moreau. Voss delivered her daughter on the marble slab and named the infant “Opal” right before he pureed the soft fontanelle with a round bur. The single deciduous central incisor (Opal’s only tooth) is still mounted on the titanium post he screwed into the severed cord. Lila’s rigid, acrylic-filled corpse sits in the corner wearing the same frozen scream she died with. Voss sometimes talks to her while he works, calling her “my darling statue.”

The food critic whose veneers melted like sugar glass was Quentin Vale. Voss kept one of those veneers (the left central) and had it set into a platinum ring he wears on the hand that holds the drill.

The faith healer who refused anesthetic was Sister Ruth Condon. All thirty-two of her teeth are arranged in the velvet case shaped like a smiling mouth. Voss opens it every Sunday morning and polishes them with a little harder than necessary.

The basement choir is growing. Six mouths at a time now, tongues braided into one long red rope. Their names are written on the ratchet spreaders in black marker so Voss can address them properly while the winch turns:

- Marcus

- Aisha

- Father Ruiz

- Jenna

- Mr. Park

- “the redhead” (he never learned hers)

He likes saying their names as the ligaments tear. It makes the wet pop sound more personal.

The face under the bell jar once belonged to a travel influencer named Celeste Harrow. Voss peeled it off in one piece after dissolving the underlying fat with lipase injections. He stitched the lips with mint-green floss so Celeste can keep smiling for the camera forever.

Dr. Malcolm Voss himself no longer has any of his original teeth. Every one has been replaced with a trophy. When he smiles (rarely, slowly), you can read fragments of other lives in hissing through the gaps:

- A child’s tiny incisor

- A canine capped in 24-karat gold

- A molar still wearing half a silver amalgam that belonged to a cop

- And front and center, the oversized central incisor of a bodybuilder named Derek, gleaming like a stolen monument

The voicemail greeting is still the same, delivered in Voss’s soft, reassuring baritone:

“Leave your name, your worst pain, and the sound of your tongue against your teeth. I’ll know exactly which one to pull first.”

The chair is warm.

The lamp is hungry.

Dr. Malcolm Voss is ready for you.

Listen to The Dentist

About Death Metal

Brutally heavy metal featuring guttural vocals, complex technical riffs, and themes of death and darkness, known for its uncompromising intensity and musicianship. Bands include: Death, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel

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