You may have heard of Jane Austen’s classic work, “Pride and Prejudice,” but have you heard of the famous dental author, John Molar, who wrote “Pride and Porcelain”? “Pride and Porcelain” details the story of a dentist, Dr. Daaaring, who practices in the South of England. He falls in love with a young maiden, Sherry Sulcus, and together they start a dental practice to meet the needs of the lords and ladies of their home town, Wimbercarie. As. Dr. Daaaring and Lady Sulcus go throughout their days together, they meet several challenges like difficult extractions, impossible to fill crooked teeth, and dealing with a dreaded cousin, Scrap Calculus. After a brilliant career and a thousand “yeses” from their wonderful patients, Dr. Daaaring and Sherry Sulcus retire to a humble abode under the shade of Cariefree.
You probably already figured out that the whole story above is completely made up. My wife and I are fans of Jane Austen and quite often we make comical references to the movies depicting her books. Sometimes I like to imagine how Ms. Austen might have used a dentist in her stories.
Let me be serious for a moment. My staff and I love what we do. We do indeed take pride in our porcelain. Just yesterday a patient came in who we recently made a crown for. Prior to repair, his tooth consisted of almost a hollow nub that was sensitive from time to time. He was able to make it into my office for care. My assistant and I removed any non restorable tooth structure, scanned the tooth with our camera, and made him a beautiful crown. I asked him how his new tooth was doing. He responded: “It feels like all my other teeth.” This may seem like a simple statement to the average person, but to a dentist, this is a great compliment. My assistant and I beamed with pride in our porcelain. We were so glad that we could meet this common, yet simple need of my patient.
No, I will never star in a Jane Austen movie and if someone did ever write a dental story with a “Jane Austen” theme, the movie would not be very popular. One thing I can assure you is that my staff and I do take pride in our porcelain and love the art of dentistry as we serve our fantastic patients.