NEW YORK CITY — Hiram Monserrate recently got a gift from the tooth fairy — an extra month outside the big house.
The former state senator and Queens city councilman was supposed to start a two-year sentence for fraud on Monday, but Judge Colleen McMahon gave him a four-week postponement after he griped about his choppers hurting.
Monserrate's lawyer requested the delay in a Feb. 27 letter after the disgraced pol went to his dentist "complaining of recent, severe pain."
Following the Jan. 18 visit, Monserrate's dentist, Louis Shapiro, began performing a root canal in stages over several weeks, according to the letter filed in Manhattan Federal Court. The letter to McMahon notes that Monserrate still needed about eight weeks to add four more crowns.
"Dr. Shapiro opines that this treatment is necessary and must be done 'expeditiously' in order to avoid additional damage," the pol's lawyer, James Neuman, wrote.
Neuman also fretted that Monserrate's pearly whites wouldn't get the same kind of care in prison.
"It is very unlikely that this type of work would occur while Mr. Monserrate is in custody," he wrote.
Judge McMahon granted the request on March 1, ordering Monserrate to surrender to authorities before 2 p.m. on April 11.
Monserrate pleaded guilty in May to siphoning $100,000 in tax dollars from a Queens nonprofit he controlled to help finance his run for state Senate.
At the sentencing in December, McMahon gave Monserrate a tongue-lashing, comparing his behavior to Richard Nixon.
A former NYPD cop, Monserrate had an earlier brush with the law. He was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend in 2009. Monserrate skirted jail time but was booted from the state Senate.
