What was dental care like in your childhood ?

Our dentist was lovely. I continued to see him when I was sporadically in the UK until I was 20 and had a baby. I have had a range of other dentists since, but the one that sticks in my mind the most was an NHS dentist in Newmarket. He worked SO fast. I think he made his money by the sheer numbers he treated in a day. Was both good and bad. He was an OK dentist but was a bit brutal because the speed at which he worked meant he was rough. BUT at least I was in and out of the chair quickly, which is great when you're morbidly terrified of dental treatment.

Brutal! I stîll have problems going to the dentist but I know it's necessary, poor oral hygiene can result in all manner of problems and the dentist does more than check the teeth! Just have to be brave!

As children, we were supervised by my dad while brushing our teeth twice a day. We got very little pocket money to spend on sweets. Regardless of my dad's zeal, there was always a filling or two needed when we visited the dentist every six months. When he ran out of teeth to fill, he drilled out the 'leaking' fillings and replaced them. His saving grace was that he only ever filled molars and premolars, and he didn't pull any out. An extracted tooth can never be refilled, of course. My sister still has an enduring fear of dental work.

I believe dentistry was entirely covered by the NHS for children in Scotland when I was growing up.

I remember being seen by our dentist, if my mother went to have her teeth seen to. She took us with her and the dentist checked our teeth too.

Both the dentists I remember from my childhood used dental anaesthetic.

I do remember that we were only taught to brush our teeth in the morning, something that horrified a tempory nursemaid we had while my mother was ill.

Another victim of a drill and fill merchant here. I went to boarding school aged fourteen and never saw him again; coincidentally (or not...) I have had no further new decay needing filling for the subsequent 50 years, though I have needed replacement and a root canal for most of the metalwork he left in my mouth.

Bastard.

I can remember being held down unable to breath because of the force l was held with at 6 years old and a gas mask put over my face. It was brutal and terrifying. They were barbaric in the 50’s and 60’s.
If dentist behaved like that these days they would be arrested !

Horrendous. Our dentist was “a friend of the family” but was utterly dreadful. I remember him drilling through my jaw bone to remove a wisdom tooth ... I was in bed and on high strength painkillers for a week and didn’t go back to a dentist until I was pregnant about 15 years later.
Plus those were the days when dentists could anaesthetise patients themselves. I feel lucky to have survived - my best friend’s sister in law didn’t.

Hated dentist and agree with others that dentists were paid for extractions and fillings. Many years later watched the Marathon Man film a few days before going to a new dentist. He had a piece of equipment made by Marathon - never went back again!
Found a lovely dentist when my children were born. They used to love going to see him and never had any fear. Son aged 43 still does not have a filling!

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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 ?

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'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 !

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

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.

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.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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 ??