DEAR ABBY: My wife and I are having a big fight with her dentist. My wife is getting a full set of dentures. All her life she was ashamed of her teeth because they were yellowish, and now she wants snow-white teeth, but her dentist won't give them to her. He says snow-white teeth look unnatural. Abby, she doesn't care; she says movie stars have snow-white teeth and they look beautiful, and she wants beautiful white teeth too.
Meanwhile, her dentist keeps telling her that his job is to give her teeth that will look natural, and if she suddenly comes out with snow-white teeth, people will know the teeth are dentures, and they'll think her dentist did a poor job. We are deadlocked. Should a dentist give a patient what she wants or what he thinks she ought to have?
We live in Maine, but if we have to go to California to get what we want, we will go there. And I wouldn't begrudge the cost, either. Help us. -- UNHAPPY SENIOR CITIZENS
DEAR UNHAPPY: The dentist discharged his professional obligation when he told your wife that the kind of teeth she wants will look unnatural. Having said this, and being overruled, he should give her what she wants. If he refuses, there are plenty of other dentists in Maine.