A long-in-the-tooth dentistry nightmare

Ask people to name the worst pain they’ve endured and a high percentage will give toothache that honour and perhaps mostly from childhood.

These days perhaps many won't know the experience because very luckily they belong to those who had the good sense to be born after the days when dental surgery was, well, sobering.

For instance, my father’s teeth came out in his youth, as with most of his friends. That's about a century ago now.

Extractions

It seems that total extractions made up most of a dentist’s day back in his time.

 I come from a, well, ancient time when family discipline approved a ‘hiding’ from fathers.

You might think that to a child awful physical attacks by an angry parent must amount to his most painful experience.

However, as severe and heavy-handed as my father was, for me and perhaps the majority, the very worst pain came via the dental chair. Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at
http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/429-a-long-in-the-tooth-dentistry-nightmare