Amen.

Ha! The poor bastard
couldn't find an NHS Dentist either then!

What ever science can do, socialism can undo:

In a Dentist Shortage, British (Ouch) Do It Themselves By Sarah Lyall, The New York Times, May 7, 2006

Robert Schwartz, very well put.

I've read that people used to carry flower petals or a slice of lemon about, and hold it in front of their mouth when they spoke. To avoid offending (read: gagging) others.

Also, bathing more than a few times a year was considered unhealthy.

Insert this into the dating ritual, and it makes one wonder why we're not extinct.

CFM

Nice motto, Robert Schwartz.

I can't resist giving this old address again about an ex-socialist land :
http://www.jetlagtravel.com/molvania/index.html

"Molvania, a land untouched by modern dentistry."

This is really a strange thing to know. Anyways, I found it really sad for the man in the story.

Thank-you, Brian! Neal Stephenson described Louis XIV's dental ordeal in his book Quicksilver. Like so many events in that book, I found myself asking, "did that *really* happen?" I couldn't find anything about it on the net until now.

I strikes me that (from what I've read, at least) people seemed to be more accustomed to, and make less of a fuss about pain and death back then. These days a barely measurable change in cancer-risk has people in uproar and panic.

Many people today still put up with unbelievable levels of pain and misery because doctors are unable to cure their illnesses. For many their only alternative to constant debilitating pain is to take drugs which have unpleasant side effects. Yes there are pain killers but the cost of using them, in the long term, is often to lose any ability to function normally.

Most peoples uproar/panic at news stories seems to be as result of the way in which the MSM sensationalise every bit of news and report facts so obscurely - when they report them at all. Combine this with a general lack of ability to comprehend - I believe through poor education - and any little threat causes panic and an excuse for some statist to add yet more unnecessary legislation.

Perhaps passing a citizen test for basic comprehension should be a requisite for voting? Then the politicians would have to raise the level of their rhetoric and include some meaningful substance if they wanted our votes.

Interestingly enough, the best dentistry is what you eat. A Cleveland dentist named Dr. Price visited "primitive" people all around the world in the early 20th century and found their teeth were straight and white.

- Josh

I knew a man in my youth we all callled Old Man Crawford, who was the patriarch of the Crawford clan in Charleston, the next town over from the one I grew up in upstate New York. His Grandchildren were friends of mine and my brothers. Anyway, he had bad teeth and went to a dentist who told him he needed dentures, but first needed his remaining teeth pulled. When given the estimate for the cost of pulling his teeth, he stormed out of the office and went home, stopping to buy a bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey on the way home. His Grandsons all swore that they found him at 5:00PM sitting on a hay bale in his barn, surrounded by an empty bootle of Canadian club, various teeth and a bloody pair of plyers on the ground and a bloody towel clamped in his mouth.
I do know that he thereafter could be seen sporting new dentures shortly after the alledged self dentistry.

My great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and there being no dentist around people came to him to have teeth pulled. No anaesthetic, of course.

Pulled so many that he ordered a pair of dentists' pliers. My dad still has them.

I remember (I think it was last year) hearing Charles Spencer on Radio 4's "Start the Week".

The other guests were the normal leftists one gets on B.B.C. shows - they sneared at the Duke of Marlborough (he was made a Duke and kin to this toff Charles Spencer - so he must have been a nonenity).

Even Andrew Marr (ex editor of the leftist "Independent" and B.B.C. man - although he also writes for the Daily Telegraph) seemed a bit embarrassed by their words).

Actually the leftists were (I assume without knowing it) on the correct side for them.

Louis XIV and his side kick Colbert were the arch statists of their age.

All aspect of the economy (i.e. of the civil interactions of human beings) should be under as much state control as they could manage - that was their position.

It was not just about war (although, yes, Louis gave destruction and death to as much of Europe as he could - especially in various parts of Germany), they truly believed that statism was the way to happiness of the people.

Just as the leftists on "Start the Week" believed this (and they also the type who believe in using terror for the greater long term good).

Ah! Dentistry. One of my pastimes, as a patient. I told my dentist I'd put her in my will, because once I kick the bucket her practice and her income will drop off. LOL I like being of English descent (first gen immigrant child of first gen immigrant parents)...except for the bad teeth part.

So I enjoy my root canals and dental implants and vain procedures like bleaching. I'm a great patient; I fall asleep in the chair. I'm a pretty relaxed creature.

But...I had an aunt who died of diphtheria! My grandma had many sisters who died of TB too young, IIRC. I think we forget sometimes the amazing progress in just one generation, or one century. People used to die of infections, now they die of lifestyle consequences or just plain wearing out.

Sanitation, germ theory, handwashing
Public health--fortification to eliminate rickets and spina bifida
Vaccination
Artificial contraception

Now, if the point of your post is to demonstrate modern dentistry as a luxury of a well developed and prosperous society, take it one step further...

cosmetic surgery! breast implants, liposuction, botox, hair implants, electrolysis, vaginal rejuvenation, eye lifts, tummy tucks, stomach stapling, etc.

and...ED treatments! Now we care about the penile functioning of old men and are even willing to have Medicaid and Medicare pay for their recreational sex!

What would Louis XIV's reaction be to that? What would my great grandparents reaction be to that?

Sometimes I have conversations with my Dad about the changes he's seen in his lifetime. Pretty amazing.

Of course, one must be willing to seek dental care. Many po' folks in my area have FREE dental care on Medicaid and don't seek it! They'd rather have black rotted and missing teeth and gum disease than see a dentist, even one who practices sedation dentistry. Idiots.

A Cleveland dentist named Dr. Price visited "primitive" people all around the world in the early 20th century and found their teeth were straight and white.