What was dental care like in your childhood ?

Remember having what looked like a big rubber round door stop put between my teeth to stop me shutting my mouth if he hurt me or didn't like what was happening. Smelt and tasted of rubber and disinfectant.

I was seen periodically by the school dentist, which was always scary. I was brought up to clean my teeth regularly, but was never taken to a dentist by my parents. They never went either, as far as I can remember. The first time I went to a dentist of my own accord was when I had left home and was about 17, for a check up, clean and polish. I always go for yearly check ups now. Mind you, I am lucky enough to still have all my own teeth in very good condition and no fillings at age 64.

I never minded going to the dentist as a child in the 50s, he used to give us a little plaster house gift for not making a fuss. My daughters also happily had regular dentist visits, to the extent one daughter trained as a dental therapist.

I actually feel sick reading this thread! I loathe going to the dentist after childhood experiences in the 1950s.

The dentist was a horrible man who smoked constantly and had nicotine stained fingers that he thrust in your mouth (no gloves!). The taste was dreadful and he smoked while he worked!

Like other GNs I went to the school dental clinic alone, which was the norm then. Talk about hands-off parenting.

Jaffacake2 I had similar experiences and now reaping the ‘rewards’, my teeth are breaking up around the huge amalgam fillings and are difficult to fix. My last dental visit resulted in the dentist accidentally ‘drilling’ under my tongue and I understand this isn’t that uncommon (although he was mortified). A nightmare all round.

I had a mouth full of fillings before I started secondary school. My parents did not enforce teeth-cleaning and I was allowed as many sweets as I liked. When we had our children I was fanatical about teeth-cleaning and sweets were rationed. As a result out of three adult women one has one small filling. My dentist, Mr Gulati, was a nightmare figure and I dreaded going to him. Drill and fill was the order of the day. My metal fillings have all been replaced by white ones and I have a much nicer (though horrendously expensive) dentist now.

Jaffacake2, thank you for starting this thread off. I had a lot of fillings in childhood too (born in 1960s), no pain relief. I also thought it was because I wasn’t looking after my teeth properly. We rarely had sweets. My teeth are now in an awful state but I’m too frightened to visit the dentist.

I can’t remember the frequency regime of teeth cleaning, I think only on the morning. However my Brother and I were taken regularly to the Dentist who was very friendly and after our examination always took us over to his desk where in a drawer was a box of candy-type sweets (can’t recall brand). We were allowed to choose one to take home. Springs to mind he was inviting damage to our teeth to ensure further work on us in the future.
I wore a brace for several years to correct my forward pushed teeth due to thumb sucking! My Mother had to take me on a Midland Red Bus to Birmingham to the Orthodontist, almost a days outing. But, as a “Baby Boomer” I still have all my own teeth, albeit with a few gaps.

My dental treatment started at the age of 5 having milk teeth out at the school clinic. Having steel gag put in my mouth gassed then having to go to bowl with other children and spit?. Carried on until drill and fill by the time I was 21 had 4 front teeth on a plate. Oh the shame and they moved about. That dentist then slipped with drill on the outside of my lip still have a slight scar there now. I could go on . I now have implants hoping they will last ??

We were taken to the dentist regularly as children although strangely my mother had dreadful teeth and seemed to have a pathological fear of having treatment herself. It was something we could never bring up with her for some reason. The drill is the thing I remember most as it wasn’t very high speed and seemed to take for ever to drill the old filling out. The dentist was nice and had a very glamorous dental nurse, my older sister always used to tell me she was his ‘bit on the side’! Because I had lots of fillings by my late 20’s one of my dentists at the time said it would be easier to have them all out and have a nice set of false teeth. I declined and still have all my own at 72.

I was terrified of the dentist and I still am even though I have false teeth. I remember the gas mask, not a very pleasant experience. I also remember the toothpaste in a round tin. The one I had was pink I used to like it. My last dentist was quite nice but the fear doesn't go away.

Until I was 26 never had a filling..had perfect teeth..My mother made sure we went to the dentist at least once a year to be checked.The dentist would say nothing needs doing..

My mother took me to the dentist from 18 months onwards when she went for her appointment.
She had always been terrified of the dentist & needed an injection just for a polish. Her rationale was that I would grow up not scared. It worked a treat & I was never bothered about it which was just as well as I have most of my teeth filled now.
I remember it being a good experience as I was allowed to get the chair to go up & down & spray the water. I took my own children from an early age & both my sons have excellent teeth- from their dad I guess.

