Meet Mark's dad, the techno-savvy dentist

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. - Edward Zuckerberg pulls his iPhone out of hisjeans pocket and hits the familiar blue Facebook icon.

He's eager to show off his latest effort to market his suburbandental practice. The man known as "Painless Dr. Z" is offering afree teeth bleaching kit to the first 10 patients who use theirsmartphones to tell their Facebook friends that they've stopped byhis office.

On the receptionist's desk, a blue sticker exhorts clients to"'Like' us on Facebook." The effort has paid off. The dentalpractice has more than 1,100 fans.

"It broadcasts to all their friends that they patronize thisbusiness," he said. "I hate to use the word 'sales' in myprofession, but we are salesmen."

There's an easy explanation for the 56-year-old's familiaritywith social networking. This bald, bearded dentist is father to thatother Zuckerberg, Mark, the curly-haired founder of Facebook Inc.who grew up above the basement office.

But this isn't the story of the kid genius helping Pop set up aprofile. Long before Mark became a billionaire and the subject ofthe Academy Award-winning biopic "The Social Network," his fatherwas embracing a digital future from the confines of his smallbusiness.

The elder Zuckerberg's first office computer - an IBM XT with ahard drive whose capacity was one twenty-five-thousandth of thestandard today - was purchased in 1984, the year Mark was born.

He gave his son his first lessons in programming on the family'sAtari 800, which looked like a big electronic typewriter. And hemade sure each of his four children had a computer.

"A key word here is 'vision,'" the dentist said with a tersebravado that could have been lifted from Aaron Sorkin's screenplay."We're all exposed to a lot of things, but how many can see wherethings are heading?"

At first glance, the office of Edward Zuckerberg, D.D.S., doesn'tlook like a crucible of innovation.

Tucked into a modest, gray-paneled house in Dobbs Ferry, 45minutes north of New York City, it has low, tiled ceilings. Softrock and local traffic reports drone through the hallways. A plaqueon a light blue wall reads: "Be true to your teeth or they will befalse to you."

But in the three examination rooms, patients can watch Internet-streamed television on flat-screen monitors or soothe themselveswith music on one of the office iPods. Those needing dental implantsdon't have to wait long. Zuckerberg has the equipment to scan abroken tooth and fabricate a replacement in just a few minutes.

"Part of my shtick, if you would call it here, is that I am atechnology guy," said Zuckerberg, a stout, slow-moving man with apenetrating gaze.

Rosa Cavalluzzi, his longtime assistant, should know. She tickedoff some of the advances she had seen during her 23 years at theoffice: panoramic X-ray machines and scanners for making electroniccopies of incoming mail to satisfy Zuckerberg's quest for apaperless office.

She had to hand over her scheduling book to Zuckerberg whenappointments were computerized. "I cried," she said, only half injest.

"I brought her out of the dinosaur age," Zuckerberg said. "Youcan't be part of the scene here and not be up to snuff."

Like his son, Zuckerberg is an evangelist for social media,albeit on a smaller stage. In February he spoke to a crowded room ofdental students at Columbia University about "Technology Integrationin the Dental Office."

It's easy to see where Mark inherited the cool dispassion forwhich he is known. The elder Zuckerberg talks about Facebook morefrom the perspective of a calculating businessman than a proudparent.

"It's a tremendous marketing tool for business. It certainly isthe biggest bang for your marketing buck," he said.

Zuckerberg has mostly ignored people who post comments about hisson on the dental office Facebook wall. In person, he grows visiblyuncomfortable when asked about him. (Mark was equally reticent andwould not comment about his father.)

"If I wanted to put a poster of my son on the cover of Timemagazine somewhere in the waiting room, I guess I could, but I justchoose not to," he said flatly.

Like his son - who is known for wearing T-shirts and driving anaging Acura - Zuckerberg has tenaciously clung to the same life hehad before Facebook garnered half a billion users and converted"friend" into a verb.

He still works a full schedule. When he needs a computer, heoften uses a communal office machine perched on a cramped deskalongside a photo of Cavalluzzi's son and a pink-and-white guineapig Beanie Baby.

The biggest change in his life, he said, is the amount of time hehas to spend deflecting questions from patients about Mark and hiscompany.

"I guess I've lost some of my identity. I've always been thedentist, and now I'm the father of the Facebook guy," Zuckerbergsaid, just a bit ruefully. But then he perked up: "You know, I'mstill the dentist."