Originally Posted by
conspiratemus1
I have no nostalgia for the dentistry of my 1950s childhood, either. But at least we didn’t have anti-vaxxers then. Nobody died from opposition to water fluoridation. But boy were our teeth rotten. “Just one cavity!” at each visit was a triumph ... and a toothpaste ad phrase.
My dentist was upstairs over a candy store, the Ben Franklin downtown.
He pulled teeth for $5 cash, fillings were $10. Numbing? What was that?
He kept his tools in an aquarium that seemed to be steamy. It had some cool name. Clavicle?
The chair was a Ritter, black onyx with leather pulley straps or belts. Not high speed. I think they used them in prisons, too.
He used a pedal switch. No clamping things open, no assistant, just "hold steady," and "OK, spit."
He had Parkinson's and would shake until he got to your mouth, and then got steady.
You got very used to it, and it was actually comforting. As a child, I had no clue; thought it was normal.
Today, due to hyper-sensitivity, no numbing, maybe gas if it's not strong.
Wisdom teeth, then several root canals, no anesthetic. One took 4 hours.
I've learned to "go to another place" during these, but one guy only took 20 minutes, so I was barely "there."
As for bikes, my paper route Columbia 2-speed (kickback) was a tank and I would rather walk to the pool than take my paper route bike.
My '76 Bicentennial Free Spirit remains the most beautiful and fastest bike that I or anyone else has ever ridden.
And I'm not about to alter that with reality.