What was dental care like in your childhood ?

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Awful experiences with dentists - once, bled for over 24 hours after an extraction.
I hate going to the Dentist. As a result, I don’t have the best teeth.

My siblings and I used to have our dental appointments booked together - I don't remember a single occasion when we didn't all have at least one filling each. It was drill and fill back then.

My mum was terrified of dentists so only took me when I had toothache. It was a council or school dentist and she didn’t do fillings so any teeth with a cavity were taken out. By the time I was 6 I had had all my back teeth removed, a lot of them at once at Guys dental school. Yes I can still remember the gas mask!
When I was about 12 my older brother took me to his dentist who was much kinder. I went to him for years until we moved. I’ve been with my present dental practice for over 40 years and they are all lovely! Different dentists obviously!
I always took my children to the dentist every 6 months and in their forties they have few fillings.

It’s easy to be critical of historic dentistry What has to be remembered that there was no fluoride in water or toothpaste and dentistry was in its comparative infancy. The introduction of the health service in 1948 and the system of payment meant dentists were paid for each extraction or filling. Not for any preventative work. Dentistry was very much in its infancy. My grandfather was a dentist he had no qualifications. He was one of the 1923 men who were exempt Apparently prior to the health service apparently did a lot of work on the basis of we will pay when we can and he never got paid. Don’t know if all dentist were the same as Pop was brought up in an orphanage and had very socialist views

The dentist is was taken to as a child didn't believe in pain control, so there were no injections. He filled many of my teeth and I'm sure some unnecessarily. He was an alcoholic we discovered later and didn't like women or children.

Tell you what,those old mercury fillings stood the test of time and I still have a couple from the London dentist when I was about 10. He was an Aussie, I remember his accent was a bit different. They’d be free, my Mum wouldn’t have paid for anything like that. I didn’t get my wisdom teeth until I was about 50 and then only a couple of them. Obviously not wise.

This brings back awful memories. I always had to go to the dentist on my own, my mum never came with me.

I can remember one dentist telling me that he couldn't do the filling while I was screaming.

We now have a lovely dentist, and we even followed him when he moved practice. That's how passionate I am about keeping my good dentist!