• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Dentistry past and present in Brum

Dave,

Thomas Lacey at 51 Potters Hill was born in 1867 at Butterwick, Lincs, and was married around 1898 to a Leicestere girl, Florence Mary and they moved to Aston in 1898, had 4 children, one of whom died in infancy plus two daughters and a son, Leslie David. They were last recorded on the Birmingham Electoral Roll in 1947 and in the trade directory above in 1951 (data collected in the 1950). They presumably moved away from the area around 1950 as they disappear from available local records then. Incidentally, Thomas is recorded on the 1911 Census as an artificial teeth maker with wife and children. The two daughters remained single and living with Thoms & Florence Mary until at least 1947.

Your 40 Clifton Road dentist is a different man, Thomas K. Lacey with wife Edna, born much later around 1910 but not locally and he was around long after Thomas & his family had disappeared.

Pete,

No one by the name of Lacey appears in Bowyer Road up until when I stopped searching in 1955.

I hope that settles the Lacey mystery. :)

Maurice
 
I find that the dentist I have now, in Surrey, will always start with feeling the neck for any lumps or bumps that could have the potential for being cancerous. An examination is also made of the mouth, tongue and gums before he even starts on the teeth. I don't know whether this routine is widespread everywhere these days. Dave.
 
Address: 2A Bowyer Rd, Birmingham B8 1ET
sospiri said:
Dave,

Thomas Lacey at 51 Potters Hill was born in 1867 at Butterwick, Lincs, and was married around 1898 to a Leicestere girl, Florence Mary and they moved to Aston in 1898, had 4 children, one of whom died in infancy plus two daughters and a son, Leslie David. They were last recorded on the Birmingham Electoral Roll in 1947 and in the trade directory above in 1951 (data collected in the 1950). They presumably moved away from the area around 1950 as they disappear from available local records then. Incidentally, Thomas is recorded on the 1911 Census as an artificial teeth maker with wife and children. The two daughters remained single and living with Thoms & Florence Mary until at least 1947.

Your 40 Clifton Road dentist is a different man, Thomas K. Lacey with wife Edna, born much later around 1910 but not locally and he was around long after Thomas & his family had disappeared.

Pete,

No one by the name of Lacey appears in Bowyer Road up until when I stopped searching in 1955.

I hope that settles the Lacey mystery. :)

Maurice
Click to expand...
yes ta maurice.lt was kings
 
mw0njm. said:
Address: 2A Bowyer Rd, Birmingham B8 1ET
yes ta maurice.lt was kings
Click to expand...
Hi all i remember going to the school dentist in Aston , it was horrendous you went through big green double doors and was then greeted by a Matron type lady you was then put into a chair with a metal clamp in your mouth and then a gas mask was placed over your mouth the next thing you new waking up over a sink with a thick head and blood everywhere it was horrible the kids today don't know they are born . Raz
 
Hi Raz I went to that hell hole as a child and so did Pete my husband. They used to put straps round your wrist fixed to the arms of the chair. They were vile. The small dentist was German we think and the taller one was Matron like. My mom took me home when they tried drilling my teeth. I have overcome my fear and now have treatment at the Dental Hospital where the dental students train and they are brilliant.
 
My present dentist is so kind and considerate and the receptionist is lovely, the only thing that hurts is the cost! Years ago it was so different, and even now I hate anything put over my face after that rubber mask!
rosie.
 
Dental Hospital. Ugh the mask over the mouth. I broke my front tooth when I was 8 and they covered it with a silver looking tooth, then they replaced with a plastic tooth which looked just as ugly, my mom asked them to do a 'proper' tooth they refused and said I might fall over in the playground and break it. So she took me to a dentist in Heathfield Road and they gave me a procelain one which lasted up until I was 21.
 

Attachments

  • Gt charles street dental hospital inside.JPG
    Gt charles street dental hospital inside.JPG
    18.3 KB · Views: 18
I had the same dentist for over 40years, Peter Luke who was based firstly at Wheeler Street then Four Oaks, not only did he look after my teeth but also my wife, children and grandchildren teeth as well, best dentist I have had, he had an accident a few years back which he didn't recover from..
 
I can completely sympathize with Ray T. I had many ghastly visits to the dentist which was on Maple Road in Bourneville. I see that per Google, there is still a dental surgery on that site. I'm sure that their services are splendid and much less Victorian than my experiences over 50 years ago. At about age eight I can remember having to have a tooth extracted. I was told sit down and had a bib tied around my neck. The dentist came at me with a small rubber contraption, put it into my mouth and said, "bite down." I did and my mouth was forced open by this hideous spring loaded jack device. No sooner that that happened a rubber mask was planted on my face. Just before losing consciousness I had enough presence of mind to start resisting. Regaining consciousness I was told by the dentist that I was,"...a very naughty boy." Apparently the dentist and nurse had been badly assaulted by my welly shod flailing legs. Their fault really. Had they told me what was going to happen, their shins would have not been so assaulted. I also remember those nasty drills with their string and pulleys. Today's dentistry is light years ahead of those days of the mid/late 1960's.
 
