What was dental care like in your childhood ?

I have been terrified of dentists for as long as I can remember. I have to get my timing just right even now as if I have to wait I start shaking with fear (even though my current dentist is gentle and wonderful and has never hurt me once.
I have a vivid memory of the dentist who gassed me when I was about 7 or 8. He was fat, sweaty and bald with piggy eyes and small round wire NHS glasses. When I cried he shouted at me and told me that if I didn't behave myself he would call my father in and refuse to treat me. I was convinced he was working for Hitler and the gas was going to kill me. I still recall the smell of it and the vision of white lights going round and round above my head as I went to sleep.

Just reading these answers makes my tummy go over. I have true dental phobia. My memories of the dentist are of pain, severe pain. Even as a young adult, the pain was so bad that on at least one occasion I lost consciousness. I learnt much later that not only do I have nerves that are twisted my gums but the roots are too. In addition, just as I've always claimed, the local anaesthetic used in dentistry doesn't work. To add to it all, I have Trigeminal Neuralgia, the vibrations of drills and certain movements are enough to trigger attacks.

So, I no longer have check ups, I wait until things become too painful and am then admitted for dentistry under GA.

I’m another one that ended up with a mouthful of fillings from a dentist in the 60s. She was presumably rubbish as five molars broke in older age. Now have five implants instead. My mouth is worth far more than anything else I own!

Not wanting my children to suffer as I did (see above), when my eldest was tiny I used to give her a little pink fluoride pill, every day with her weetabix. She had her first filling when she was 45. It proved more difficult in France with her two sisters but I tried and they were well into their thirties before their first. (I think it is forbidden) I also made them brush their teeth after every meal, even tea breaks.

My mother took me regularly to the dentist from a very early age. I dreaded it. We always had the earliest appointment in the morning so I missed only the first hour or so of infant school. The first floor waiting room overlooked the street he walked along from the station and my eyes were pinned to the window praying he would have missed his train and wouldn't be coming. He filled all my back teeth, no anaesthetic and afterwards often gave me sixpence for being good - and for a treat spun me round in his office chair. I couldn't bear to hear anyone mention the word dentist - at home I had to go out of the room. When I was about 14 I moved to another dentist - what a difference. My phobia disappeared. Since then I've had only about 4 fillings so obviously all the early ones were unnecessary. I'm really cross that all my back teeth are full of fillings. The DDs in their late thirties and my GDs have no fillings at all.

Have to tell my silly dentist experience: Whilst mum sat in the waiting room, I was considered old enough to go into the treatment room on my own for the first time. At the end of the treatment (I daresay another metal filling) the dentist handed me a glass of water and a pink tablet saying to "put it in here". After a few seconds he peered at the glass of still clear water and asked where the pink tablet was. I'd misunderstood the instruction, and told him in all innocence: I've put it in my ear! Well, I was only 24......

We were part of a trial for fluoride. (free bushes and toothpaste) By the time it started I was about 11 and had several fillings. My brother had none. He has never looked after his teeth but after many decades he finally saw a dentist. Needed NO fillings!
Like many, I had overcrowded teeth but dental experiences had put me off and I didn't get on with my brace. Finally had them straightened when I was in my mid-thirties, full-on braces and all. Best thing I ever did.

Yes rozina. Some of us mention above that we had gas.

WE now now pay per 'course of treatment' rather than per item. So there's no longer any inducement to do two fillings when one would have been sufficient.
But I definitely see pressure to turn a Band 1 'course' (basically a check-up) into a Band 2 one (most procedures short of crowns). And I strongly suspect the dentist bills the NHS more for a Band 2 course that includes a root canal than one that's just a couple of small fillings.

(Yes, you CAN get a root canal job in Band 2 for £62.10. It's when you want a crown put on top of it that it gets expensive.)

I haven't read all of the posts but does no-one remember having gas? I had it each time I went.

Love it MissA! Again.
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Oh I just remembered that once at primary school (I’m in Scotland) they had a “Happy Smile Club”. We were given a membership card and our parents had to sign each night to say we had brushed our teeth. I can’t remember what the outcome of that was. Does anyone else remember that club?

I can relate to a lot of the posts on here, especially going alone and the gas mask.
The thing that sticks in my mind is being given a tube of smarties at the end of the visit!

