SO what has your dentist done for you lately? Cleaned your jewelry? Handed out free subway tokens? Thanked you with flowers or lottery tickets?

If not, you're missing out. To stay competitive, dentists now pamper patients with everything from aroma therapy and popcorn to hot finger towels and piped-hi reggae music, not to mention extended hours and hefty discounts.

"It's such a serious profession, said Dr. Kenneth Montague, 32, recently named "best dentist" In Toronto's Now magazine (along with "best place to meet a straight man" - Canadian Tire), Dentists didn't even think of marketing as a business tool until quite recently.

Dentists are bleeding, after three decades of fluoridated water and toothpaste, a glut of graduates and a nineties erosion of welfare and corporate benefits.

'Two decades ago, a dentist could survive with 1,000 patients.

But these days, with nearly half of all youngsters growing into cavity- free adulthood, a dentist with fewer than 2,000 low-maintenance patients is in trouble.

Only half the population sees a dentist regularly. But in Alberta, there is roughly one dentist for every 1,800 residents, in Ontario one for 1,700 and In British Columbia one for 1,600, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.