Some of his patients might disagree, with the "only" part anyway. Dr. Rosenthal's same-day, $15,000 smile lift has attracted chief executives, socialites and models and generated a puff piece in last November's Vogue hyped with the cover line, "Smile! How to Buy Cover-Girl Teeth." Another telling detail of Dr. Rosenthal's résumé is that he once worked as a lounge piano player on a cruise ship.

He seems congenitally up. His motivational patter is nonstop, a live infomercial. Imagine a kinetic cross between Michael Douglas and Tony Robbins. "People ask me, 'Larry, when do you rest?'" hesaid. "I say, 'When I'm preparing teeth and reshaping them!'"

According to the New York State division of professional licensing, Dr. Rosenthal's dental license was suspended for six months in 1987, although the agency would not reveal the reason. Dr. Rosenthal explained that he had been charged with a misuse of prescription forms to obtain sleeping and diet pills, but he maintained that the forms had been stolen and used by someone else.

Dr. Rosenthal and his family spent last Easter in Palm Beach, Fla., as guests at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. His 50th-birthday party in the Hamptons last summer drew a guest list of patients sufficiently notable for an item in The New York Post: Mr. Trump, Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford, and Sandy Korn Taylor (a former Penthouse Pet).