What was dental care like in your childhood ?

My goodness, such dental memories!

We had a family dentist and walked half a mile or so to his surgery where there was an aquarium which I loved but this was just to lull us into a false sense of security!

As a child of the forties, there were no sweets until they came 'off ration' and then I think we went a bit mad and I certainly have a sweet tooth. This, together with the 'drill and fill' culture of dentists in the 1950's led to me needing an extraction. I can still remember the vile rubber mask - such a horrible smell.

During the process, I had a dream, still vivid today many many decades later, of me being in a tunnel with a bright light at the end. The tunnel had bends and curves and I followed round and round towards the bright light.

The next thing I remember is my mother being in the room with me and looking very anxious and I was now on the floor. Apparently I had reacted badly to the gas and become unconscious. I was asthmatic so I am sure that this could not have helped either. I was later told that they thought I had died. The dentist was so apologetic that he drove us home in his car as my father (mother didn't drive) was too far away to come and collect us.

My teeth are, of course, full of fillings and my children cannot understand the culture of that era for as a family we all brushed teeth twice a day but still had a copious amount of fillings.. I ensured that my children's teeth were coated in liquid fluoride (I think that's what it was) and it certainly worked as neither, aged 48 and 44 have any fillings.

My Dentist said she could tell my age from my fillings?
Anyone in their 60's, 70's underwent fillings, no Fluoride in toothpaste.
Like most my teeth are OK just have these wretched filling fixed occasionally.

I never went to the dentist as a child. It was only when I started at a Grammar School that I had twice yearly visits to the school dentists at the nearby health clinic. The whole class were seen at the same time in alphabetical order. With my surname beginning with 'L' I had to sit and wait for my few minutes of agony. There were no cheery posters to brighten up the waiting room just display cases of rotten teeth. I always felt those dentists would have fared better in butchery. I now have full dentures top and bottom and the dentist is a distant memory. Bliss.

Terrifying. I can still remember the black mask being pushed over my face for an extraction and the dentist took out the wrong tooth!

I remember going to the dentist in the 50s and 60s and all my back teeth were filled. There was no control over eating sweets and having sugary drinks! I remember having a sugar sandwich!! Shocking. It was even worse for my parents generation as most had false teeth by the age of 40-both my parents did. Such a big improvement now for children.

I agree with Niochorio that the saddest part of all is that our parents were doing their level best to encourage us to look after our teeth by taking us to the dentist every six months and making sure we brushed them yet their trust was misplaced.
Apparently now, though, believe it or not, British teeth are among the best of the world and better than American teeth.

I remember one day getting gassed for the dentist to pull a tooth. Afterwards my poor dad had me slung over his shoulder as I was completely out of out of it, we didn't have a car, so he carried me the whole way home with the blood running down the back of his shirt. Terrible memories.

I eont ho into the details of the horrendous gas mask. So.ething more positive... when I was about 11/12 they started doing research into fluoride and children in my year were given tubes of fluoride toothpaste. Teeth checked at beginning and end of experiment.

Even in the seventies it was a drill and fill culture, usually without any pain relief whatsoever as it was thought baby teeth did not have nerves (they were wrong) and l am sure dentists were still paid for every tooth treated as so many of my generation (born in the sixties) report the same. I was going to post on this very subject as, looking back, I am sure virtually all the fillings l had as a child were completely unnecessary. I feel very strongly about this. It was not unusual for children to go to the dentist every six months yet "need" two, three or four fillings every time. I think dentists saw a small, slightly suspicious, area or perhaps some erosion (which does not need filling) and they were drilling as large a hole as possible for enormous fillings. These days a "wait and see" approach is used. My own children have always had excellent teeth. My mouth is small and my second teeth came in overcrowded so l had four teeth removed to make room for them and have braces. Also my last two baby teeth were removed when l was fifteen as there were no second teeth there. I think they could have left them. Looking back l think only two of those extractions were necessary. Having said that, the policy was changing by the late seventies/early eighties and a more conservative approach coupled with more universal fluoridation was the order of the day so l do not have too many fillings in my second teeth (l should add l have always looked after my teeth) but I have a porcelain crown on one molar that never formed properly. I have an excellent dentist now.

Terrible experience. Used to go to the local authority school dentist. My back baby teeth were late dropping out, so they were all removed, under gas. The adult teeth weren’t ready to come through but they were exposed to food detritus/ bacteria and couldn’t be cleaned with a toothbrush. Hence they all came through showing signs of decay and I have mouthful of fillings - but they are still hanging on.

I feel so sad reading these messages on here as it was only recently I found out about the drill and fill programme of dentistry. I am a child of the sixties and my Mum took such care to make sure our teeth were looked after. We brushed them twice a day and went to the dentist every six months. I remember having lots of fillings which I read now were probably unnecessary and four teeth extracted at the age of 7!!! Now I am so despondent with my crumbling teeth and root canal fillings. My Mum must have thought she was doing the best she could for me and now it seems that all her good intentions were for nothing. I am now saving to have a couple of implants put in where I should have normal healthy teeth ??

I first went to the dentist aged five and he refused to let mum stay with me. He did several fillings without pain relief. That was the start of my fear of dentists. Every single visit I had fillings. They must have been paid to fill teeth. He also extracted a tooth when I was 14. How could it have gone rotten in the six months since my last visit? I'm 68 now and my teeth are ruined. My grandchildren have no fillings so the system must have changed.

