The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
CH|NAMEN ARE
 DENTAL STO|CS Tooth Pulling Has No Terror for John Chinaman LIKES MODERN METHODS Breaks Away From Conservative and Primitive Ideas of His Home
 Country and Employees
 Scientific Ideas.
From the New York Press

From the New York Press.
 John Chnaman's conservatism, so long supposed to be proof against all new fanged notions later than the time of Confucius, has at last yielded to the pres sure of modern ideas and methods. It is no less a person than the American den- tst to whom the credit is due for the change in this particular viewpoint of Celestials in this city.
 When John is troubled with a toothachs he now has the offending molar yanked out with up-to-d- forceps in the hands of a licensed dentist, just like his white brother, instead of submitting to the tor lures of the primitive methods practiced by Mongolian toothpullers.
 dentist near the Chinatown district speaks well of them as patients.
 "As a rule,' he said, you will find a Chinaman is more stoical than other peo- pie when it comes to having a difficult tooth operated upon. He climbs into a chair and points unconcernedly to 1t without saying a word, and lets the den- , tist go ahead without showing by words or sign whether he is being hurt or not. There is no hemming or having or ask ing If 1t is going to hurt much, as fre- quently happens when a great bulking stevedore or truck drivers wanders in to have a tooth extracted.
 we do not have to give gas, and, as a matter of fact they look with suspicion on the tank with its rubber hose and It's sopori1c effects. John likes to hit the pipe, but not just that way Trust him self to laughing gas? Not he.
 Tt is pretty safe to say that China men as a general thing but not always take better care of their teeth than other at laos ba Hx,i,,o ip New York. John goes to a dentist right off when a tooth shows signs of decay, and he wants as much gold in it as he can get for the money. When drill strikse a nerve he winces a little. but be- yond that he sits motionless in the chair until 1t is all over.
 We have a number of customers who come regularly every six months to have their mouths looked over and their teeth cleaned. And another thing. Bowtry druggists will tell you that more tooth brushes are sold to Chinamen than to the average denizen of that famous thor oughfare. Chinamen never ask 10 be trusted till the whole job if done, If there is lot of work required, but pay after each sitting, and never question the price, On the other hand, a Chinaman has the American trait of not kicking if he thinks the charge is too much, but goes to an- other place the next time.''
 The doctor was reminded of the Chi na dentist who practiced among his countrymen in the city until recently, when he sailed for the Flowery Kingdom for good.
 He had to go,' explained the man of forceps, because when once Chinatown woke up to the fact that there were bet ter and quicker ways of extracting a tooth than by literally having it damned and pried out by -the fingers of the op- orators they ceased going to the native dentist. His trade began to fall away, gradually at first, and the tide slowly but surely turned Tn his disfavor, until he was completely forced out of business by the antiquity of his methods.
 "The Chinese dental system, as he prac- ticed 1t. Is a thing wonderful to behold He used no instruments to get a tooth out, but pulled 1t from the patients jaw with his fingers. Of cotsrse, it takes years of training, the apprentice being set to work pulling out plugs which have bean hammered In harder than the rest, and the youngster shows what progress ne makes by pulling out as many as possi- ble. It takes months for the muscles of the novice's fingers to get supple enough for trial at a real tooth"