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After all that business about chrysostomos in Telemachus it's only now, in the third episode, that we discover that Joyce (and Stephen) was setting up this dichotomy; that is, it is in part because of Stephen's bad teeth that he was sensitive to Buck's golden teeth, even, white and glittering. Stephen was not only describing but contrasting, presumably reflecting on the injustice of the situation. Thus at this line about Stephen's teeth, so far removed from the original observation, we suddenly have a new interpretation, or way of understanding, what had been informing Stephen's thoughts much earlier. How we understood at least one part of Telemachus is subtly altered. Of course by widely distributing meanings and interpretations throughout the entire text of Ulysses Joyce insures that our understanding of the whole is constantly being challenged. This technique makes the book more life-like and keeps us coming back to it as we slowly fall under, and eventually fully succumb to, the spell which Joyce weaves.