While Jim Knox of "Senses of Cinema" agrees with Elena that of all of Kiarostami's instructional shorts "Toothache" is—along "Orderly or Disorderly" (, 1981)—the one where "the pedagogical intention [...] is most starkly apparent", he, not unlike Dabashi and Roth, also points out "its refusal of generic conventions", although in his eyes the film's stance is an unambiguous affirmation of the virtues of caring for one's teeth which he interprets as an appeal to the Iranian public to care for their health because "[f]or a young revolutionary state, vehemently opposed to both global Blocs, the health of its citizens is one guarantee of combat effectiveness" (strangely enough, he fails to mention the First Gulf War which had broken out just one month prior to the time setting of the film's plot). In Dabashi, the diegetic world and the reality of post-revolutionary Iran exist merely side-by-side, whereas here they are put into relation. Knox thus continues, still in the vein of New Historicism, by opining that "[f]or a theocratic state, the issue assumes a metaphysical significance; the health of the individual derives from adherence to the discipline of a strict moral code", while he stresses at the same time that "Toothache" is "[p]erhaps surprisingly" the first of Kiarostami's shorts to feature women (albeit in minor roles).