Larry "Smiley" Kleiman, a Vietnam veteran, was thanked for his service recently when dentist Michael Tischler performed $60,000 worth of dental work to give him back his smile for free, the news magazine "Inside Edition" reported last week.
Kleiman, from Liberty, New York, a volunteer firefighter who worked with a local K-9 unit, had lost most of his natural teeth over time and went to Tischler, the founder for Teeth Tomorrow Hudson Valley in Woodstock, New York, for a consultation, "Inside Edition" reported.
"He smiled, he had no teeth," Tischler said, according to "Inside Edition." "His name was Smiley, he was a fireman. He worked with dogs in Vietnam. And everything about him was just the kind of person that you wanna help.
"They're giving up their lives for our freedom. And to have a gentleman like this that had two tours in Vietnam, which was a horrible war. ... We felt good helping him. And today feels really good," Tischler continued.
According to a statement from Teeth Tomorrow Hudson Valley in November, Tischler and dentist Claudia Patch decided to replace Kleiman's missing teeth with state-of-the-art Prettau Zirconia full-arch bridges at no charge.
"I wasn't really going to do it because it was a lot of money and on a fixed income, a retirement, there was no way feasible of me doing it until Dr. Tischler came back two days later and said come on in," Kleiman told "Inside Edition."
"He told me what we're going to do is pay back. You did your time in the service, we're going to pay you back," Kleiman added.
Spectrum News wrote that the entire process of the extensive dental work is a six-month process that will give Kleiman permanent bridges.
The Teeth Tomorrow statement said that the patient wears 'provisional' bridges for three to four months while they become accustomed to a full set of new teeth and the dental implants bond with the bone in their jaws. In the final visit, the provisional bridges are removed and they receive their permanent bridges.
"Nobody's ever done that for me," Kleiman told "Inside Edition." "I've always given to people. I'm a firefighter, I was an EMT'er... I still fight fires. And I help people."
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