Harry Flashman said:
I can completely sympathize with Ray T. I had many ghastly visits to the dentist which was on Maple Road in Bourneville. I see that per Google, there is still a dental surgery on that site. I'm sure that their services are splendid and much less Victorian than my experiences over 50 years ago. At about age eight I can remember having to have a tooth extracted. I was told sit down and had a bib tied around my neck. The dentist came at me with a small rubber contraption, put it into my mouth and said, "bite down." I did and my mouth was forced open by this hideous spring loaded jack device. No sooner that that happened a rubber mask was planted on my face. Just before losing consciousness I had enough presence of mind to start resisting. Regaining consciousness I was told by the dentist that I was,"...a very naughty boy." Apparently the dentist and nurse had been badly assaulted by my welly shod flailing legs. Their fault really. Had they told me what was going to happen, their shins would have not been so assaulted. I also remember those nasty drills with their string and pulleys. Today's dentistry is light years ahead of those days of the mid/late 1960's.
Click to expand...
Sounds really familiar...put me off going to the dentist for many years. Now I go 3 times a year!
Dave A
 
Mt first dentist was awful he was along the Wellington road he took out in one sitting 4 good teeth because according to him my mouth was over crowded all my teeth came in and I still have four gaps even my wisdom teeth came in with room round them and my mouth bled and bled I had a dreadful dream which is still with me after all this time I must have been about 10 I have had a dental phobia ever since
 
carolina said:
Dental Hospital. Ugh the mask over the mouth. I broke my front tooth when I was 8 and they covered it with a silver looking tooth, then they replaced with a plastic tooth which looked just as ugly, my mom asked them to do a 'proper' tooth they refused and said I might fall over in the playground and break it. So she took me to a dentist in Heathfield Road and they gave me a procelain one which lasted up until I was 21.
Click to expand...
One of my twin sons broke his front tooth and as it was a bank holiday had to go to the old dental hospital. They were brilliant with him and also fitted a temporary silver tooth. The twins are identical and the teachers could never tell the difference. They asked me to embroider a P for Peter and S for Steve on their jumpers which I did. Unfortunately the children used to call them salt and pepper so that had to come off. Well the silver tooth did the job as S for silver and Steve so at last they could tell them apart. I am under the new Dental Hospital and it is a state of the arts and they are so friendly there it is a pleasure to visit for treatment.
 
G G Jean said:
Hi Raz I went to that hell hole as a child and so did Pete my husband. They used to put straps round your wrist fixed to the arms of the chair. They were vile. The small dentist was German we think and the taller one was Matron like. My mom took me home when they tried drilling my teeth. I have overcome my fear and now have treatment at the Dental Hospital where the dental students train and they are brilliant.
Click to expand...
find it so hard to believe that children were physically strapped to the ams of the chair by their wrists...surely even back then it must have been illegal...how awful...

lyn
 
Astoness said:
find it so hard to believe that children were physically strapped to the ams of the chair by their wrists...surely even back then it must have been illegal...how awful...

lyn
Click to expand...
Both my mom and Pete's took us out of the surgery after they heard us crying (at different times) but my mom took me to a six ways dentist who said I didn't need a filling at all. It was awful Lyn and has scarred quite a few people for life. I have overcome my fears and prefer the dentist to the doctor these days.
 
I can remember going to Albert Road clinic to have my teeth removed, like everyone else it scarred me for life, big wooden chair, 3 or 4 assistants to hold me down and to shovel something in my mouth that felt like a old type of finger plaster, and to hold the gas mask over my mouth and nose, then waking up in the cold sinks area with a cold glass of water to swill my mouth out which as often covered in blood, I had to be either carried home or push in a pushchair, it took a few days for me to recover, I am glad that my children didn't not have to suffer that type of treatment when they were younger, in fact I would never allowed them ( dentist) go anywhere near my children.
 
the thing is john these appalling things happened in living memory some of the stories i am reading are probably more suited to the 17 and 18 hundreds...i must have been one of the lucky ones..never had to visit these clinics...i went to the dentist on the corner of villa st and farm st...the practice is still there..mr mahmood was the dentist and although i well remember the smell of the gas mask i never experienced anything like some members have..went to kip for while woke up quick swill of the mouth and back home..no lasting damage and certainly nothing mentally..maybe our mom knew the reputation of some of these clinics..she never said

lyn
 
My first experience of dentistry was at Yardley Green Rd Clinic when they used gas for an extraction. At a later check up the dentist decided that I had ‘ a Hapsburg Jaw’ which meant that when my bite was closed the lower teeth were not behind the upper ones.Consequently my mother had to take me to have orthodontic treatment somewhere in Sheep St. Gosta Green where I was fitted with a form of brace that pushed my top teeth forward. I can’t imagine that it would be considered a problem now but I do wonder if I am in line for a ‘crown’?
 

