A Dental Dilemma

	This article contains information that does not coincide with the main series canon.	(Similar)

“	Highness, you're headed straight for a dental disaster! You hear?!”
	— Escargoon, to King Dedede • A Dental Dilemma

A Dental Dilemma is the 95th episode (32nd in Japan) of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. It features the return of Tornado Kirby and focuses on the importance of brushing teeth.

Characters[]

Kirby
Tiff
Tuff
King Dedede
Escargoon
N.M.E. Sales Guy (minor role)
Sir Ebrum
Lady Like
Cappies
- Yabui
- Gus
- Chief Bookem
- Buttercup
- Honey
- Spikehead
- Iro
- Tuggle
- Samo
Chef Kawasaki
Cavities (debut)
Hardy
Waddle Dees
Waddle Doo

Synopsis[]

The plot is about King Dedede and Tuff suffering from toothaches and having to see Yabui about getting their cavities filled, despite both of them being very squeamish about it. Dedede eventually orders a monster, Hardy, to do the job anyway as usual since he doesn't want to see Yabui, but he is just as scared about it, if not more. Hardy treats everyone, and puts a drill near Tuff's cavity, but doesn't drill the tooth. It just scares off the things that caused the cavity. Dedede wanted his cavity fixed another way, so Dedede flees from Hardy. Hardy goes crazy when he realizes that Kirby has no teeth, and ends up being blown away, so Dedede ends up at Yabui's screaming his lungs out when he gets the treatment the hard way.

Episode Summary[]

The episode starts with Chief Bookem having his cavities drilled, but he doesn't want to have them drilled. He runs away screaming as Buttercup chased him. Escargoon has a toothache as well. Kirby puts his hand by his mouth and it makes him look like he has toothache. Escargoon is having his tooth drilled. Then, Yabui decided to pull them out with a pair of giant pliers, but Dedede suggests that he gets it with the drill. Honey, Spikehead, and Iro begin to laugh at Escargoon. But Tiff says to them, "You don't know what the pain's like." Kawasaki, Gus, and Mayor Len Blustergas are also waiting patients. Mayor Len Blustergas uses joke teeth to fool the dentist into thinking he's got a toothache. Once Escargoon comes out, they go to Tuggle's grocery store. King Dedede takes things that have a lot of sugar in them (the Japanese version has candy, chocolate, caramel, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and melon bread). Escargoon is concerned about his Majesty's teeth. Dedede thinks that Escargoon's just jealous because he can't eat all the things he likes. Escargoon tells Dedede to have all the sugar he wants and see if he cares as he goes to look for dental products. He asks Tuggle if the toothbrushes are in front of him. The Cappy shows him many toothbrushes, including a toothbrush with a rounded disk-like tip. But King Dedede thinks that people get cavities by using toothbrushes. In Castle Dedede's dining room, Tuff finishes his tea and is about to go to bed, but Lady Like tells him to brush his teeth. Tiff looks at Tuff's mouth and noticed his teeth are dirty, and instructed him to brush them immediately. When it's tooth brushing time, Tuff brushes his teeth for a few seconds. Once he heads off to bed, Sir Ebrum and Lady Like find that Kirby is still brushing his "teeth."

After watching a Channel DDD commercial, Escargoon suggested that King Dedede should use the toothpaste he advised on television. Dedede assaults him by saying, "Your teeth is as rotten as your looks". He then go to bed and throws a pillow at Escargoon for scolding him.

