Credit: © Michael Ochs Archives/Stringer/Moviepix/Getty

Ted Brooks is a successful dentist in Miami Beach, Florida. All city buses run around advertising the 'Hot Smile Dental Group' where he works with colleague Rupert. Rupert is not a very subtle dentist. His advice to a patient he just treated is: 'If it hurts tonight, you must take two pills. If it hurts tomorrow, you should probably find a new dentist'. When the patient looks surprised, Rupert adds quickly: 'A little joke. Just call us tomorrow to let us know how you feel'.

When a bailiff arrives in the dental practice with a warrant, Rupert panics: 'Is this about the Freeman's kid? He is lying. Maybe I shouldn't have drilled him left-handed, but he dared me'. The warrant, however, concerns a will, which shows that Ted was adopted as a child.

Ted leaves Miami for the cabin in Alaska where his biological mother has lived. After his arrival in the tiny town of Tolketna, he goes to the local café. There he is immediately approached by a man: 'Sir, we gotta talk. I have been waiting a long time for a dentist to come to town. I've got a cancerous sore in the back of my mouth and isn't that stench unbearable?'

Ted starts searching for his biological father. During this search he meets a second person who is happy to finally see a dentist. 'It's my left rear molar. Filling inside a couple of years ago. And now it's purple and this real rotten odour. Maybe it's infected.'

Ted also meets the love of his life in Tolketna and marries her. Together with his wife he starts a small-scale 'Hot Smile Clinic' in Tolketna. The two people who presented their mouth problems to Brooks are waiting. When one of them enters the treatment room he asks 'is it going to hurt?' Brooks, like his father 25 years ago, replies 'just a little. More than a tickle but less than paying your taxes'. The practice in Florida has been sold to Ted's former employee Rupert. The buses in Miami are now driving around with Rupert's picture.