Hated the Dentist, still do. I can remember sitting up one night before a visit wiggling a tooth out only to hear him say I had left some root in, Always Gas I can still see that black mask and cannot eat Aero Chocolate as it reminds me of the smell.
He was - as Dentists go - a really nice one though.

I hated the dentist. Fillings with no pain relief and if the nerve was hit with the drill - say no more. I still hate the dentist and my current one, not that I have been for a few years, has a hygienist who seems to love to inflict pain. I told her she was a bully. I remember taking my son to a dentist when he was younger and this particular dentist wanted him to go into hospital to have back teeth taken out as they were growing at the wrong angle. I decided to let nature take its course and these teeth straightened out and were no problem. My son has not got adult teeth at the back of his gums so needs to look after the baby ones which are still in situ. These would have been taken away. She wanted him to wear a brace which he refused to do. Now he is older his teeth are ok and he looks after them but in hindsight a brace would have helped. As for me I have a case of overcrowding but will leave well alone for now. Gives me a shiver just thinking about it.

I meant to post on this thread and posted on the dishwasher thread instead. How do I get that removed?

I still have some of those awful silver fillings in my back teeth from the late 1950s. My dentist is most impressed that they are still intact. I told him it was an Australian dentist working for the nhs. They didn’t use anaesthesia though, painful memories.

I was a war baby, one of six children. I can't remember having a toothbrush but I can remember using salt to clean my teeth. I was evacuated aged four, can't remember cleaning my teeth there. I can remember the school dentist and the black mask. It put me off going to the dentist for years. I now have a lovely female dentist.

Yup
I had masses of fillings when I never had any tooth ache
They were unnecessary subsequent dentists have said
So obviously dentists were incentivised
Most have come out now been replaced or extracted and I have implants and crowns .

My first memory of dental treatment was having a tooth out and crying after the dentist smacked me on my leg, I was terrified and probably wriggled

Oh my. The memories this thread has evoked!! I remember arriving at primary school and the horror and sheer dread of seeing the dental van parked in the playground. The interminable wait to be called and then the dread of being given a letter to take home advising your parents that you needed treatment. This needed to be signed and returned to school and an appointment made. I used to plead with my mum not to make me go and, bless her heart, she normally refused on the grounds that I would see our own dentist. (Which I never did, hence I got a letter every time) But it backfired on me when I had to go to our local cottage hospital to have 6 teeth extracted, aged about 11. We had to go on the public bus service and walk about a mile. The dreaded gas mask. I can still smell the rubber of the mask. I can still see the nurses face as she leant over me to clamp it over my face. And that gas! Had to sit for a little while afterwards to make sure I was”alright”. Then with bloody gums and in dreadful pain I had to walk back into town to wait in the cold and wind for a bus home. We did call in at Woolworths on the way as mum needed some bits. Not a good idea as I was still full of anaesthetic and promptly vomited on the wooden floor. Mum was furious. Lol. Oh my Lord....

Seems like I am not the only one left with a lifelong fear of the dentist. I do go regularly but I quail inwardly at the prospect.

I was only little but I can still remember the tartan plastic seats and imitation coals of the waiting room, and the horrible dentist himself. He drilled and filled without local anaesthetic and without kindness. My mum said that, when I was so small that I had to sit on her knee, I kicked him and he fell on top of us. Good. I hope I hurt him.

My sister didn't want to change, even though he treated her teeth brutally, including filing them down to try to correct her bite. We had to travel on 2 buses to see him, which meant an afternoon off school, so she thought it was worth it.

When my mum decided that enough was enough and took us to a nice dentist, the fact that he numbed the tooth before drilling was a revelation.

When I was 15, I was a dental nurse for a fortnight. (Why? I had a fear of dentists.) My boss was in the horrible dentist category. We had a little girl who was too terrified to be treated. He ordered me and the other nurse to hold her down whilst he forced her mouth open with rubber gags. She was so frightened that she wet herself. That was one of the reasons why I told my parents I couldn't carry on and I wanted to work in an office!

I still feel guilty that I did what I was told, instead of telling him where to stick his gags.

Thirty years ago I was told by my excellent newly qualified dentist ( who I still go to) that he could tell I was a child of the 60s as all my teeth were filled. He was horrified with the practice of dentists paid to fill healthy teeth in the 1960s. I was always annoyed and jealous that my brother who was 5 years older than me refused to go to the dentist and had no fillings. When he was in his 20s he had to go a dentist for treatment and I delighted in telling him he would have to have lots of fillings! He came out with 2 fillings. My poor father was told by the same dentist in the 60s to have all his mostly healthy teeth removed and have false teeth. Good job things have changed.

They were very authoritarian and held no truck with children being scared. Our school dentist looked like a witch and we all dreaded seeing her.

I remember queueing up with other children around a big leather chair for a check up every few months I knew that whenever a new tooth erupted it would be filled on my next visit because (I know now) that's how dentists were paid. So like many others my teeth are 'heavily restored' now. Last year I had two implants put in and they are great.
My husband has only a couple of fillings and he puts it down to the fact that his dentist was always drunk and consequently didn't do much dental work.

Until I read this thread I thought I must have been the only nine year old child to have gone alone to have a general anaesthetic. I still remember being let out onto the street, still dazed, spitting blood and walking home. It's horrifying to think what could have happened and why was it considered alright by the health service and our parents.