During his long career as a dentist, Pat Foy, DDS, has treated patients from every walk of life. Some were involved in life-shattering accidents requiring oral surgery, while others merely stopped in a for a semi-annual check-up. A few had never been in a dental office before. But in every case, there's a human drama behind the immediate issue, and Dr. Foy exposes this dimension of his daily work with brevity and insight. He draws out the humor wherever he can find it, but also turns his attention unflinchingly to the darker dramas that his patients are sometimes involved in. The collection also includes reminiscences of his family, his youth, and his years in dental school. The result is a pleasantly humanistic, poignant, surprising, insightful, funny, unexpected, and occasionally shocking look at a profession, and a slice of life, that holds depths of human feeling and interest far beyond the world of cavities and crowns.