The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-08-30
The Dentist.

The modern dentist is not like the
dentist of long ago. The old time dem
tist did not repair teeth; he simply up
rooted those that were decayed. 1t is
only of late years that the dentist has
occupied a recognized position in the
departments of minor surgery. Some
deXterity and considerable muscular
strength were the chief qualifications of
the dentists of our childhood When n
patient called on one of them. the dem
tist would put his finger in the patient s
mouth, and after feeling around among
the stumps and shaking them one after
another until howl from the patient
demonstrated that he had hold of the
right one, he would say, laconically:
"1t's got to come out" Then he would
go for his instruments. These mechan-
ical appliances were of very primative
character. They consisted of several
pairs of things like bullet molds; those
of the largest size he used on adults,
and the small ones on children While
he was engaged filing the rust of his
instruments, the sufferer had time to
note the contents of the room. On a
shelf was a rope, with which nervous
patients were tied in the operating chair;
on another chair basin, and pitcher
presumably for the purpose of washing
away such CORY evidences of butchery
as the operation might leave; on a
broken legged desk, propped up with a
brick, was a skull with a cracked jaw
bone, which was too suggestive to be
pleasant or soothing; in the window
sill the dentists library, consisting
of o copy of Wedrs Pathology of the
Teeth. and a portion of a volume of
Moore's melodies; in front of the oper-
ating chair, hanging on the wall, was g
steel engraving representing Napoleon
on the Island of ST. Helena. The pict-
ure was evidently put there with the
view of distracting the patients atten-
ton from thoughts of the agony in store
for him. While he was wondering if
Napoleon ever had toothache, and if he
ever burned the inside of his mouth
with creosote and oil of cloves in his eff
forts to deaden the pain; and while he
was wishing that he could change places
with Napoleon for a day or two, the
dentist grasped him by the hair. threw
his head back, inserted the can opener
in his mouth, and began cropping around
for the bad tooth. When he found it,
his usual plan was to crush it into pieces
and dig out the fragments, one at q
time. During the operation the suffer-
er groaned, and moaned and yearned for
death. When the dentist got his Crap
pling irons around the root of a double
tooth, and braced himself up with his
foot against the wall for long pull. q
strong pull and pull all together, the
patient thought that the end of all
things was at hand. that an explosion
had occurred in the cellar. and that the
heavens we're rolling themselves up as
a scroll, while the top of his head was
being broken of, and his vertebra was
being iammed down into the hollow of
his legs. When he was calmed with a
glass of water he found that the alarm
ing sensations he had experienced were
caused, as the dentist put it, by ''the
extraction of tho molar from the alveo-
lar cavity"
The modern dentist is different kind
of an aggravated outrage He has a
college diploma that he keeps hanging
on the wall in a tin case. He usually
has nicely furnished operating room,
where he has an elaborate chair, work
ing on pivots and hinges, that he places
the patient in when he is pulling his
tooth, and another to be used when a
tooth is being filed. He has hundreds