Dental drama

“A recent visit, approached with a degree of trepidation, to my Broughty Ferry-based dentist, during which I experienced a painless tooth- filling, reminded me of a visit to a dentist at Darjeeling 70 years ago,” emails Kenneth Miln of Monifieth.

“As a pupil at St Paul’s School, to which establishment I had been enrolled by my ex-Dundee jute-wallah parents, a toothache necessitated a visit.

“After a short pony ride, I entered a wattle building which contained a bamboo chair and a strange crane-like contraption. Without further ado the dentist began, sans anaesthetic, drilling away with his pedal-powered machine ; within a few minutes the offending tooth became very painful. Notwithstanding my frantic efforts, arm waving and groaning, the fiend carried on regardless – it was a sair fecht indeed!”