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JEFFREY GURIAN'S conflicting careers have a common goal: to getpeople to open their mouths. Some days, it is to laugh; others, torinse. Gurian's lucrative dental practice allows him to drive from his upper East Side home to his office in the Bronx in a 1986 Jaguar. He paid for the $45,000 car with money earned from his specialty, cosmetic bonding, a pricey technique used to cover dental imperfections such as chips, discolorations and spaces between teeth.
Between patients, Gurian writes comedy for some of the biggest names in show business. Last month, Jerry Lewis used his jokes for a Las Vegas date with Sammy Davis Jr. Gurian regularly contributes material to Milton Berle, and his one-liners have been used by a host of other comics, including Rodney Dangerfield.
Physically, Gurian seems better suited for show business than dentistry. Under the light blue dental overshirt he wore to the office recently, Gurian had donned black designer jeans, a gray sporty shirt opened nearly to the waist and enough gold jewelry to impress Mr. T. -
almost as if he awaited the phone call from Hollywood that would spring him, leaving his patient wide-mouthed in the chair.
With a toothy smile, rose-tinted glasses and reddish-brown hair that curls beyond his collar, Gurian seemed less likely to be filling cavities than to be...