What was dental care like in your childhood ?

I had quite a few fillings, but as someone else said, no fluoride back then, we had sugar in our tea and were allowed to eat quite a lot of sweets and drink sweet pop. Perhaps mum felt treats were deserved after the rationing of the war years. She also wasn’t very fussy about teeth cleaning.

We had an NHS dentist, but also had a school dentist who was horrible. A fat little man with a double barrelled surname. I dreaded getting a letter which said you needed treatment. but if I was ever given one, Mum said our own dentist would sort it. I imagined school would make me have it done with him!

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In a word, awful! I had to have several of my baby teeth extracted by the school dentist - well apparently he gave me too much gas and my mother was left frantic in the waiting room for ages because they couldn't revive me! I was left coughing up blood for several days afterwards.

We brushed our teeth every day. As far a sweet things were concerned we had puddings but, being poor, didn't have many sweets, and no 'pop'.

Yes I brushed my teeth every day, but sometimes a group of us used to walk home from primary school and spend our bus money on gobstoppers etc.

There was no fluoride in the toothpaste either.

It was b*** awful! Huge amalgam fillings that I probably didn’t even need, I think that happened to a lot of people.

I also had my wisdom teeth out in hospital when I was about 18, I think I was in there for about 4 days which seems a bit drastic for teeth, but my bleeding didn't clot very well afterwards.

I remember coming back to consciousness screaming after having gas - and the dentist gave me one of those round sug ar traffic light sucky lollies for 'being brave'. No wonder I had so many fillings!

Yes I don't remember hygienists either Terribull not until I was an adult.

Oh dear.

We brushed our teeth every day. As far a sweet things were concerned we had puddings but, being poor, didn't have many sweets, and no 'pop'.

We had regular checkups and I didn't have a filling until I was in my teens. I had two teeth out by gas (not at all nice) to make room for straightening them, but I've never had any fear of the dentist. I even had impacted wisdom teeth out under local anaesthetic in my 30s. Interesting but not scary.

Mind you, my poor sister wasn't quite so lucky, she had fillings with no anaesthetic. Ugh...

My mother was evangelical about dental appointments. I always seemed to be having fillings, a whole lot of drilling was always going on. Our dentist was called Dr Keiller, but I called him Dr Killer☹️

Never knew about hygienists till I was in my 20s. I imagine dentists themselves did all that.

Horror stories of the dentist from me too. Started with a local chap who had one side of his glasses patched - he only had one eye! At Grammar School I was referred to the local dental hospital - just a bloody guinea pig for them! I had teeth out, braces to move teeth to fill the gaps, then braces to open them again when the teeth got too close. My poor Mum had all her teeth out in her mid 20’s because it was seen as a part cure for RA and she didn’t want me to have false teeth as early in life as she was forced to.
My teeth were never good but 25 years ago I found a chap who uses sedation and had all my top teeth crowned and considering having the bottom ones done too.

I spent a lot of time in the early 1950s at the dentist. It was a bus ride and long walk to get there. Lots of mercury fillings and use of gas.
More recently my dentist suspected something and sent me to the hospital . The Verdict was a complicated root canal to be done using a dental dam. I was sent to a specialist who unfortunately let his trainee scrape out the root by hand. I thought I would choke with the dam thing.
The next time I went back to my own dentist who was a highly strung little man. He found another awkward problem and when I asked him what needed done he completely cracked up , threw down his tools and told me I needed to leave and ask someone else to fix it. I was very upset and didn't know what to do .I think he was having problems with his wife who was the nurse.

I remember the pain of the drill and loads of fillings in the 50's and 60's. We were taken every six months, but my fear of the dentist carried into adult life until I found a sympathetic dentist in my 40's.
I've just received a reminder to make an appointment, after about 15 months, when I believe only emergencies were being seen.

Like Kalu & sodapop, I had a lovely dentist who praised me and my mum for looking after my teeth. He was a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria, and he arrived in our area when my mum was a teenager. Word spread on how kind and gentle he was, and she went to him, then took us.
I feel so lucky, I had a positive early experience of both dentist and refugees. Although ironically the other refugee family we knew well were cake-makers!

I too have vivid memories of the black gas mask and the unnecessary extractions. On a lighter note,the waiting room had a wonderful fish tank. I thought this was quite common,put there to distract patients while they waited. Was it common? DH had no idea when I was talking about it.

I used to be a dental nurse, and "gas day" was my favourite part of the job.
Very gruesome.

I can also remember the dream I had while having gas for an extraction at the age of six. It was little ducks around the top of the ceiling like a type of frieze. I was also sick on the way home. What was in that gas?

I hated the dentist so much. He had a drill that would vibrate throughout your body. He also slapped.me for pushing his hand away while drilling painfully. No wondering I was a dentist public until these modern times with the butterfly touches some dentist have.

The dentist we used in 60s when I was a child was an alcoholic and hated women. His father was also a dentist and apparently a good one,hence why my parents used that practice. Therefore I had many fillings done with no pain relief at all. It wasn't great.

Actually it wasn't just in childhood I suffered in a dentist chair. When I was 19 I had 2 wisdom teeth removed under local anaesthetic and the dentist looked at me afterwards and said
" Are you ok ? You look like a dead frog ! "
Charming ! Stupidly I went on a night shift as a student nurse at the hospital and a confused old lady hit me in the jaw causing the stitches to come out. Got told off by the night sister and sent to the nurses home.
Happy tooth memories !

My dentist now is lovely. She has replaced some of those old amalgam fillings with white ones and tries to save teeth rather than yank them out.

In the 1960s I think dentists were paid to drill and fill teeth. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

No, you're right I think.
They were keen to persuade people to have their fillings re-done before the age of 21 when you have to start paying. Consequently small fillings were removed, teeth were excavated and huge amalgam fillings put in.

I kept asking for a brace, but he always refused.

A visit to the school dentist was something to be dreaded, too.

The pink stuff in a tin was called Gibbs Dentifrice.

I was taken to the dentist every six months as a child in the 1940s and 1950s, and had fillings I doubt were necessary, never any sort of anaesthetic. A friend of mine famously bit the dentist!

No school dentists, though we had school medicals.

I got into the habit of going to the dentist every six months, and this last year has been the longest time I have ever had in my life without having my teeth looked at. I miss it!

A tooth dragged out ripped my gum and the bleeding wouldnt stop,2 trips through the streets in a motorbike and side car late in the evening and again in the early hours causing the clots to break off and swallow the blood, finally doctor put 3 stitches in after dad got quite forceful, I fainted next day getting out of bed due to the heavy blood loss

Dentist in the 50s here, I must have been lucky he was a charming man. I do remember having 'gas' for extractions and being sick afterwards. Still have one or two metal fillings but mostly a mouthful of crowns now.
Gibbs toothpaste in a round tin then my mother changed to Eucryl tooth powder which I hated.

As I have gone on about several times on here, I had a horrendous experience at the dentist as a child.
Through parental neglect, my front teeth rotted. My mother took me to the dentist who told her that all my teeth in would have to come out. I was 11. He took them all out, there and then. I can still smell the the rubber of the gas mask over my face, the smell of the gas and the blood in my mouth. I feel that I was an experiment to that mad dentist. What was my mother thinking?