In the blinking, blinding thicket that is Broadway just above Times Square, Dr. Louisa Correa is right up there with the Dolce & Gabbana models in the fancy sunglasses and the Hilary Swank movie that opens Thursday.
How Dr. Correa became the dentist with her name in lights is one of those uniquely New York stories, as straightforward as the understudy in “42nd Street” who goes out a youngster and comes back a star. Dr. Correa looked out the window one day and figured, if everybody else has a sign, why can’t I?
This was about 18 months ago, after Dr. Correa had opened an office above a McDonald’s, overlooking what was then the TKTS discount ticket booth in Duffy Square. She simply had a sign installed in one of the two windows in her office that faces Broadway.
The sign cost ,500, which is what? Three root canals?
Now her message crawls by in not-so-little letters, about 20 words every 20 seconds, not counting her address and telephone number. The address 165 West 46th Street is necessary because the building is also known as 1560 Broadway. But the entrance is around the corner.
How many patients has the sign brought in? A dozen?
“More,” she said. “When the TKTS booth was there, there was a lady from Korea with a toothache. She got her tickets and came up here. She had very large decay. I wanted to do a root canal, save her tooth, but she was traveling and said, ‘Just pull the tooth.’ ”
She has patients who reported seeing the sign on New Year’s Eve (when she was in the office, watching the ball drop). She has patients who work in Times Square, including one from Rudolph W. Giuliani’s office.
The sign says that she does “cosmetic and general dentistry” and that she accepts “insurane.” Her 12-year-old son, John, was the one who noticed the misspelled word.
Dr. Correa, who is 40 and whose fourth child is due in a few weeks, said she had worked on the teeth of Latino stars on Telemundo and Univision.
And then there are her own television-worthy teeth.
“I have porcelain veneers,” she said. “That’s my forte.”
A pause, and before the question could be asked, she gave the answer: “No, I didn’t do them myself.”
So what does she tell doctors who have qualms about advertising?
“In this day and age, they should,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with advertising. You have to get your name out there.”