My mother clearly knew nothing about dental care - or she would have avoided giving me my whole sweet ration every week in the 40s and early 50s, and would have made me use a toothbrush. Sometimes she would say at bed time 'eat an apple - that will clean your teeth'. The dentist would not give pain relief and used a slow speed drill. I remember once his saying I needed 12 fillings! I dreaded going to the dentist but as an adult taught myself to mentally go for a long walk somewhere beautiful while having treatment and am able to relax. Every tooth was filled in my childhood and as an adult I had the fillings removed and replaced with new, less toxic, white fillings.

We cleaned our teeth as children but we also ate sweets (from my Grandma not my parents), so I always assumed that my childhood fillings were related to that. My own children were never allowed sweets only chocolate as a treat on special occasions. Neither of them had a single filling as a child - they both had only a couple of bits of cosmetic rearrangment. Sweets were not part of their experience and they are not part of the childhood experience of my grandchildren, so hopefully their dentist visits will be mild checkups only.

Due to my parents hardly ever taking me to a dentist my teeth were loose by the time i was an adult during my divorce i had a new dentist who took advantage of the fact i was easily talked into treatment not needed (will not go into graphic detail) resulting in constant pain and abscesses after changing to a new dentist for help i ended up having all my bottem teeth removed followed a year later by having to have all the top ones removed i was only 48 and had a full set of dentures now i am 70 and have almost no bone left in mouth to hold dentures due to shrinkage . i tried on advice to make formal complint about the dentist who charged me a fortune and did work that was not necessary only to find out he had been struck off and was in prison for fraud as he had obtained alot of money from elderly couple which was not connected to his work as a dentist

I'm afraid I was a bit spoiled as a child, was given sweets, and so most of my baby teeth went rotten. We had a horrible dentist who had the nickname T he Butcher and he would wait for the patient at the top of a dark spooky staircase with his arms folded over his chest. I had a lot of extractions, always with gas, he didn't seem to do fillings. I've never forgiven him for yanking out my eye tooth which hadn't come through where it should, when I should have worn a brace to guide it. I've had to live with the resulting crooked smile for the rest of my life.I used to be so terrified of going, so I'd be rewarded with some new doll's clothes from Wooly"s afterwards. Funnily enough I didn't develop a lasting fear of dentists though !

I can’t read all these posts as it brings back so many nightmares. My children never went to the dentist alone - until my 16 year old said it was embarrassing to be taken by her mum (I still waited outside just in case)

I remember sitting in the dentist chair with my mouth open starring into the eyes of a gargoyle on the town hall opposite. My dentist was above a butcher’s shop so the soundtrack to my appointments was the chopper through the carcasses. No wonder I’m the way I am ?

We all went to the "school dentist" and it did seem as if they filled every tooth in our heads! I once had a student dentist damage my lip with the drill and it made me terrified of dentists. Years later I lived in America and when I went to the dentist there he commented on how he knew I was English by the amount of fillings I had. His treatment was pain free and helped me get over my phobia.

I went to the local school dentist and remember having fillings, the horrible big rinse out your mouth bowl and having an extraction aided with gas and air which made me sick during the night after. It put me off going to the dentist for many years and even now I have to remind myself that it’s not the same these days.

My dentist was a sadist. Every visit was like the torture scene from Marathon Man. I hated him then and I still hate him now.

That's it exactly vampire queen. Sadists. Mine obviously enjoyed removing all the teeth of a terrified 11 year old. Ruined my life somewhat.

One of my abiding memories of childhood was seeing my Mum come home from having all her teeth out, her mouth pouring blood. This probably contributed to my fear of the dentist. He was a horrid little man who apparently didn't like children, despite having two of his own whom I knew from school. My Dad was the one who took me to the dentist - I'm sure my Mum could never face him again. Once I reached University and had to find a dentist, I found the best dentist ever, He never used anaesthetic injections and yet never caused pain. As far as I knew he didn't use hypnotism either. My confidence in dentists was restored! My present dentist is young, personable and very capable.

Terrible. I remember waiting hours to see him, or maybe it seemed like it. He'd been a naval dentist and smoked incessantly. He'd do a bit of drilling, go and have a few puffs, leave cig in the ashtray, come back and do more drilling, then more puffs, etc. He'd be struck off now! I have lousy teeth, half of them gone and crowns and a partial denture. Still at least they can't kill me!