What was dental care like in your childhood ?

Urmstomgran. You’ve got a very good dentist only charging
23.80 for all that. I pay 56.00 for a basic checkup. NHS. Something not right.

I don’t know how it is in the uk but it costs us at least $ 300 as soon as you step through the door of the dentists here. That would be for a small filling. If you have anything complicated it can cost thousands and thousands. We have fluoridated water so we don’t get as many bad teeth as we used to so maybe they are making up for the lack of need. I only go if something is wrong . We do have private health but that only covers about 50 % of it.

This has hit a nerve. I too remember the white caravan at primary school. Then I used to go to a dentist in Edinburgh and the waiting room where you could hear the drill. Fillings without anasthaetic, it was like the scene from Marathon Man 'is it safe?'

I loved my dentist. He was a friend of my family and taught dentistry at the university. He liked to have his practice alongside his professorship and was kind, warm and gentle.

I have terrible teeth in spite of the regular visits to the dentist, the twice-daily tooth-brushing and the fluoride mouthwash (which he prescribed when I was very small and I used till I left home).

My dad's teeth were also awful - looked good (like mine) but very thin enamel- but my mother's were strong and I think she only had one or two fillings in her life. We all went to have our teeth looked after by him.

I was obviously very lucky. He did fill a number of my teeth but always with an injection. He said not to remove a tooth unless you really had no alternative. I don't think I suffered from unnecessary fillings.

My dentist in the 50ies was called Mr. Smilie! I remember the horrible gas mask and having a very vivid dream, a bubble car was crashing into the dentist surgery and it landed in the chair where I was sitting,quite terrifying,then a long walk to the bus stop spitting blood all the way! How on earth was this treatment of little kids allowed to go on,makes me shudder thinking back.

I am pleased I started this thread as it has affirmed for me the normality of dental experiences in the 1960s and why I have multiple fillings and fear. Unfortunately this has worsened by having an anaphylactic shock to local anaesthetic in a dentist chair in my late 50s. I am now resigned to just waiting for teeth to finally give up and probably drop out. I am not able to have anymore restorative treatment done as unable to have local anaesthetic.
Thank you for all the posts. We all went through hell as children and hopefully the younger generation won't experience.

My grandkids live in South Korea and recently went to the dentist there. They needed a few fillings and when a medieval sort of frame clamped the kids down onto the chair, their Dad said you’re not doing that to my kids and took them home. The dentist said it was normal and couldn’t understand why he was making a fuss! Mind you when I was a dental nurse I often had to sit on patients who had gas.

I just feel SO lucky.
to all who struggled and have awful memories

It was the same in the 1970s - pretty much all of my teeth had been drilled and filled by then. Fast-forward to the 1980s, and I had a dentist who drilled without bothering to use anaesthetics... It all left me with an abiding fear of dentists until I was recommended to try the King's College Medical school (dentistry). After nine months of service by brilliant soon-to-be dentist (constantly surrounded by consultants), I lost most of my fears. (I couldn't even use floss, because the sensation would give me a panic attack.) I then didn't see a dentist for ten years and, when I did, she said my teeth were fine and needed nothing doing! When I asked how come everytime I saw the dentist in my yoof I had a filling, she said 'things were different then'. I still hate them all, sorry.

My father died from complications after having teeth removed 6 months before I was born. I wasn’t told any details, all I knew was he died having teeth out. Obviously I was scared of the dentist.
I remember being taken by my uncle to have a tooth removed as a child and the dentist, whilst holding me down with his knee, said, “if you don’t sit still, I’ll press you and put you in that case with my butterflies”. My uncle dragged him off and took me to the other dentist in town.
I walk past that dentists regularly, it’s not a dentist anymore, I can still visualise that case on the chimney breast with his pressed butterflies in.

But the joy of finding a sixpence under the pillow next morning, loved the tooth fairy. That sixpence would go straight down the road to the sweety shop to buy a bag of dolly mixture, more fodder to rot my teeth.

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I remember the gritty tooth paste in a round tin think it was Gibbs toothpaste. Also had loads of drilling and filling as a child , not a pleasant experience!!! That big black chair with it's hard neck rest and the overhead drill hanging above me. All my teeth were filled in childhood - goodness knows why !!! My teeth were not in a heavy state of decay. It was unnecessary. I was terrified of the dentist and my present dentist is calm and gentle but has me listed as a nervous patient- no prizes for guessing why !!

Going to the dentist is my worst fear. All the stories on here sound familiar. I had a couple of teeth out aged ten, under gas!

Another memory is of taking my mum to the dentist when she had all her teeth out. I was ten! I had to get her home when she was feeling awful. Wouldn’t be allowed now.

One dentist told me fairly recently that he sees children where three of them had perfect teeth and one terrible teeth and that it is often genetic.

Mine are awful and I am so jealous of the young people nowadays with perfect teeth.

Ps going to the dentist on Friday, wish me luck?

