Fouad Joseph Sidawi, DDS — Emergency Dentist, Orlando

24 Hour Dentist has been on the same corner of International Drive for more than thirty years. Dr. Sidawi owns the practice, and he is the one who answers the phone at three in the morning and drives in to treat you. That is unusual, and it is the whole point of the place.

The work is emergency dentistry: toothaches, abscesses, knocked-out and broken teeth, root canals, extractions, lost crowns and fillings, broken braces, denture repairs. Root canals are performed under a microscope, with a digital X-ray of each canal as it is finished, so you can see the work rather than take it on trust.

Most of the people treated here are visitors — families at the parks, conference delegates at the Convention Center, travellers passing through MCO. They arrive in pain, a long way from their own dentist, and they need the problem solved tonight rather than an appointment next week.