The Days Before Pediatric Dentists
My kids have always gone to pediatric dentists. They have big, warm colourful rooms with lots of toys in the waiting rooms. They have television sets with cartoons or kids movies playing in the examination rooms to distract the kids. The dentists wear kid-friendly clothing. The whole thing is pretty positive experience, and my kids have almost always done well with them.
When I was growing up and where I lived in the mountains of western North Carolina, there were no such things. Everyone went to the same dentist and he was the only dentist in town. If you didn’t like him, it was a drive to the next town. In 1979, he was probably like Rod Johnston in Lynn Lake (or John Patterson in Milborough).
I don’t remember approaching the dentist with fear and dread the first times I went when I was little. However, when I got to be 10 years old, and started the cycle of having braces on my teeth, I learned fear and dread. My orthodontist (for which we did have to travel to a nearby town, because there were none where I lived), was of the mind that braces needed to be put on me at the tender age of 10, and those baby teeth had to go. So, every 6 weeks or so, he would put in an order to my dentist to pull 1 or 2 teeth until they were all gone. I had 12 baby teeth left at the time, so this process took awhile. My mom would drop me off at the dentist for his first appointment of the morning. I would get a few teeth pulled and then I would walk from the dentist’s office to school. I marvel at this now, because I cannot imagine letting my kids do the same thing today. Nevertheless, that is what happened. I made it to school fine. I survived the pullings fine.
I say “fine” but the reality of the matter was that after those 12 baby teeth, and the 4 adult teeth which followed because my teeth were "too big for my mouth," and the 4 wisdom teeth surgically removed when I was 16 years old; I developed a distinct hatred for tooth-pulling and dentists in general. I also had 2 sets of braces, and I still vividly remember the wooden mallet and hard rubber chisel which were used to break the concrete which held each brace on my teeth, and made me feel like each tooth was getting knocked out of my head when they were removed. When the time came for my younger sister to get braces, I recounted these stories to her, and she was also filled with dread. Fortunately for my younger sister, she went to a different dentist and orthodontist, and she accused me of making the whole thing up to scare her. I only wish that I had.
Nevertheless there is this image of dentistry and pain, which have long been associated with one another. You can see this reflected in today’s reprint from 1979 For Better or For Worse. The joke is that Harold has gotten the idea that dentists are scary, and the mother says she doesn’t know why he is acting like that until you see the mother creep around the corner to tell the kid not to yell when it hurts. I am sure that this was a dental pet peeve for Dr. Rod Johnston, and this is why it made it into the strip. As far as childlike fear goes, it is a strip which plays well today, unlike many of the reprints strips to which we have been subjected.
I can relate to the situation very well. Just a scant 7 years prior to 1979 was 1972, when my dental ordeals started, and there was definitely an element of “The dentist is going to hurt, but you have to be a strong kid and bear it.” in that day and time. Perhaps Rod Johnston was a dentist like my younger sister got, and so he didn’t understand the attitude of the mother, because he didn’t hurt his patients. Perhaps his mother had a dentist like mine, and remembered the pain.
My dentist and orthodontist were pretty old when I went to them, and they retired not more than 10 years after my visits with them. They would have been part of the generation of dentists prior to Rod Johnston. I expect when my kids get to be old enough to be parents, they would look at this strip and wonder what it was all about, with their positive experiences with dentistry. This is assuming that they don't get the guy who replaced my old fillings last year, who did not numb me up properly, and ignored my protests with the statement "But I'm almost done. You can last a few more minutes." That experience brought back old memories.
Edited to add:
I will camping with the Scouts overnight and so there will be no new Howard Bunt Blog entry for tomorrow until I get back. And to aprilp_katje, this means that even though tomorrow's strip is Mike-oriented, there will not be a Mike entry for April's Real Blog. Sorry.
When I was growing up and where I lived in the mountains of western North Carolina, there were no such things. Everyone went to the same dentist and he was the only dentist in town. If you didn’t like him, it was a drive to the next town. In 1979, he was probably like Rod Johnston in Lynn Lake (or John Patterson in Milborough).
I don’t remember approaching the dentist with fear and dread the first times I went when I was little. However, when I got to be 10 years old, and started the cycle of having braces on my teeth, I learned fear and dread. My orthodontist (for which we did have to travel to a nearby town, because there were none where I lived), was of the mind that braces needed to be put on me at the tender age of 10, and those baby teeth had to go. So, every 6 weeks or so, he would put in an order to my dentist to pull 1 or 2 teeth until they were all gone. I had 12 baby teeth left at the time, so this process took awhile. My mom would drop me off at the dentist for his first appointment of the morning. I would get a few teeth pulled and then I would walk from the dentist’s office to school. I marvel at this now, because I cannot imagine letting my kids do the same thing today. Nevertheless, that is what happened. I made it to school fine. I survived the pullings fine.
