Hudson Valley Health

After studying dentistry in Maryland and completing his residency in Albany, Joseph M. Pilatich III, D.D.S. returned home to Catskill, NY to open his family and cosmetic dentistry practice, Catskill Dental Care. That was in 1993.
“I practice right across the street from where I was born,” Pilatich said, whose office now accommodates thousands of patients.
Having trained at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Research, Pilatich is practiced in neuromuscular and aesthetic dentistry.
“(For) the Fellowship for LVI we are required to learn everything from doing a veneer case, which is basically developing a smile for somebody, to (work) as complex as a full-mouth rehab, where we actually restore the entire mouth,” said Pilatich.
Beyond that, Pilatich, who was acknowledged for esthetic and neuromuscular dentistry in the Guide to America’s Top Dentists Consumer Research Council of America, ran a mini-residency program in Albany where he taught for two years on the placement and restoring of dental implants.
“Treatment planning is probably the most difficult aspect of dentistry in general – knowing what particular procedure will work best for whatever the case may be,” said Pilatich. “Once you have a good understanding of what the limitations are and what the possibilities are, it makes it a lot easier – that’s where my experience comes in.”
Pilatich also is proficient at helping patients feel comfortable while he’s working on them, including having them mildly sedated before a procedure when appropriate (when filling cavities or readying teeth for crowns, for instance).
In addition to family dentistry, the practice’s team is expert in a full compliment of cosmetic offerings, including state-of-the-art teeth whitening; custom fitted porcelain veneers, where the color and shape of teeth can be changed; natural-looking porcelain crowns; dental implants, which permanently bridge gaps resulting from lost teeth; dental bonding, where a natural-looking bonding material is used to repair cosmetic flaws in individual teeth; and metal-free restorations that involve replacing metallic crowns and bridges with a porcelain material that matches the color of your teeth.
A smile makeover, for instance — which involves enhancing a patient’s teeth to achieve a radiant smile — may require brightening the teeth, closing up spaces between teeth, or setting eight to 10 veneers in place.
“It can be as simple as reshaping and bleaching, or as complex as doing porcelain veneers,” said Pilatich of improving a person’s smile.
In addition to Pilatich, the team at Catskill Dental Care also includes four full-time hygienists, along with associate Stacey Russell, D.D.S., who is working to become a partner. Because some of the practice’s cases require the expertise of a specialist, at times Pilatich looks to his network of colleagues for supplementary care.
“Implants, obviously, need to be in the bone to be successful – integrated into the jaw bone,” he said. “Sometimes we’re limited by the amount of bone a patient presents with, and so I use a specialist to do our (bone) grafting for us.”
While dental work can require an investment of time and money on the part of the patient, the resulting work often is life-changing, affecting a person’s self-esteem and how others perceive them, as well as his social life and career standing.
“It’s the best part,” said Pilatich of the way cosmetic dentistry improves a patient’s quality of life. “It’s definitely why I enjoy doing it so much. It’s very rewarding — extremely rewarding, actually.”