TRICKS OF QUACK DENTISTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1222, 10 June 1919, Page 2

TRICKS OF QUACK DENTISTS.

AMUSING AND DANGEROUS. Many insUnet\« «>f the Iricks or quark ♦ tf*rttt!*ls. which would be ;ilnioj*l amusing if they were n«»t dangerous, were given to a London Kvening News representation by a well-known dentist in South London. "The other day," he said, "a patient came to me straight from a 'dental surgery* a short distance off. "lie had been to have a tooth slopped. He was only in the chair Ave minutes when the operator said he had finished. " "You have not been very Jon? —are. you sure it is all right?* asked the patient. " "Oh. yes,* was the reply, Ml is all right: there is ten shillings worth of gold in that tooth now." " But the patient had such pain in his tooth that he declined lo believe this story of hidden gold—and refused lo pay. "Thereupon the operator stamped three times on the lloor lo summon the man who ran the establishment. "He told the patient he would not be allowed out till he paid il. The victim grew impatient, and told the proprietor if he did not stand away from the door he would be pushed through il. "Suffering' acutely from the maltreate„| tooth, he came straight lo me. I examined it with an excavator and found no sold—but a piece of cotton wool soaked ill plaster of paris. placed right on the top of an exposed nerve. "The? public are offered a set of teeth for a guinea. In one case J know the • trtaek showed the li teeth of the "set* in Ft!•♦ hand, and said that was what w,»s given for a guinea. Of course, to have them attached to a plate would t>i- another guinea. "•'.an you wonder that men who have spent seven years of work and at least Vihft in money in making themselves ttualilled dentists should be impatient of laws which permit such dangerous abuses to continue? "A dentist in Manchester after some yearn of much honesty ami little profit returned his diploma lo the College of Surgeons and lold them to keep it. "lie went in for loud advertising, for canvassing, and a big showcase of shining leelh. And in a short lime he was a rich man."*