I say “fine” but the reality of the matter was that after those 12 baby teeth, and the 4 adult teeth which followed because my teeth were "too big for my mouth," and the 4 wisdom teeth surgically removed when I was 16 years old; I developed a distinct hatred for tooth-pulling and dentists in general. I also had 2 sets of braces, and I still vividly remember the wooden mallet and hard rubber chisel which were used to break the concrete which held each brace on my teeth, and made me feel like each tooth was getting knocked out of my head when they were removed. When the time came for my younger sister to get braces, I recounted these stories to her, and she was also filled with dread. Fortunately for my younger sister, she went to a different dentist and orthodontist, and she accused me of making the whole thing up to scare her. I only wish that I had.
Nevertheless there is this image of dentistry and pain, which have long been associated with one another. You can see this reflected in today’s reprint from 1979 For Better or For Worse. The joke is that Harold has gotten the idea that dentists are scary, and the mother says she doesn’t know why he is acting like that until you see the mother creep around the corner to tell the kid not to yell when it hurts. I am sure that this was a dental pet peeve for Dr. Rod Johnston, and this is why it made it into the strip. As far as childlike fear goes, it is a strip which plays well today, unlike many of the reprints strips to which we have been subjected.
I can relate to the situation very well. Just a scant 7 years prior to 1979 was 1972, when my dental ordeals started, and there was definitely an element of “The dentist is going to hurt, but you have to be a strong kid and bear it.” in that day and time. Perhaps Rod Johnston was a dentist like my younger sister got, and so he didn’t understand the attitude of the mother, because he didn’t hurt his patients. Perhaps his mother had a dentist like mine, and remembered the pain.
My dentist and orthodontist were pretty old when I went to them, and they retired not more than 10 years after my visits with them. They would have been part of the generation of dentists prior to Rod Johnston. I expect when my kids get to be old enough to be parents, they would look at this strip and wonder what it was all about, with their positive experiences with dentistry. This is assuming that they don't get the guy who replaced my old fillings last year, who did not numb me up properly, and ignored my protests with the statement "But I'm almost done. You can last a few more minutes." That experience brought back old memories.
Edited to add:
I will camping with the Scouts overnight and so there will be no new Howard Bunt Blog entry for tomorrow until I get back. And to aprilp_katje, this means that even though tomorrow's strip is Mike-oriented, there will not be a Mike entry for April's Real Blog. Sorry.
posted by howard at 9:36 PM
14 Comments:
Wow. People are always impressed because I had 6 baby teeth and 6 permanent teeth pulled, but you clearly had it worse. I also had the "too big for your mouth" phenomenon, which really is true--even today, when they take impressions of my teeth, even the smallest size adult plates are too big.
I remember having the baby teeth pulled. It was awful. They did three at a time. Mom came with but couldn't be with me. I think I was seven or eight-ish? The dentist was a jerk and never wanted to wait long enough for the Novocaine to take effect. So he would start yanking and I would scream, and he would be annoyed. The Tooth Fairy paid big for those teeth, though. My sisters were actually jealous because I got an extra $4 for pain and suffering.
I got the twilight sleep when my wisdom teeth came out. That is the way to go.
qnjones,
6 baby teeth and 6 permanent teeth pulled!!
That’s strange. That’s not an even number. I always presumed that my multiples of 4 teeth pulled was because they wanted to remove the top and bottom from both sides to make everything even. Unless you mean 2 of your baby teeth matched 2 of your adult teeth.
three at a time
Ouch. My dentist liked to do mine in sections, i.e. the teeth in this part of your mouth, so he could limit the Novocaine to one part of my mouth.
seven or eight-ish?
Even younger than I was at 10. I’ve had some pulled when the Novocaine was not fully in effect, so I remember what that is like. However, the part I hated the most was the Novocaine shot in my upper gums. That hurt the most. My kids pediatric dentist doesn’t see the need for my kids to get braces until most of their baby teeth are gone. I started in 4th grade, and it looks like my son is headed for 8th grade. I think that will make a big difference.
I got the twilight sleep when my wisdom teeth came out.
They put me out for my wisdom teeth also, because they had to cut into the gum to get them out before they came in and knocked the other teeth out of alignment.
What caught my attention in the early strips was that John wasn't wearing a mask or observing any other such sanitary precaution. It seems clear that, just like she hates drawing seat-belts or car tires that touch the ground, Lynn was willing to ignore silly things like that because they "clutter up" her artwork. In the eraly interview, Rod expressed that concern but since he wasn't a syndicated cartonist, his opinion was strictly optional.
::shudder:: at all these grisly dental experiences. howtheduck, your orthodontist sounds as though he could have given the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors a run for his money. I just cannot see the logic of yanking out all of your baby teeth just because he was impatient to get started on braces for what adult teeth you had at that point. Crazy!
I've been lucky in that I've never had any teeth pulled. I had braces, but I was 14 when I got them. The biggest complaint I had about my orthodontist was that if I lost a brace (sometimes they snapped off if I bit into something too hard), he insisted on replacing the brace with a band that went around my entire tooth. Once I'd shared this detail with a classmate, who told me that her orthodontist replaced braces with braces. I brought this up to my own orthodontist on one of my visits, and he huffily told me that this was the way that he did it. I hated those bands! :(
My son goes to a pediatric dentist and he loves her. There are toys and video games in the waiting room, and the children get to watch DVDs in the exam room. I wish I'd had a dentist like that to go to!
