Word-of-mouth ad

Leslie Willmann’s daughters want to remain anonymous.

You see, their mother often does wacky things. Not felonious acts, but the kind of things some folks only talk about doing.

Willmann, 44, actually does those things – like selling advertising space on her dentures through the online auction site eBay. She had 11 bids as of Friday, with five days left. The top bid was $819.99; she’s holding out for a couple thousand dollars more.

You can see Willmann’s choppers on eBay.com by searching “ad space teeth.”

“It kind of started out as a joke, and it’s taken off,” said Willmann, a licensed practical nurse, who now drives a dump truck for a demolition company she launched with her boyfriend.

When her boyfriend said no one would buy space on her dentures, she sunk her teeth into the challenge, finding an artist who could paint her dentures. The most interested inquiry she has had so far is a Quebec casino that said it would be more attractive if she could get some media attention.

Willman is a North Central High School graduate and lifetime Spokanite, who’s trying to raise money so her daughter can visit from Saudi Arabia.

She ended up with dentures after the birth of her second child, when a reaction to anesthesia caused neurological damage to her teeth.

One of the best perks to her e-Bay quest is the reaction from her four grown daughters who tend to ask her, “Mom, have you lost your mind?”

“I’m doing it as an ultimate revenge against my children for everything they’ve done to me,” Willmann said. “They’re never really surprised.”