I must have been very fortunate as my experience of my dentist, as a child ( I'm
72) wasn't bad at all. I remember being nervous of course but he was always kind and I don't remember having any extractions. As a young mother I used to look forward to going to the dentist just to be able to lie back and put my feet up. I have a lovely dentist now and still enjoy going as we get on well and enjoy a chat. We had one dentist who was actually a friend and once,when he and his wife were with us for a meal, he broke a tooth on my home made granary bread. Needless to say it caused much hilarity with the other guests.

I remember going to the dentist when I was around 10 years old. I had to have some teeth extracted and a horrible rubber mask being clamped over my mouth.
My stepmother never encouraged me to clean my teeth, hence the number of extractions.
I had to have a plate fitted for some front teeth.
As I was approaching puberty I was very embarrassed in case anyone knew.
I can definitely say that my teeth have been ruined by unnecessary fillings, extractions and poor dentistry, even into adulthood I’ve had my teeth messed up.
Unfortunately, I have very few teeth left now and have to wear a metal partial plate.
I would give anything to have a lovely set of real teeth.
Can’t afford veneers and don’t have enough bone structure.

I had to have valium before going to the dentist even as a very young child. Every tooth was drilled and there is something about the slow drill that causes an uncontrollable fear. My rational self tells me that it is no worse than the high speed drill but I don't even have to be sitting in the chair to be affected by the slow drill. I had an abscess on a back tooth at the age of 6 which put me in hospital with meningitis. It was terrifying. I have been left with a long lasting dread of the dentist.

We weren't allowed sweets.
My sister was fat, and I had bad teeth.
Now we're both fat, and I still have bad teeth.

We had a very good dentist in the 1950s he took the time to explained everything he was going to do, that kind dentist made dental treatment bearable. Hence I have never feared going..
Our parents never let us see the demon school dentist.

I use to go yearly to the school dental clinic. I was lucky I did not need any fillings as a child. I still have all my own teeth at 83 years old. I do remember, I was not allowed many sweets.

Actually on thinking about it, we did eat a lot of sweets ....
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I was given bus fare each day for school but as mum and dad had already left for work, I just used to set of earlier and spend those pennies at the newsagent’s on the way! I must have thought a half hour walk was worth it in exchange for aniseed balls, spearmint chews, sherbet dabs and the like. Silly me. I suppose the exercise did me good though.
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Having read many of these comments I am surprised that many of us actually survived to adulthood, with or without our teeth! What absolute monsters some of our early dentists seem to have been!
My current dentist is lovely and very reassuring when I had a panic attack during an extraction shortly before last Christmas! She talked to me about my past experiences and really put me at ease; still don't like going though?

I used to use Gibbs toothpaste that was pink and in a tin. Can still remember going under the gas: the smell and fighting it. Don’t remember much about my childhood but unfortunately that’s one event that is still vivid.

Some of these stories bring back the horrible memories of the dentist in the 50s and 60s. I remember mum saying that if I didn’t go, she would let me be seen by the school dentist and they had quite a reputation! We brushed every night before bed and if we ran out of toothpaste, we had to use salt. When I went to the dentist (every 6 months) I was scared but if I cried, he would give me a slap on the leg. If I was good, I would be given a sweet from his sweetie jar. He called the huge drill an aeroplane (supposedly to make it seem fun?). I had four big molars pulled to make room. Oh yes I remember the smell of that black rubber mask. Also he pulled one of my eye teeth, telling us it was a baby tooth, then a few years later, another dentist had to x-ray as my adult eye tooth hadn’t come through. That’s when it was found that it was an adult tooth that he’d pulled. There had been a tiny brown bit showing and apparently a baby tooth wouldn’t have been worth saving. I’ll never forgive him for that. On that side of my mouth my teeth are badly twisted and look awful. I wish I could afford to have some cosmetic work done. I’m still really nervous when I go but my dentist now is so lovely and so patient. What a difference to those “old days”.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

The gritty toothpaste in a tin was eucryl. My dentist gassed himself, i think he must have been addicted to the gas but fell asleep with it on. It was faily common i believe.! I remember the big black rubber bung they put in your mouth to keep it open and the smell of the gas was nauseating.