"Well," I answered, "he said he had them filled until they ached, then he had them taken out."

"Your third patient was a sixteen year old boy, and you said he always had a lot of decay," the attorney questioned, and I thought I perceived a slight stressing of the, "you said". "Why does he have so much decay?"

"I guess that he eats too much sugar and doesn’t brush his teeth as he should, "I told him, and at the same time directed these remarks in the direction of the jury.

"You said that you were making a set of dentures for your next patient," he went on. "May I ask how she came to lose her teeth?"

"She lost them because of pyorrhea," I replied.

"Wasn’t she ever treated for pyorrhea or told about it?" He asked this question with inflection of surprise in his voice.

"Yes," I told him, "she had a pyorrhea treatment several years ago. A gingivectomy was done and instructions given, but she lost them sometime later."

"I notice that you referred to your fifth and eighth patient as your banker and your mechanic’s wife respectively, "he purred. "Did I understand correctly that they both had two decayed teeth? You placed inlays in one patient and plugged a couple of silver alloys in the other. "May I ask," he said with considerable deliberation, "why the difference?

"That’s simple," I reported, beginning to feel just a little irritated about this cross examination of the obvious, "inlays are more expensive and the banker’s wife could afford to pay for them."

"Now," said the attorney looking directly at the jury, "you said that you spent the whole appointment with your sixth patient, Mr. Smith, explaining that pyorrhea had taken his teeth, and that he should be treated by a specialist, or just have them out. This sounds simple enough, why did it take so long to explain it to him?

"Well," I answered, not being too satisfied with the reply I knew I would have to give, "he said he had been going to dentists regularly all his life. He thought he had been taking as good care of them as he had been taught, and had had all the work done that dentists told him he needed. This was all done by him in order to save his teeth. Now, out of a clear blue sky, I tell him he is either going to have to have them out, or seek special treatment."

"It takes a skilled operator to place gold foil. The places they can be used are very limited, so we place them when we find a cavity that is accessible to plug one in," I explained, now being aware that I was visibly perspiring. I had a feeling I knew what was coming next.

"As far as the patient is concerned, do these gold foil fillings do any more for them than any other filling material? "

"Well, no," I said. "They only replace that part of the tooth which has been destroyed, just like other fillings, but they are more difficult to do.

"The attorney turned, with a questioning look on his face, to the judge and then to the jury. "Gentlemen, you have heard dentistry explained by one of its own members, who is honored and addressed as Doctor. Yet, I am sure that you can see they have forgotten that the very term itself means teacher. If we can take this day in a dental office as average, then it is crystal clear that they are more interested in repairing and replacing, than in teaching. By their own words they are only skilled technicians, tinkers of metals and minerals. They are satisfied to pursue this course, and even pursue it with great zeal. We can only assume that this way is more lucrative."