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He has found that, despite the distance and the culture that separates them, his patients are pretty similar.

"The only difference that I've found is that in New York the kids go 'ow' and in Hoonah the kids go 'owee,' " Oldak said.

He is a part of the pediatric dental program at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. Denali Kid Care, a state health insurance program for underprivileged children, funds his visits.

Oldak is one of several pediatric dentists that SEARHC imports to Southeast Alaska to provide treatment to children in villages, said Tom Bornstein, director of dental services for SEARHC.

The dentists are attracted to the natural beauty of Alaska, as well as to the prospect of providing a much-needed service, Bornstein said.

Though Oldak receives similar fees for his services when he provides care in Southeast Alaska, his practice in Manhattan, which he shares with two other dentists, suffers from the lost productivity.

But the financial setback is worth it, Oldak said.

"I tell people back home that this is one of the nicest things that's happened to me in my career as a pediatric dentist," he said.

Oldak grew up in Brooklyn and attended dental school at New York University. Though he served for eight years as a dentist in the army, he has spent most of his career in Manhattan.

Coming to Alaska has exposed Oldak to other cultures and lifestyles, a benefit that is invaluable, he said.

Oldak has found that some of his preconceived notions about Southeast Alaska were unfounded. Before his first visit, he wondered if some cultural traditions of villagers might be causing more decay here than elsewhere.

"But right when I got to Hoonah I noticed that every single house ... has a satellite dish," Oldak said.

Native traditions don't cause tooth decay, Oldak said. Kids in Southeast Alaska are exposed to the same marketing campaigns as kids everywhere in the U.S., and eat the same junk food.

Before SEARHC started its pediatric dental program four years ago, dentists in Southeast Alaska villages only had time to work on kids, Bornstein said. Adult dental health was neglected.

"There was such a backlog of treatment needs for children," Bornstein said. "It was pretty common to go out and see kids that had one eye swollen shut from a dental infection. Since we started this program I seldom see that anymore."

With a program specifically for children, full-time SEARHC dentists can focus on treating patients, confident that children are getting proper care from other dentists.

And in the last couple of years, the number of dental infections treated by pediatric dentists with the SEARHC program has gone down, Bornstein said.

"A success for us would be when we get down to just doing exams twice a year in these villages. Instead of going down four times a year because there are kids that need services," Bornstein said.