My dentist in the late 60s and early 70s gave out lollipops after examining us - no wonder I've got a sweet tooth now!!
I was fine with him and a lady dentist I had.
Then we got a butcher, and I was a teenager by then, and having my wisdom teeth out, very painfully, plus he managed to cause a very nasty infection in my lower lip, and would not accept blame for it or give a prescription to help heal it - needless to say I never went to him again!!!
Then I left home and in the town I now live we had not one but TWO BUTCHERS, and they put me off for life!!
I now wait for teeth to start slackening and work them out myself. Then I put them out for the tooth fairy, who pays very well, and the money is divided between my grandchildren!

Can't read of others experiences.

Mine experiences were terrible through till I was well into my 40s. I'm 71 now and have no quarms about going. Past two dentists have been the best to help me through lots of corrective treatment.

I was about 9 or 10 and went to the dentist accompanied by my mother. I had lost my baby back teeth, and my adult molars had come in. The dentist insisted that they were my baby teeth, I had to have them removed to make room for my adult teeth. I had gas, he took them out. My mother was livid when she realised what he had done, but they couldn't be put back.
I have a small mouth and had teeth removed to make room for others. I have a gap in my lower jaw where no adult tooth grew so I suspect that he took the adult tooth out thinking it was the baby tooth.
I hated going to the dentist back then, and still do to this day.
By the way, I have never needed any other teeth removed!

When I was ten had to visit school dentist. Was sat in chair, draped in rubber apron and mouth wedged open.
A black rubber mask was pressed over my nose and I was told to take deep breaths.
I started to panic and was about to try and make a run for it when the mask was removed. One of the cylinders was empty.
Five minutes later I was back under the mask with a second one over my mouth and a nurse holding me in the chair. No escape

We all certainly had tooth brushes and cleaned our teeth regularly.

My first memory of seeing the dentist is at the age of 11, although as I had good teeth, and didn't need fillings until my late teens, I could have, and probably would have, had check-ups and just forgotten them.

My dental memories start with orthodontic treatment when I was 11. I had prominent teeth and the army dentist did the examinations and tests and recommended it, but when he heard we were due a posting back to Blighty suggested that my parents wait until we got home and were settled there.

First I saw the local dentist, but there were complications so he referred me to the Royal Dental Hospital at Leiecester Square and I went there regularly for 4 years, I had to wear all kinds of horrible contraptions and the Professor was wheeled out at regular intervals to advise on what should be done. During that time I continued to see the local dentist every six months. He was a very nice man and, as I said, I had no fillings at all until I was about 15.

When my orthodontic treatment finished, the professor said to me. 'We have put a lot of time and effort in sorting your teeth out, make sure you look after them - and I have.

I had very good dental care. My mum was really strict with us and we saw the dentist twice a year. BUT I refused to have orthodontist work done that I needed and now have very crooked teeth.

GagaJo why not have it now?

It seems as if a lot of us have unpleasant memories of childhood visits to the dentist.

I remember the dentist most local to where we lived, and therefore the one we went to at first, really was a butcher- I had a lot of fillings and some extractions as I was growing too many teeth (which ultimately led to me needing orthodontic treatment and, to be fair, a much more pleasant experience as far as these things go, as my mum was given the name of a much better dentist by the orthodontist, whose practice was near to that of the orthodontist).

Back to the butcher, though. After any fillings, my face looked as if it had undergone ten rounds with Mike Tyson, the same after any extractions. My mum decided enough was enough though and took the recommendation from the orthodontist to try his colleague down the road from him, who, I’m pleased to say was so much better.

I remember that awful black gas mask that “the butcher” used on me. However, I suspect his shins were black and blue because as I was coming round, I remember that I was kicking out with such force one of my shoes came off - must have been the effects of that gas.

He was none too gentle with the anaesthetic needle used when I had fillings, either, and, like another poster mentioned, it felt as if it was going right through my jaw towards my ear. That resulted in all the bruising around my face.

I’ve never avoided going to the dentist, though, and have no fear. I think this is down to the fact that I required so much orthodontic treatment over many years that I don’t want to risk losing any now if I can avoid it, and became used to regular dental visits.

I do have a problem with gum/tooth sensitivity now, though, which has happened only in the last couple of years - probably an age thing, although I was reading a thread on mumsnet about the menopause yesterday, and interestingly a poster mentioned having tooth & gum sensitivity since menopause and her dentist did say it can be a side effect for some people, so I wonder if that’s the case? Sorry, I’ve digressed a bit!

M0nica

GagaJo why not have it now?

Mainly due to cost MOnica. Limited income and no pension in sight for another 11 years.

I had a marvellous dentist throughout my childhood who was also the Dental Consultant in the local hospital. When he retired, I was in my teens and registered with a practice of New Zealand dentists. That was a time when huge numbers of young Ozzies and Kiwis went to work in the UK because of a change in the payment rules. I was one of many patients who naively accepted that they needed fillings – although six months earlier my check-up with my original dentist had shown no sign of problems. That way the antipodean new graduates could work fast and earn lots of money. The unnecessary fillings did last a long time but the teeth are now breaking up.

In the early fifties I had my front teeth (and others) drilled and filled. The pain was unbelievable and when talking about it at school, a friend queried why I hadn’t had an anaesthetic. So the following week I asked my dentist about this. His answer was “next time I will REALLY hurt you”. The only way I got through the pain was to imagine I was Oddette who was tortured in the Second Word War as the film was doing the rounds at the time.