Not long after Dr. Joseph Heher underwent open heart surgery, the 78-year-old well-known Salisbury dentist was back in the hospital for an ablation, a course of action for atrial fibrillation

“There’s a fluttering. My heart is not in the right rhythm,” he calmly explained as he waited to be called for the procedure that would rework the circuitry, as he phrased  it. Doctors use small burns or freezes that cause some scarring on the inside of the heart to help break up the electrical signals that cause irregular heartbeats.

It’s been a grueling couple of months for Heher and his wife, Rosemary. In March, as they were taking a walk, he noticed a little pain in his chest and told her he was going to go back and sit in the car. He made an appointment with their family doctor, Dr. Scott Sweeney in Berlin, who immediately sent him to TidalHealth.

There, doctors determined the problem couldn’t be fixed with a stent because there was an 80 percent occlusion at the top of the heart.

“In a case like that, they crack the chest,” Heher said one recent afternoon, as he relaxed in the living room of the Salisbury home he and his wife built years ago. After four and one-half hours of open heart surgery, he spent 10 days in the hospital.

He was thinking about retiring in July, but had no idea he’d be forced to end his 54-year career -- including three years as a dentist in the U.S. Navy and 51 years practicing in Salisbury – earlier than planned.

“When I felt that pain, I knew something was up. Nobody else in my family ever had heart problems. I was somewhat stunned. This was not a minor operation,” said Heher, who will be 79 on June 6.

He insisted on being discharged from the hospital so he could spend his wife’s birthday with her, as he has every year for the past 55 years.

“He was in the ICU and he kept talking about being home with me for my birthday,” said Mrs. Heher, with an appreciative smile. He was hospitalized on March 14, had surgery on the 18th  and was discharged on the 23rd..

“I was going to retire this summer but this is not a way I’d advocate to retire. I went from working to retiring overnight in the space of a minute,” he said.

His last day in the office was on Friday, March 11.

“We were catapulted. It was very, very scary. He has been so healthy all his life,” his wife said, adding he was never one to take sick days.

“One half-day, one time,” he said, holding up a finger and recalling he had a cold, maybe the flu.

“He’s been robust. In a second your life changes,” his wife said.

The couple has led a healthful lifestyle and ate well, watching sugar but salt, he said with a shrug, might have  caught up with him.

“I hadn’t been in the hospital since I was 6 or 7 when I had my tonsils out. Even now, I don’t feel that bad,” he said. His mother, Marian, lived to be 101, although his father, Mott, short for Martin, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was in a sanitarium much of his son’s life, from the time he was in third grade until he died, when Heher was in dental school.

Dentistry hadn’t been a career he aspired to, or spent childhood days dreaming of. It was at his mother’s suggestion, as he was finishing high school and getting ready to start college,. He had a cousin who was a dentist and doing well and she thought her son would succeed, too. So Heher studied at Villanova University in Pennsylvania from 1961 to 1964, then interviewed for dental school on Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He was accepted and studied dentistry at  the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery from 1964 to 1968.

He very well might have the record for the most years of dentistry in Salisbury. A  native of Long Island, N.Y., he decided to come to the Eastern Shore when he was a young man, because as a lifeguard and surfer, he wanted to be near the ocean. He practiced in Salisbury in 1971 and 1972 with Dr. Paul Vineyard and went into private practice in 1972.

“Dentistry became interesting,” he said, reasoning it requires the knowledge of a biologist, chemist, engineer, scientist, psychologist and business manager.

“I juggled all of that and it became mentally stimulating. I  liked it. There is a cerebral aspect that stimulates me,” he said.

With 1,500 to 1,800 patients – all who were sent to the care of other dentists after he retired -- Heher found there were no typical days but every day was different.

“It’s stressful. When I came out of the catheterization I felt a burden draining from me and I thought, ‘OK. I don’t have to do this anymore.’ I was going to retire because I don’t know that anybody would want a 100-year-old dentist. We closed everything. We sold everything. It’s something you have to do. You can’t brood over it. I did my time. It’s time to push on.

“The equipment served its purpose,” his wife said with an affirming nod.

The two met when she was 17 and he was 23. A friend introduced them and she liked his good looks, politeness and the fact he didn’t make fun of her for being studious. He took her to  a movie in Annapolis, then to the Officer’s Club at the Naval Academy. It went well, but he didn’t call her for nine months “then something reminded me to call her,” he said, looking at her across the room.

“He was quiet. And he was from Villanova and he was from New York,” said his wife, who grew up in New York City before her family moved to Washington when she was a teenager. They have one daughter, Ashley.

Professionally, Heher has had an impressive career, with involvements including attending symposiums, continuing his education and memberships in many professional organizations including the American Dental Association, Maryland State Dental Association, American Society for Preventive Dentistry, Academy of General Dentistry,   American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry,  American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, Salisbury Dental Study Club.

He was  a member of the  Salisbury Jaycees,  Rotary Club of Wicomico County since 1996, has offered pro-bono services at the  Holly Center and has written several articles including those published in The Salisburian, MSDA Journal and Dentistry Today.

It’s a career to take pride in, and one that has positively influenced his patients, apparent in their reaction to his retirement.

“It just blew me away. I was just stunned by the level of thanks I got. I thought I’d get a few letters but I got letters and cards, gifts. I was just like, ‘Whoa.’ I was very surprised.  I thought maybe I’d get a handful. It was nice to know I made an impact,” he said.

In cards and letters, patients  complimented him for his artistic dentistry,  humor, attention to detail, professionalism and high standards.

One card, signed “Tom and Teresa,” told him, “We cannot fully express to you our gratitude for the dental care and friendship you have shared with us and our family over these many years … Your passion and enthusiasm for your craft truly radiated from your very core. We are going to miss you, Joe.”

“Early on, I figured out nobody wants to see me,” Heher said.

“So, I came upon an idea that if I could get them to laugh, that would change. If I could get them to laugh in the chair, even at my expense, that would be good. So a patient would come in and say, ‘Hi, Dr. Heher. How are you?’ and I’d say, ‘Oh, I’m hung over,’” he said, breaking into a smile at the memory.

“It changes them. It really does. We had a good time. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed dentistry.”