The next day, both the king and Tuff wake up with cavities. Dedede wasn't in the mood to eat. Escargoon mocks him as if the king has a toothache. Dedede tries to pretend by drinking water, and as a result, King Dedede started screaming in exaggerating pain. Tuff also has the same issues. The family decided to take him to the dentist. And the same time, Dedede was shocked as Escargoon said the dentist. Also at the same time, both the king and Tuff clung onto their bed and refused to go. Tuff runs away as the family and Kirby chased him. Escargoon and the Waddle Dees pulled the king to his tank. Outside the castle, Tuff was hiding in the corner. That's when Kirby found him. Ebrum and Like decided to give Tuff toys if he gets his tooth filled. Tuff cheers. It was actually a joke. Both Ebrum and Like took him by the arms and went to see the dentist. On the other hand, Dedede tried to escape, but Escargoon pushed a button that activates the claw and puts him in the cannon. At the dentist's office, they start arguing about who goes first when Yabui walks out and claims that both of them have to go first due to having two chairs. Yabui starts with Tuff as he screams. Dedede tries to escape but Yabui's chair chains Dedede to it. Yabui then prepares his drill. Tuff opens his mouth. He then started screaming as the drill drills his tooth. Yabui points his drill at the king. Dedede gets so scared that he somehow breaks free. He then sees a jar of painkillers and eats them all, causing the pain of the cavity to vanish. Convinced he has solved the problem, Dedede happily walks out of the office. Tuff immediately follows him, but Tiff warns the king that the pain medicine is only temporary. Later that day, the pain returns right after Dedede finishes his dinner. and Tuff's cavity also worsens. Tiff puts a ice pack on his cheek, and the ice melts. Escargoon mocks Dedede about the dentist, upsetting him even more. He then hits Escargoon on the head, giving him an idea. To help the king forget his pain, Escargoon grabbed his hammer and clobbers his foot. Escargoon then chased him with his hammer. Tuff refuses to go to the dentist and as a result, runs away. At the same time, both the king and Tuff crashed into each other, and noticed that their cavity doesn't hurt. They started cheering. That only lasted a few seconds. Their pain returned. Dedede gets so frustrated that he calls Nightmare Enterprises and orders a dentist monster, Hardy. Hardy, however, does not use numbing, and chases Dedede around the castle. Dedede runs into Tuff and Hardy grabs him instead. Tuff screams in pain, but in few seconds he leaps out, his tooth now repaired. Tuff thanks Hardy for this, who happily states he does this for free. It then chases after Dedede. Dedede asks Kirby to fight the monster. Kirby tries to eat Hardy, but he catches Kirby, and Dedede orders him to drill out all of Kirby's teeth. Hardy, however, finds that Kirby has absolutely no teeth to speak of, causing him to have a breakdown. Kirby starts inhaling at Hardy, causing his drill to fall off. Kirby sucks up the monster's drill and becomes Tornado Kirby. Kirby easily blows away the monster. The next day, everyone happily watches Dedede having his teeth drilled while tied to a chair. Tuff states that from this moment they should brush three times per day, while Kirby shows off. Escargoon states to Kirby he has no teeth, as Kirby continues showing his mouth. The story irises out to an end.

Changes in the dub[]

The wine bottle on the table when Kirby, Tiff, and her family are all eating dinner was airbrushed out in the 4Kids dub along with all the cups of wine's color texture being changed from red to a dark orange possibly to resemble another drink. Oddly, when King Dedede and Escargoon are eating dinner after seeing the dentist, the wine bottle and the cups of wine are left unedited.
After finding Tuff in the balcony, Kirby calls out Tuff's name in the Japanese version, but not in the English dub.
The little signature on the poster on the bottom right corner behind King Dedede when he's in Yabui's office sitting down was airbrushed out, but the signature can be seen a few scenes before.
The boss germ's voice differentiated in the Japanese and English versions. In the original Japanese version, his voice sounded rough. In the 4Kids dub, his voice is played in both regular and low pitched tracks at the same time.
Similarly, the boss germ is the only one voiced while the others sing as they destroy Dedede and Tuff's teeth in the Japanese original. In the dub, the boss germ only talked when alerting his workers to Yabui's drill.
When King Dedede tells the N.M.E. Sales Guy that he needs a dentist in the dub, the N.M.E. Sales Guy questions if there isn't already a dentist in Dream Land. In the original Japanese version, the N.M.E. Sales Guy asks if Dedede means a dentist for a cavity.
After Hardy finishes repairing Tuff's tooth, Tuff thanks him. In the dub, Hardy merely says "Sure!", while in the original Japanese version, he assures Tuff that the treatment is free of charge.
When Hardy is being sucked into the tornado, in the Japanese version, he says "brush your teeth", while the English dub, he is silent.

Errors[]

When Tuff says that Escargoon should've brushed more often, everyone there laughs at that comment except Tiff. However in the 4kids dub, only Kirby, Tuff, and Honey can be heard laughing.
At the very beginning of the episode, when Chief Bookem is sitting down in one of the seats in Yabui's office, one can clearly see a poster which looks like a diagram of the interior of a Cappy on the wall behind him. But in the next scene, the poster isn't seen at all when it shows everyone in the room, and then the poster appears again in the next scene.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Michael Haigney originally stated in an interview that the Fox Network would not let the episode air because of how it shows and paints dentists in a bad light and that it could scare children (although it was meant to encourage children to brush their teeth and go to a dentist if they thought they had a cavity). This applied to all other countries that used the 4Kids dub as well. The episode did eventually get dubbed, but it was aired under the third season, along with some other episodes in the line-up.
This episode did not get aired in Italy due to dental fears. Mediaset had decided to air this episode on the network channel Italia 1 after episode 31, but due to children being scared of the dentist, this episode was removed in Italy.
- This episode has also not aired into K2 because of the dental nightmares, leaving only 99 episodes to be dubbed.
On the Kirby TV Channel, A Dental Dilemma was the only episode so far to have a scrolling credit instead of one that changes slides.
In the Japanese version, there is one part where Lady Like says that if Tuff goes to Yabui, then she would buy a CubeGame for him. The CubeGame is likely based on the Nintendo GameCube console, with the words switched.
This episode proves that Kirby has no teeth.

Other languages[]

Language	Name	Translation	Airdate
Italian	Un dilemma dentario	A dental dilemma	Unaired
Korean	이빠짐이 되지 않는 이야기	A story that doesn't fall apart	Unaired
Spanish (Latin America)	Un dilema dental	A dental dilemma	Unaired