Coventry Dentists

Soon after I started work in Livingstone Road in 1972, I needed some dental work and found this chap, whose name, I think, was Paul Randall, practising on the Foleshill Road somewhere opposite the park. His surgery was like something you would see in one of those Victorian heritage places these days! The drill was treadle-powered and he sat himself on a stool topped with a bicycle saddle. He wasn't into subtlety, 'rough & ready' was probably an apt description! I recall his surgery being at the back on the ground floor so that you looked out on the back garden from the big chair. It was an unkempt wilderness which somehow seemed rather appropriate for this place.. Having experienced Randall a couple of times I decided on a change and went to a chap called Rice in Spencer Road. But after a visit or two he stopped taking NHS patients so I went to a chap called David Lewin on Foleshill Rd near Courtaulds. He was the best dentist I've ever seen, but sadly his career ended prematurely when he suffered a detached retina. His old surgery was taken over and has now been demolished and replaced by a huge Dental Centre in the same place.

I have a great dentist now in Moseley Avenue but I can sum up my childhood experience in 2 words - GULSON ROAD.

My early experience of dentists was simlilar to most others on here. My first dentist (in the 50's but not in Coventry) was struck off, or de-gowned or whatever they do to dentists for not allowing sufficient time for the dreaded gas to take effect. I think my visits were mainly due to eating rhubarb dipped it in a bowl of sugar. Both my parents had all their teeth removed in their early twenties, the attitude was that they'd only cause problems later so it's best to get rid of them. Thankfully that idea has been abandoned now.

My first experience was a horrid one on Walsgrave Road under the bridge by the library. He was scary, and I think he catered for older clientele as his waiting room was drab, cold and sombre with no magazines, just lots of Readers Digests. I was terrified visiting him, and these were pre-injection days - the dreaded gas!! When I was 14, we moved to Wyken and I needed a brace for my buck teeth, and we were recommended to Bell Green, so registered with Jonas and Mokysyki. What a total contrast! A bright waiting room, colourful with BIG windows that lit it up. Lots of magazines and comics, albeit a few months old, then my dentist, Barry Jonas, VERY friendly and a credit to his profession. The nurses and receptionists were young and pretty, so any fears I had going in for treatment were hidden with bravado. As my brace needed adjusting every few weeks, my teeth were constantly monitored, so any fillings due were minimal. I used Jonas until I was 28, and relocated to Nuneaton. My current dentist is also very good, but at £60 a visit, I'd expect nothing less!

My early recollections of a dentist are attending Stanley Meacock's practice in Eaton Road, in one of the lovely old buildings sadly no longer there - they backed onto the flats on Warwick Road, which were always the last thing I saw before I went to sleep under the gas How I hated the smell of the rubber mask-type thing which they put over your face! And the tools he used, so different from today, and I don't recall having satisfactory injections in those days for fillings, etc He drew blood, but so did I - the top of his hands were usually a mess when I'd bitten back! After such frightening experiences as a youngster I tried to avoid the dentist for as long as possible, until I had to go as an emergency in the mid-70s - I was recommended to Old Coventrian Steve Prichard on Baginton Road, and I have to say that, to this day, I have never felt the slightest pain - or fear - throughout many visits for fillings, crowns, extractions, etc His brother Tony, sadly no longer with us, was in the same practice, and Steve's son James continues the family tradition A well-recommended practice

Just don't get me started!! I had the same dentist right from when I was getting my first permanent teeth to when I went off to university - I'm not going to name him for fear he is still alive and feels litigious. Over the years he performed unnecessary extractions, unnecessary fillings (to which my mother agreed because he said I should have them done before I was sixteen to save her money!!) and gave me a fear of the dentist which I have only recently (forty years later) conquered. His 'crowning' achievement (sorry) was to botch the installation of a metal peg to support a crown which has subsequently caused me incredible pain, repeated infections, root canal work and three (yes three!!) attempts at apicectomy (the last one in hospital because the dentists couldn't do it successfully). My dentist now is absolutely wonderful - I dread him retiring!

I also went to Gulson Road as a child, then went to Jonas in Bushberry Ave who was brilliant, then went to Warwick on Holyhead Road who was brilliant, he sold the practice and then the problems started, after going to the dentist regularly all my life, not been now for 3years.

I think I've been to most of the dentists mentioned over the years. Two more that I recall are Broad Street clinic and a chap named Roache somewhere off Ball Hill, who I believe was an army dentist during the war. Does anyone remember the name of the dentist that Ace mentioned under the railway bridge in Walsgrave Road? I know I had a tooth out there many years ago but I can't remember much about it

We used to go to a dentist in Moseley Avenue, by the library. My mum worked for them, doing cleaning and helped in the kitchen as the surgery and house were together so if I had gas I could go and sit in the house afterwards. I baby sat for them once but it was very spooky house and the phone kept ringing n the surgery. I would not to it again. I used to think the injection was the worst bit but the needles they use now don't seem half as bad. I had a deep root filling in a Tamworth dentist once and he did not deaden it properly and when he poked up my tooth I went through the roof.

The first dentists in Coventry I went to were Barry Jonas and Jan Mokysyki. I lived in Friars Road at the time and they had a practice in New Union Street as well as the one in Bell Green. They were as someone has also said absolutely superb and a total contrast to my previous experience. After they left the city centre I went to the Park Road practice. Several years later after I met my partner it turned out Barry was a friend of her family, proving what a small world world it is.

Hi all, Today should have been my last visit to my dentist, but she has fitted me in for one more bout of torture (I mean treatment) next Monday. The good news is that it is all paid for.

Oooo That's it I have heard enough I'm off !!!!

Hi all, As of ten minutes ago, my programme of dental treatment is now complete. What's more, I don't know why I have this almost phobia of dentists, when I have had nothing to endure. The dentist (a lady, maybe that made it better) did everything with compassion. In total, three fillings, a new cap, file polish & my new appointment for next January. I hardly felt a thing. The worst part was looking in the mirror at my own face. So a big thank you to Holbrooks Dental Care.

As I think men never really grow up and are always treated with tender care and love to be spoilt la la la la la la la They are truly words of encouragement Philip, but sorry, I still have that yellow stripe down my back.