Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 20, 1993                   TAG: 9308200225
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILMINGTON, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

WHERE'S THE TOOTH FAIRY WHEN YOU NEED HER?

Warren Stiles, 65, of Richmond, toppled from his wheelchair and bumped his head in a grassy area outside Wilmington's HoJo Inn on Sunday.

Stiles said he doesn't know what happened to his upper plate of false teeth. The plate was knocked from his mouth when he hit the ground, he said.

"I know I had my hand on my teeth," Stiles said. "My teeth are gone, but my hand is still here."

A passerby saw the mishap and called a rescue squad. Stiles was taken to Cape Fear Memorial Hospital for an examination.

Neither hospital nor rescue workers recall seeing Stiles' teeth. After searching for them himself, Stiles placed an ad in the Wilmington Morning Star offering a reward for the return of his teeth.

Who would want someone else's false teeth?

"Beats the heck out of me," Stiles said. "They're designed for one person and one person only."

This is the second set of teeth that Stiles, a Korean War veteran, has lost. The first was accidentally swept into the trash during his stay at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Virginia, he said.

Enjoying a meal is almost impossible for Stiles.

"It's miserable, but I was without teeth for a year, so I get along without them," he said. "I'm gumming it. I don't eat steak very often, I tell you that."