TEST OF BRAVERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 87, 12 April 1940, Page 5

TEST OF BRAVERY

DENTIST'S CHAIR.

N.Z. SOLDIERS IN EGYPT.

GO OF THEIR OWN ACCORD.

(N.Z.E.F. Official (Xews Service.) EGYPT, March 16. Brave men have quailed at the thought of the dentist's chair. Often it has been looked upon ae a place to be avoided unless compulsion is used, and it is a bottomless source of cruel jokes.

New Zealand, however, may be able to take a lesson in dentel-mindedness when her men in the Expeditionary Force return to their homes. Of their own free ■will they are helping to keep our camp dental hospital busy. Instead of waiting until they an; driven to it, many are voluntarily seeking the services of the dental officers on duty here.

During a visit to the hospital to-day, one of the officers. said: "We have evidence that the men are becoming more dentally-minded. More and more are coming here of their own accord as soon as something goes wrong.

"We are getting men who seldom if ever visited a dentist before they joined the army, but who are now taking a practical interest in the state of their teeth. And because of its bearing on general health, that interest should be most valuable when they return to New Zealand."

If praise is due to the men on this account, a good deal more is owing- to the Dental Corps personnel, who conduct the hospital. They actually carried out dental work on the first day in camp, and they had the hospital functioning five days after the arrival of the force. At the* moment they are working in a double marquee, but they will shortly take over a new and well-equipped building. The early difficulties which they had to overcome taught the staff eome valuable lessons in improvisation. They are

able to do dental work of any kind — the manufacture of dentures through the stage of setting the artificial teeth in wax, the vulcanisation process, and the final polish-Dg. Standard British Ariny equipnisut is used, and the motive power for such instruments ae the drill lis supplied by treadles.

The dental officers are universitytrained men with wide experience in hospitals and in private practice, and their work is well up to the standards set in civil life. Several years of experience lie behind the work of the mechanics, wiio, together with the stall of orderlies, have aleo had training in the Field Ambulance unit.

"We have a fine team of men," observed one of the officers. He revealed that as a result of the pressure of work the mechanics were voluntarily working at night, while mechanics and orderlies alike had been attending classes in dental subjects. Further illustration of this enthusiasm was given in the fact that even the orderlies were assisting with the mechanical side of the work. He added that some of the men had determined to take up dentistry on their return to New Zealand.