Coventry Dentists

Dentists were very fond of pulling your teeth out for any reason in those days, I had 4 back teeth out (by Cocaine) because my teeth were crooked and they said there was not enough room for them, no braces then. Fortunately my mum worked in the house so I was able to go and sit in the house afterwards. The dentist was in Moseley Avenue by the library.

There was a dentist in Daventry Road that I used in the 1960's. On one occasion I had to have a wisdom tooth removed, the dentist didn't seem himself, As he was working on me he kept whistling a tune. After some time and a struggle he told me that he had had a car accident on his way into work and was still nervous. He apologised, told me that he had only managed to remove half of the tooth and asked me to come back the following week. Not the best experience.

I think all of us who had horrible experiences with dentists years ago never forget them. Even though they play nice music and have mobiles on the ceiling, I still dread going and grip the arms of the chair and hold my breath! It was a choice of gas or cocaine for extractions, both horrible.

When we moved to Tamworth the family dentist was nicknamed Butcher Boyd. I swear he had a card game going in the back room as he would keep disappearing.

Does anyone recall a dentist on Station Road West (just a few steps from Foleshill Rd, opposite the General Wolfe)? He was my first dentist in Cov in the early sixties, and I recall him with a measure of horror and ingrained memories of what I considered his butchery, reinforced, no doubt, by the fact that there was a Dix the Butcher just round the corner! I ask, having just seen a piece on the TV about Jimmy Dix, a Nuneaton dentist of the 1930s who apparently was the pioneer of surfing (of all things!) in Britain. Seems quite a coincidence, and makes me wonder if they were related.

Kimbo, Sure do! He tried take my wisdom tooth out, nearly broke my ribs with his knee on them, black and blue for months. Broke the tooth off, and left it at that - it finally came out twenty years later. Never went back again.

After the end of rationing the premature rotting of ones teeth was hastened by every adult one knew, on meeting, giving you a sweet (taught never to accept from strangers!!). Childhood experiences of dentistry in the 50's and 60's seem to be universally bad. Mine started with the school dentist at Gulson Road Hospital where I woke up from the gas before the extraction was completed. I then went to Mr Roache in Walsgrave Road opposite Gosford Green. He would have a syringe already in his hand as you sat down in the chair. No conversation, just jab-jab. You would be sent back to the waiting room for the cocaine to take effect and the previous patient (victim) would be called back to have their extractions. I never received a filling. Probably a relief because the band connected pantograph drill attached to the chair differed little from an instrument of extended torture. Having had teeth broken off and unnecessarily extracted I could not summon up enough courage to visit a dentist again until an abscess in a unextracted root forced me to. The young dentist was aghast at what had been done and introduced me conservative dentistry (excellent, but not available on the NHS, £££!).