A visit to the dentist.

[beccabear67]

Have been going through fillings, stitches and one dry socket lately. Thinking of how things have changed... no television on the ceilings back in the day!

Probably mostly bad memories, but you have to take the bitter with the sweet, and there are some things about it I like to remember.

Our dentist was downtown, so had to take the bus. Outside his window on the third floor I could see the top of a Marks & Spencer. It had some blue and read decorative tiles that are burned into my memory.

In the waiting area (always tension filled) you could hear other patients being drilled upon etc., but there was a table with comics among other things. While you waited for the freezing/novacaine to settle in you were asked what comic you wanted to read and once I thought it would be funny to ask for a Dracula one I'd seen out there.

Our dentist was a large, older ex-military man. We could never get our jaws wide enough to suit him and I'm sure he made my jaw worse than it already was from an inherited mal-alignment.

We got cheap plastic rings and a new toothbrush too sometimes when we were young enough if we were good. I think I was very bad at least once as I recall being sad I didn't get anything.

Remember the overhead swing-in lamp? They still have those though. Now you can have shaded glasses to protect your eyes.

[George 1978]

My late father had no teeth from an early age (he used to bite into things like hard-boiled sweets when he was younger and lost them as a result, so the story goes), and my late mother had dentures for quite a few years. Shall we say that I always got hungry if I done something like brushed my teeth just before?

[beccabear67]

My late father had no teeth from an early age (he used to bite into things like hard-boiled sweets when he was younger and lost them as a result, so the story goes), and my late mother had dentures for quite a few years. Shall we say that I always got hungry if I done something like brushed my teeth just before?

I'm fighting getting dentures even though my mother had them from her late teens, I'll have a partial upper plate after all this present round though. My generation onward were lucky we had fluoride treatments. I remember before and after they started giving them. My mother's side had soft enamel teeth, lots of dentures on that (Leeds) side of the family as well as jaw problems.

I'm lucky I now have some insurance. Not having any had me putting things off for too long. The prices would be too much for me without it although I think it's always been expensive as I recall it costing my parents quite a bit. My father held a sales job for a year where he got family dental so we had one year in there without it costing so much.

Sometimes I imagine a hundred years ago where people took a gulp of whiskey or somesuch, and a bloke in a dirty apron yanked things out with some clunky pliers... so could always have been worse.

I think my grandfather was around before toothpaste; he still used tooth powder to brush his teeth even after there was toothpaste.

[George 1978]

You think that teeth is like hair and nails; they eventually grow back if you lose them, but they don't unfortunately.