Readers’ Choice: Something to smile about

There are a good amount of people out there who hate go­ing to the dent­ist.

By Bill Gelman

There are a good amount of people out there who hate go­ing to the dentist. For some, it’s fear while oth­ers just don’t like vis­it­ing the dent­ist. But there are still a good amount of people who make ap­point­ments for a routine clean­ing, cav­ity filling, root canal or oth­er pro­ced­ure. Drs. Wil­li­am Mestichelli and Mi­chael Barnes, 1903 S. Broad St., have cre­ated such a com­fort zone that their pa­tients could not stop prais­ing the team in the Read­ers’ Choice vot­ing.

“We just ap­pre­ci­ate all of the people who have been com­ing to us over the years,” Mestichelli said. “It’s the great staff we have that has been keep­ing people around.”

He has been a staple in the South Philly dent­al com­munity for dec­ades, with pre­vi­ous of­fice loc­a­tions at 1815 S. Broad St., 1727 S. Broad St., and 1905 S. Broad St. — the former home of An­gelo Bruno.

Like many people in the med­ic­al field, Mestichelli has oth­ers to cred­it for giv­ing him his start. Dr. Mi­chael Rug­gieri and Dr. John Vi­vac­qua provided a strong found­a­tion to his ca­reer path.

“I could not have asked for two bet­ter people to learn from and be in prac­tice with,” he said.

He is a product of the Temple Uni­versity Dent­al School, who has been prac­ti­cing in South Phil­adelphia since 1982. Barnes, his son-in-law, has since joined the team. Daugh­ters Aman­da Rabena-McNally and Jaclyn Barnes are the co-of­fice man­agers. The doc­tor’s ties to the area in­clude be­ing an avid Phil­lies fan and sea­son tick­et hold­er. One of his oth­er hob­bies in­cludes do­ing con­struc­tion — we are not talk­ing about the in­side-of-the-mouth vari­ety. It in­cludes do­ing work in­side of his of­fice space.

As far as what’s keep­ing him around all these years, Mestichelli simply en­joys his job.

“I’ve had a lot of fun over the years,” he said. “It’s more like a hobby for me.”

Moskovitz Dent­al As­so­ci­ates en­joyed a second-place filling and Dr. John Del Gaiso of Dr. John’s Pe­di­at­ric Dent­al Team flossed in third.

You can reach Bill Gelman at bgelman@southphillyreview.com.