Design is drilled into Japanese culture--and Japanese designers treat every object as a chance to design something superb: bento boxes, kitchen knives, filing cabinets, toothbrushes. And even, apparently, dentist's offices. Check out these four surprising examples.

Hirose Dental Office in Osaka, designed by Eleven Nine. [Via What We Do is Secret]

Yamate Dental Clinic in Hyogo, designed by atelier KUU.

A street-view of the clinic. Note the trees sandwiched between plate glass windows--from the inside, the trees appear like framed pieces of art.

"Plastic Moon," a combination house and dental office, by Norisada Maeda Atelier. [Via Dezeen]

The house also has a semi-indoors swimming pool.

The curving facade is echoed throughout the house.

A view of the offices.

A dental clinic in Hiratuska, Kanagawa, designed by Mega [Via What We Do is Secret]

The interior spaces open up to the outdoors, via broad courtyards and big windows, set back so that they give the illusion of open-air.

Ahhhh. There's nothing like settling down for a nice, long root canal.

This one's a bonus, since it's not a dental clinic. But it is a dentist's home, designed by wHY. Do you think any American dentists have houses like this? [Via Arch Daily]

A little nook, for an art installation.

The Japanese aren't the only ones that do fancy dentist's offices. Here's one example from Austria. The waiting room is designed to resemble a throat, in cross-section--and you can't see it, but there's red in the seating area, to suggest a tongue. [Via Dezeen]

The exam rooms are arrayed along a long hallway--inspired by schematic diagrams of teeth.