According to an article from Worldcrunch, a Munich orthodontist has given her practice an Alpine makeover, with the goal of making her patients—and herself—more comfortable. The waiting room features a flat-screen TV projecting the image of a fireplace. There’s a cowhide rug on the floor and antlers on the wall, along with a photograph of a mountain peak.

This is the orthodontic practice of Marie-Catherine Klarkowski, where she and her staff wear embroidered dirndls instead of white smocks. The male staffers wear lederhosen. Klarkowski first got the idea about 2 years ago to give her clinic, called "Relax & Smile," an Alpine Bavarian makeover. She added wooden benches and a receptacle containing fresh pretzels to waiting room. Patients contributed items like cowhide-patterned mouse pads. At first, staffers only wore traditional clothing on holidays and during Oktoberfest. Now they do it every day.

According to Klarkowski, the atmosphere and the clothes relax and distract patients so they’re not so focused on the real reason they’re here. Klarkowski says she has significantly more patients now than she did before the redesign and that, "Apparently, some other Munich practices are now copying us.“

Some have had concerns about hygiene, but Klarkowski points to the silk, extravagantly embroidered lilac dresses that she and her assistants are wearing and adds that, “Not only do we all have several dirndls that we launder on a regular basis, but I for one feel more comfortable wearing a beautiful dress than a smock. The patients benefit from that, too.”