Man's quest: the tooth, and nothing but the tooth

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CORRECTION

A front-page story Tuesday about a man suing his dentist incorrectly stated the length of time a person has to file a case in small claims court. North Carolina has a three-year statute of limitation for small claims court. The article also incorrectly stated what the man saved from his grandmother. He saved her gallstones.

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RALEIGH -- Jasper Tharrington of Bunn has some of his own baby teeth, the lens of his father's eye and his grandmother's gall bladder.

So when he went to the Zebulon dentist office of Dr. William Batchelor Jr. in June 2005, he wanted to ensure that his extracted choppers -- a back tooth and three wisdom teeth -- were returned so they could join the rest of his mementos.

Tharrington didn't go home with his teeth. Three years later, the unemployed construction worker is fighting a court battle to teach people -- especially dentists -- that patients have a right to extracted canines, incisors and molars. The teeth in question aren't in Batchelor's possession anymore, Tharrington said, but he is still pushing forward.

When a Wake magistrate threw out his case July 23 because the two-year statute of limitations had expired, Tharrington appealed, undeterred. The appeal, filed last week, is waiting to go before a Wake District Court judge.

Tharrington, who declined to be photographed, is hesitant to talk at length about his crusade, citing his appeal. And Batchelor's attorney declined to provide the dentist's version.

For Tharrington, 43, the issue is no longer the right to bear teeth, but patients' rights in general -- that, and the $5,000 he wants for what he terms malpractice.

"They're not telling the truth about whether or not you can keep the teeth," he says.

The N.C. State Board of Dental Examiners, leaning on a 1993 Occupational Safety and Health Administration decision, agrees that people have a right to their teeth. A patient can keep them because they pose no infection risk to their owner, an OSHA administrator decided after U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota questioned why a dentist had come between a constituent and his extractions.

The issue of tooth ownership arises rarely, said Bobby White, the dental board's chief of operations. "It's not a burning question," he said.

Tharrington compares his motivation with the allure of "Bodies: the Exhibition," which features dissected cadavers and visited Durham last year.

"People are interested in what's in their bodies," Tharrington said.

Besides: "It's my teeth."