AREA DENTIST HOLDS SEASONAL DRILL; OFFICE HOUSES CREEPY THRILLS.

Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer

You think it's scary going to the dentist? Try Ronald Singer's office in Valencia where the drill and needles provide the least of your fears. The 18-year dentist is known throughout the Santa Clarita Valley for his grisly ghouls, 7-foot pumpkin head, aliens and cemetery-style office.

A Frankenstein's monster doormat greets visitors to Singer's second-floor office this time of year. And frightening movie monsters Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and the Creature from the Black Lagoon stand by just inside with a bloodied ax. Staff members in the reception area, surrounded by skeletons, may even offer you a bite to eat - ``Gore may Piece A'' - with toppings of human eyes, fingers, ears and, of course, teeth.

Patients with appointments in the rear of the office are subjected to the site of Count Dracula, lying poised to take a bite out of any human who dares to come near. Those scheduled for X-rays, meet Frankenstein's monster and his bride standing guard while the technician snaps shots of cavities.

``He does this elaborate decoration every year. We close the office for a day and everyone pitches in, it's fun,'' said Lydia Solari, a dental assistant.

As Solari prepared Jennifer Plankenhorn for some cleaning work, a body of a bloodied man, perhaps dead for centuries, hovered near the fearless patient.

``Oh, I love this, it's so neat, at first it scared me but it's neat my last dentist didn't do this,'' Plankenhorn said.

Singer, a movie buff, said he started doing the decorations seven years ago.

``You should see my house. We have aliens, Frankenstein and his bride, the `Silence of the Lambs' guy, and so many others,'' the veteran dentist proudly exclaimed.

Patients at the Tournament Road office can roam freely through the haunted place. Even when they don't have appointments.

``I came with my parents, I already had my work done last time but I just like to see this,'' said 8-year-old Brian Hart.

Two of Singer's assistants, Marcella Serafin and Jennifer Bailey, said the wildly-decorated office was just the beginning of the dentists' Halloween fun.

``The night before Halloween we have a haunted house night here and we all dress up and scare the patients and their parents,'' Serafin said. ``Last year hundreds of people came for the haunted house, this is all (Singer's) idea,'' Bailey said. ``I started this with a mechanical Frankenstein and it caught on and became a major event each year,'' Singer said.

Robert Tasoff, a child psychologist whose two children Lauren, 5, and Julie, 7, are patients, said the ghoulish ideas are brilliant. ``I think it helps put children at ease when they come to the dentist's office,'' Tasoff said.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--color in SAC edition only) Dentist Ronald Singer has decorated his Valencia office for the past seven years to celebrate Halloween. Singer and his assistants eventually open the office up for one night as a haunted house for patients and their parents.

(2--color in SAC only) Dentist Ronald Singer takes a hands-on approach to his Halloween fun.

(3--ran in SAC only) Lauren Tasoff, 5, cautiously looks into a coffin at her dentist's office.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News