GOING TO THE DENTIST

Northern Advocate, 22 February 1926, Page 4

GOING TO THE DENTIST

“Going to the dentist” is never likely to become a form 'of entertainment designed to pass away an idle hour, though it must be confessed that, compared with the bad old days, when a dentist brought the perspiration of agony to a patient’s brow while he “yanked” out a tooth, dentistry is now a gentle and subdued hrt. Anaesthetics, general and local, have robbed the chair of its old-time terrors, but, even so, the dentist’s surgery will remain outside the range of places of amusement. It is interesting to read today that the methods of dentists are the subject of controversy in London. American dentists, wc are told, are endeavouring to introduce a new method of tooth extraction which is condemned by British dentists. "When professional men disagree it were folly for a layman to obtrude his opinion, but it may be mentioned in passing that the operation referred lo in the London message is not new. As a matter of fact, it was performed at least once in New Zealand some time ago. In that instance, which occurred •

in the presence of leading practitioners in the Dominion, the patient was under an anaesthetic for considerably over an hour. A beautiful “job” was done, according to the spectators, but the operation did not make a strong appeal. The chief advantage urged in its favour was the fact that the patient could be fitted with permanent dentures almost immediately. Evidently it may still be said “There is nothing new under the sun.”