Dentists and experiences in the past

[Daven]

https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=237502

 

You all might find this old thread of interest.

[steved32]

Hi steved32, Yes I fully agree to your remarks about Butcher Bentall! He had his surgery adjacent to Beighton Street on Darnall at the bottom of Handsworth Hill. He was impatient, rude and nasty especially with the kids and scarred them for life. He didn't pull teeth, he dragged them in a sideways motion which damaged the gum considerably. He usually had 2 patients on the go at any one time, one upstairs one down. Remember the buzzer that he continually pressed to alert his receptionist cum-assistant? Sorry to admit this, but I dreaded and hated this guy and still do! Thankfully his like are now obsolete and a visit to the dentist is the opposite of what we encountered.

 

Thanks for this SC. You've jogged my ageing memory! Yes, I do remember that buzzer. Butcher Bentall's Buzzer of Brutality.

[rozweb]

Butcher Bentall - yes I think a few of us have posted on here before about him. He was a right sadist and he used to smoke while he was filling your (probably healthy teeth). He did use injections to numb your mouth though- he used to put his foot on the chair to get extra leverage when he was ramming the needle in as far as he could. Like you said some of us are scarred for life!

[Erin]

At the infamous LowFields dental clinic for trainees, they yanked 4 of my adult teeth. Never heard of fillings. I had problems ever since!

 

Fast forward to Canada 50 years later a real dentist showed me ex-rays that 3 of them had just been broken off below the surface, not actually pulled out, and he asked if this was done at home? Lol!

 

He fixed me up with a healthy mouth and a decent smile and chew, and I never looked back!

 

Can't blame the students, though, it was all free, and as I've learned you generally get what you pay for!

 

Now I spend the winters in the Dominican Republic, and it's the same old thing down there, lots of pain, and I actually had to jump out the chair when I had gone in for a missing crown, and she started to pull out 2 of my good teeth on the other side of my mouth!

 

Lowfield school, now I find out they were student dentist. Im sure they filled all my back teeth to the max for the hell of it. Every tooth they did has had to be crowned over the years. I know its not just me either, there are loads of similar bad stories:gag:

[choogling]

I think I had a tooth pulled in the grey caravan too. The black face mask, the smell...then you wake up feeling pretty rough.

 

I was talking to my dentist about the drilling with no numbing and she said it was common practice! As far as I'm concerned, it was only common practice as a torture aid in a film I once watched. As you say, can you imagine what would happen if they did that these days. I think a lot of dentists would be doing time!

 

I had about five fillings in 1965 done by the army dentist at bovington camp Dorset, cant remember being in much pain. Just remembered, I was fascinated with the drilling machine the dentist used, it had small pulleys and a belt drive on view, not the air operated type we have now about ten years later I was surprised at being given a jab for another filling ,that was in Sheffield.

Edited August 3, 2018 by choogling

[winks]

Seen a few posts about butcher Bentall and this has brought back many bad memories. I seem to remember his with ginger hair. Hated that dentist as he used to strap the big black mask on my face then walk away and do something else. I used to wake feeling like l had been walloped many many times. As a result I had a fear of dentists so lost quite a few teeth through not going to dentists.

[Person6]

I'd almost forgotten about Bentall. My mother took me to him for a checkup when I was about 7. I didn't need anything doing but he still left me with a mouthful of blood after all his poking about. I remember him smoking throughout the ordeal, there was a curtain across an alcove and he put his fag on a shelf in there when he needed both hands. My mother cried when she saw the state of me and had a shouting match with him. Never went back there.

[Vasquez Rich]

Similar experience myself, at age 15 i walked from the Basegreen estate to the dentist on Ridgeway Rd near the Manor Top, alone because mum was ill at the time. I was'nt aware of any big problems, thought I might need a couple of fillings perhaps. Came out minus five teeth, think he must have been on commission, then had to walk the three miles back with blood pouring. Can't imagine it would be allowed these days. I've been conscious of the gaps all my life.

 

I have a mouthful of metal thanks to those guys. Serial fillers of good teeth in my opinion.

 

Richard

[old tup]

Correct me if I,m wrong but at the bottom of Burgoyne Road was there two dentist practices on opposite sides of Infirmary Road?.Any how my dear old dad visited one of them when I was a youngster walking from Owlerton to be told the lot had to come out,he had a mouth full of teeth which the dentist promptly pulled out after knocking him out with gas!.He walked all the way back with blood dripping everywhere,he was a tough old bird my dad no doubt about it!.Coming forward to nowadays I visited my local dentist who has since been struck off for a wisdom tooth removed,he pumped me full of pain killer and I sat in the chair waiting for him!.Just then a bloke came in complaining about his new false teeth demanding his money back,this developed into a feffing and blinding shouting match lasting quite a time,I turned to the female assistant and said in my best Quasimodo impersonation "I hope he doesn't come in here and take it out on me!".I think he heard me because when he entered he asked the girl "Give me the cow horns!"frightening me to death!.

[hillsbro]

Correct me if I,m wrong but at the bottom of Burgoyne Road was there two dentist practices on opposite sides of Infirmary Road?...

That's right - in the 1950s William Wild was the dentist in the big house on the corner of Burgoyne Road, and just across (Langsett) Road was Derek Thompson. The latter building has been a dental surgery since the 1920s (my grandma went there) and it's now Thompson & Thomas, Derek Thompson's son David being a partner (he's my dentist - and a very good one!)