For many of us, going to the dentist is a test of courage and sanity. The mere sound of the drill increases our heart rate to a dangerous level, and no amount of gas, Novocaine or hand holding will alleviate that fear, but imagine how it was in Korea a hundred years ago.
Dr. Horace Allen described his dental training as: “I had tried to learn to pull teeth while at medical school, but about the only advice I could get was to select the proper forceps, get a good deep hold, give a twist, and ‘pull for dear life.’” After a few errors in the beginning (Korean patients), he became relatively popular as a dentist. “I had to pull teeth so much that I soon grew to rather like it.”
Later there were other western dentists, and some of them were quite the character - including the gun-toting Dr. Boots, who terrorized the children at the American gold mines. You can read more about these early dental-torturers here.
One Comment
this is awsome stuff. How do you do research for something like this? Do you talk to old missionaries or do you sift through old newspapers?
I’m just curious.