Musical Dentistry.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 18, 3 November 1909, Page 62

Musical Dentistry.

Even getting your teeth drawn out may come to be quite a pleasure in the near future. This is one of the revelations made by the Dental Exhibition which has been held at the London Horticultural Hall. Already things have advanced so far that “you may sit in a luxuriously-appointed thirty-guinea chair, with electric foot-warmer to drive away the shivers, while you gaze on the beauties of art.” And it is proposed shortly to add the delights of music. That used to be one of the common accompaniments of the teeth-extracting process before the days of anaesthetics. Only it was the person operated on who used to provide the “music.” In the newer order of things “the pleasantry of music’* will be provided by “a simple addition to the electrical appliances” with which dentistry is now practised. You may have your teeth extracted to the soothing strains of Mendelssohn or Gounod, or possibly less classical music might bo provided. Such a composition as “I feel no pain, dear mother, now,” ehtould prove very comforting. There’s a danger, however, in this idea of musical dentistry. The poor, helpless patient won’t be abld to control the musical apparatiM, and if is should turn on “Put me on an island" or “Has anybody here seen Kelly?” or something like that, eo far from soothing with “the pleasantry of music,” it may simply add to the patient’s Bufferings.