Open wide, please!
The sound of the drill, the smell of gas – Yours writer Marion Clarke is horrified by readers’ stories of the dreaded school dentist and the memories they left behind ....
We’re prone to claim that many aspects of life were better when we were young, but I think we all agree that dentistry is definitely not one of them. My postbag bulged with your memories of suffering at the hands of school dentists.
Norman Dunn was only six when he was called from his class to see the dentist: “I took one look at him and fled across the playground into the toilets and locked myself in. Two big lads were sent to drag me back in. I was petrified and screamed the place down. One extraction later, I was sent home for a good telling-off.” Poor little lad – no wonder Norman is now happy to have dentures!
Dot Ross was the same age when she had two teeth taken out: “At midnight the doctor was called out to stop my bleeding gums. Mum was livid and wrote to the dentist who later turned up on our doorstep. After some angry words, he admitted that my teeth needn’t have been extracted.” His name was Mr Toller and it comes as no surprise to learn the children claimed ‘he made you holler’.
Joan Bannister feared the arrival of the dentist’s mobile unit in the playground. Told that she needed treatment, she claimed her mum was already taking her to another dentist: “A big fib of course, but I was released from his clutches!”
Along with several other youngsters, Pamela Clamp lined up to see the
‘I didn’t need any treatment and came out with a smile on my face because the dentist had given me a shilling’
dentist: “We had large brown rubber bibs placed round our necks. When it was my turn and I saw the gas mask approaching I was out of the chair and running down the road with the bib still round my neck! Needless to say, I never went back.”
For many of us, the rubbery smell of the gas mask descending on your face was the most traumatic part of having a tooth taken out. It still affects Mrs C Bennett to this day: “After having four teeth out, I cried all the way home and had to sit with a bowl to catch the blood. I told Mum that I would rather have toothache than go back. I still can’t stand the smell of rubber and have to hold my breath when I fill a hot water bottle.”
A language problem made things worse for Gillian Shaw: “Our school dentist was a very tall Dutch lady and I didn’t understand her accent. She shouted, ‘Open zee mous vide’ and when I did she jammed a sort of vice into it and wound it up. It was very painful and I worried that I might not be able to close my mouth again. Now aged 82, I still have most of my own teeth so she obviously did something right!”
On a more positive note, Doreen Keene tells us, “Mum waited outside while the dentist examined my teeth. I didn’t need any treatment and came out smiling – I’d been given a shilling because I was the first child who hadn’t cried that day.”
■ Next issue – ‘Nitty Nora the Bug Explorer’!