1901​

University of Birmingham awarded the first dental degree in Britain
Novocaine was introduced as a local anaesthetic by Alfred Einhorn
A timeline of the development of dentistry from 1530 to the present day
bda.org

Timeline

bda.org
 
Last edited:
My first dentist, (Mr Cheffin) was at the top of Deritend High Street, where it turned left and under the railway bridge, eventually leading the Coventry Road. I was diagnosed as having too small a jaw, so the wisdom teeth had to come out before they came through. That was done in hospital, though I think it was a general ward because there were other children there with different ailments. That was general anaesthetic, and I woke up with stitches in each corner of my mouth. No problems with the procedure though.
I had to go through similar when I was 18/19 in Malvern cottage hospital, too many teeth.
Andrew.
 
We didn't have toothpaste as children. We brushed our teeth with powders which came in tins. I think they were made by a company called Gibbs? Didn't taste very nice. Also people had lots of sugar in their tea. Sugar bowls were very big.
 
mw0njm. said:

1901​

University of Birmingham awarded the first dental degree in Britain
Novocaine was introduced as a local anaesthetic by Alfred Einhorn
A timeline of the development of dentistry from 1530 to the present day
bda.org

Timeline

bda.org
Click to expand...
I am fortunate enough to be under the new Dental Hospital and they are brilliant and so kind. I prefer visit dentist than the doctors.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
My first dentist, (Mr Cheffin) was at the top of Deritend High Street, where it turned left and under the railway bridge, eventually leading the Coventry Road. I was diagnosed as having too small a jaw, so the wisdom teeth had to come out before they came through. That was done in hospital, though I think it was a general ward because there were other children there with different ailments. That was general anaesthetic, and I woke up with stitches in each corner of my mouth. No problems with the procedure though.
I had to go through similar when I was 18/19 in Malvern cottage hospital, too many teeth.
Andrew.
Click to expand...
I too had all my wisdom teeth out in hospital , though older than you. It was at the QE. Not general ward, but joint dentist and psychiatric. Next to me was someone with Christmas disease , a form of haemophilia, and opposite a women who thought it was still ww2 and did not want to take her coat off in case she had to go down the shelters
 
Last edited:
Did anyone have to go to the School Dentist? I remember going to Sheep Street once. All I remember is the big leather chair, the gas mask and a row of sinks with all these children spitting out blood! After that experience I think it was a hood 10 years before I found wonderful dentist near the Pelham on Alum Rock Road.
 
suemalings said:
Did anyone have to go to the School Dentist? I remember going to Sheep Street once. All I remember is the big leather chair, the gas mask and a row of sinks with all these children spitting out blood! After that experience I think it was a hood 10 years before I found wonderful dentist near the Pelham on Alum Rock Road.
Click to expand...
We used a dentist near there - Mr Gawthorpe.
 
Mr Gawthorpe was my dentist. He was a very nice man and did a lot of filling of my teeth!. Do you remember the "boutique" that was just up the road a bit that was owned by one of the Birmingham City Footballers?
 
suemalings said:
Did anyone have to go to the School Dentist? I remember going to Sheep Street once. All I remember is the big leather chair, the gas mask and a row of sinks with all these children spitting out blood! After that experience I think it was a hood 10 years before I found wonderful dentist near the Pelham on Alum Rock Road.
Click to expand...
I didn't go to the school dentist, but did go to a dentist near the Pelham, at the corner of Belchers Lane and Alum Rock Road, Mr Liggins was the dentist at that time (the 1960s).
A previous experience, as very young child, of being taken to a dentist somewhere near Bowyer Road (at the 'top-of-the-rock' as we called it) to have a milk tooth extracted, left me scared of dentists for life...... As described elsewhere, at that time mother was sent to a chair at the back of the room while the child was strapped by the wrists and ankles to the chair, and had a restraining strap wrapped across the forehead before the dreaded gas mask approached.... apparently I put up a good fight because for days afterwards I was spitting out bits of gristle from gashes in the inside of my lower lip................thank goodness those days have gone!
Does anyone else remember Mr Liggins?
 
Hi TommoCo,

Oh yes, I remember him very well, - he put me off going voluntarily to dentists
for the rest of my life. Now I only go when the pain exceeds the fear.

Kind regards
Dave
 
Hello Dave89, sorry you had that experience, but, he had the same effect on me!

Another thought on Dentistry, something I've recounted to the younger generations only to be met with doubt and almost disbelief - it is a story told to me by my mother, and goes like this...
At their wedding in 1929, it was traditional at that time for the bride and groom to be given small amounts of cash to start them off in married life. Mom and dad took all of this money, went to the local dentist (Alum Rock) and both had all their teeth extracted - 32 healthy teeth each! - and eventually came both away equipped with a full set of false teeth.
The reason, I was told, was that, before the NHS was introduced it was impossible for ordinary working people to afford regular dental care, and the thought of toothache with no means of treating it was so unbearable that it was common at that time for newlyweds to do this.....Horrendous as it sounds, it was a real situation for my parents in 1929.
Has anyone else heard similar accounts?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top