Brian Maixner is a waiter at the Doo-Dah diner in Wichita Kansas. The diner was given its name after a term that Wichita residents use to mean laid back and whimsical. Maixner liked working at the happy diner, but had struggled with dental problems his entire life.
Maixner was working to earn money for dental insurance, because he was missing several teeth and suffering from painful infections. One day Fred Boettcher, an attorney from Oklahoma, sat in Maixner’s section on a busy weekend morning. He loved the service, but couldn’t help but notice the waiter’s dental problems, which he asked the owner, Timirie Shibley, about.
“When I hired Brian I wondered what I would do if a customer was to address the issue of his dental problems and how they were uncomfortable with it. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to answer that, so when Fred came up to me, that’s where I thought this was going,” Shibley says.
Boettcher also had had dental problems when he was a child, and offered to give Maixner a full dental makeover. He said he had done well and wanted to give back to others.
“I am a guy, and I am not scared to admit it, I cried a little bit,” the waiter says of his reaction.
Over the past two months Boettcher has paid to treat all the underlying problems and fit Maixner with a full set of dentures. The procedures costed about $25,000.
“The most common comment we’ve seen from people online, is that this story has restored their faith in mankind,” Shibley says. “Everybody seems so refreshed to have this type of story show up. It’s a story everybody likes to share.”
