Page 26 - Bulletin Vol 29 No 2 - May. - Aug. 2024 FINAL

Member Article| By Tom Mauceri, DDS

All Patients Bring Happiness. Some When They Arrive, Some When They Leave.
Some of the thousands of patients that drift in and out of your practice disappear into obscurity; others
are hard to forget.

In January of 1986 my brother Anthony and I opened our office in Garden City. Jackie and her mom arrived
for their first appointment and filled out their medical histories. Mom was a young woman. Listening to
her accent, looking at her appearance, with an unmistakably ethnic last name, mom was likely of
Vietnamese decent. Jackie was about as beautiful as a five-year-old could be and I wasn't at all surprised
when mom confidently told me Jackie one day was going have a career as an actress. I reviewed her
medical history and her mom seemed ill at ease when I inquired about her history and where some past
unusual dental treatment was performed.
Mom wanted to know why I was asking and I replied I was just being thorough to have a better idea of
who I was treating. She snapped, "I'm Korean and all my teeth were worked on in Korea.” Well that
certainly didn't go as I had expected. I quietly resumed their dental exams, films, and cleanings. We fin-
ished up and little Jackie left with the same picture-perfect smile she arrived with. Six months passed and
they were back for their recall appointments. Mom asked again why I had inquired about her past and I
said there were some unusual restorations in her mouth. Assuming, based on her last name, she might be
Vietnamese I was wondering if this could be routine treatment over there. She had an “aha moment” and
said because of her Vietnamese background she had been discriminated against by others. She thought I
might not like people from Vietnam, and the thought of sitting in front of someone with a grudge, and an
office full of sharp instruments would be an invitation for disaster. I asked her if she had seen the movie
Marathon Man, which she hadn't and I yelled, "DONT!!" We had a good laugh and then I finished up with
her and Jackie.

Six months went quickly by and they were back in my office, smiling and relaxed this time. Mom informed
me they were off to NYC to see a talent scout photographer about Jackie's possible career choice. Later
that week she called to say things there seemed to go well. Three months had passed when mom called
the office frantic on the phone. An advertising office had seen Jackie's photos and wanted to hire her to
be featured on the cover of a well-known brand of cereal. They were disap-
pointed when she arrived having just lost her two central incisors. As mom
explained all of this over the phone, I said that we could make a flipper with
some white carved down adult teeth to give the look that nothing had
changed. She rushed into my office, I drove the impressions to the lab on my
lunch hour, I picked up the flipper the next day and delivered it that after-
noon. The lab techs were as excited to have such an unusual task as I was to
create it. Mom was thrilled, Jackie got the job and now, every once in a
while, I look at the old cereal box with Jackie smiling on it. She even signed
the box for me.
I wanted to share this story. I looked her up, Jackie is now a well-known
actress who has appeared in many plays, movies, and is featured in several
online reviews. She still has that beautiful smile! Every once in a while,
someone asks me, "You're a dentist? How could you do that all day?" I say,
“how could you not.”
Jackie Nguyen on the Life Cereal box
she autographed for Dr. Mauceri.

26| Nassau County Dental Society ⬧ www.nassaudental.org