I had 4 "adult teeth" pulled by an elderly orthodontist, who ignored that my dentist had recommended only 2.
I envy my own kids, because they have a younger orthodontist who said "I can tell just by looking at you (me, their parent) that your (my) dentist pulled your teeth because of that old "teeth too big for the mouth" misinterpretation, but we now know that with the right (invisible, not external!) appliances, their mouth cavities can be adjusted as they grow to fit their teeth."
And he was right. And after their Herbst appliances and braces, my kids now have perfect bites (unlike mine, which still is lousy) and enough space for all their teeth, and never had to have a single tooth pulled.
Yes, dentistry and orthodontics have changed a lot. They don't start braces quite as young anymore (got mine in 4th grade too, and had them until 12th grade). And they aren't as quick to rip out teeth.
Howard, just to clear up your confusion--you're right, they did not pull an even number of teeth. I have fewer teeth on top than I do on the bottom. My upper jaw must have seemed especially small. They took out the six baby teeth so I could get braces, I think. So maybe I was nine. And then, a couple of years later, they took out two permanent teeth to make some room. Then I got my wisdom teeth out in high school, which were impacted and required surgery, but I didn't care, because I was asleep. Fortunately, this did not misalign my teeth after 8 years of braces.
dreadedcandiru2,
It seems clear that, just like she hates drawing seat-belts or car tires that touch the ground, Lynn was willing to ignore silly things like that because they "clutter up" her artwork.
This is not an opinion of hers that changed over the years. In particular, I remember comparing the research picture of a courtroom compared to the drawn picture of a courtroom for the Howard Bunt trial, and how the box where the court reporter sits just kind of wasn't there in the drawing. Clutter, I guess.
aprilp_katje,
The biggest complaint I had about my orthodontist was that if I lost a brace (sometimes they snapped off if I bit into something too hard), he insisted on replacing the brace with a band that went around my entire tooth.
When I say braces, each and every one was a metal band which went all the way around my entire tooth and was cemented into place. This was the case both times I had braces. Once starting in 4th grade and the second time starting in 8th grade. My younger sister had bands like yours when she got braces, if I remember correctly, and you are about her age. It sounds like your orthodontist wanted to make sure that you wouldn't break that band again, with his replacement.
Anonymous,
And after their Herbst appliances and braces, my kids now have perfect bites (unlike mine, which still is lousy) and enough space for all their teeth, and never had to have a single tooth pulled.
After reading the story about your kids, I feel as though I lived through a sort of dental dark ages. I am quite happy my kids (like yours) will not have to suffer like that.
qnjones,
got mine in 4th grade too, and had them until 12th grade
OK. You beat me on this one. I got my first set of braces in 4th grade, placed on what few adult teeth I had at the time and wore those for 18 months. Then I wore a retainer for about a year I think. Then in 8th grade, I got another set for the adult teeth which had grown in and wore those for 18 months, followed by another retainer. The part which has me confused now is that you are younger than I am, so I wonder how your parents managed to find someone who did this kind of torturous dental work in what would have been the mid-1980s to 1990s. I know how my parents found my orthodontist. (1) There were not very many of them in the big city of Asheville next to ours and (2) he was the cheapest.
Then I got my wisdom teeth out in high school, which were impacted and required surgery, but I didn't care, because I was asleep. Fortunately, this did not misalign my teeth after 8 years of braces.
I had my wisdom teeth out as soon as they showed up on the x-ray, because my orthodontist told my mother he could not guarantee his work if those teeth came in and messed up the others. My surgery was so that they could dig them out.
My son is getting his braces off after one year - he is 10. The trend around here (Ann Arbor, MI) is to get them on as early as possible. He did not need any teeth pulled and he only has one baby tooth remaining at this age, which the orthodontist is not too worried about. He will wear a retainer for a few years and if his teeth move significantly, they will rebrace him at no charge. Our babysitter just got rebraced at 16, only took about 6 months, and nothing should be moving anymore.
And to aprilp_katje, this means that even though tomorrow's strip is Mike-oriented, there will not be a Mike entry for April's Real Blog. Sorry.
Nooooo! How could you abandon me in my time of neeeeeed!
j/k
Hope you have a great time. :)
The main goal in the treatment of your child is to provide a positive dental experience. Since the dental experience can be a high anxiety-producing event, children react to anxiety differently than adults. Children can display anxiety in different ways depending on age, preconceived ideas and previous experiences. Once a child becomes apprehensive in the dental setting, it is very difficult to "talk the child out of the anxiety." Reversing a negative dental experience is much more difficult than preventing one.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that children be taken to see a pediatric dentist at least six months after they get their first tooth. It may seem strange to think about taking a child who is under one into a dentist's office' but doing so will help make sure his/her teeth stay healthy and get him/her used to visits that will become a regular part of his life.
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Taking your kids to pediatric dentists will help cure and treat these oral health problems. Dentistry for kids will also promote good oral hygiene and your kids will be taught about the importance of maintaining a good oral hygiene.
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