Notebook: So how much is this pain costing me?: Dentists have always been figures of fear. Now, as they leave the NHS, they're having to use new methods to bring a smile to customers' faces

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. She has 800 children on her lists, and 2,800 adults, and hasn't turned anyone away, even though she began selectively to withdraw from doing health service work when the new contracts came into operation. 'I think what's important is that people know they'll get a friendly, service,' she says, though that's hard when she is pressed for time. Page after page of before-and-after photographs prove that Dentics is less about dentistry than about the sanctity of smiles, as in 'You too can be blessed...' In case you don't get the point, in Mr Craddock's surgery there's a huge blown-up version of Helmut Newton's Le Baiser, two pairs of lips so close to meeting. Whether it's Anne Sherman's familiar smile, Mervyn Druian's solid educational message, or Dentics' offer of painless beauty, modern dentists are all in the business of dressing up an unenjoyable but thoroughly necessary part of life.