Dentists at Ore Clinic

[Hairygit]

Anyone else on here have strong recollections of being treated by the Dentists that worked in Ore Clinic? I was treated there from the age of 3 in 1968 until I left college in 1983, and having moved away from Hastings 11 years ago, I came to visit some friends this week and walking past the place still sends shivers down me!

[whiffler]

Yes, I well remember.

It was a Dr German IIRC, every thing hurt even under gas. He also had an unfortunate leer as he got up close and concentrated.

I didn't go to a dentist from the late 60s to 1998, when I had an abcess aggravated by a tomato pip touching the nerve.

Went to the dentist today, as it happens, and crown is sitting on a broken root so it's hospital next. If I want a decent chewing action it's a denture (perish the thought) or £1,500+ and 6ths for an implant.

Not blaming the dentist, but let it be a warning.

[Hairygit]

That sounds like the guy! Used to scare the hell out of me when I was really young, and my first meeting with him was to have my two top front teeth removed after breaking them falling of my bicycle! He was a heavy smoker, and often had a cigarette burning in the ashtray he used to keep on the windowsill, and boy could you taste it on his fingers! (Long before dentists started wearing gloves!) And the nurses there were even more scary, sure they were trained by Himmler and the SS, they would fetch you from the waiting room, all sweetness and smiles, but as the door closed behind you, they'd bark orders at you, and when it was gas time, they held your arms and legs in vice like grips. Obviously they expected every child to object or try and run away, so they made sure you didn't get the chance! After the first time having gas (which I actually found not too unpleasant), they told my dad that I'd need ALL of my milk teeth removed, as I had "full roots" on them that would not just be pushed out by the permanent ones. So for the next 10 or so years, once a month, down to the dentist for an X-Ray, always on a Tuesday, then if the permanent tooth was ready to come through, a letter would come on the Thu or Fri of the same week, with an appointment with the gas the following Monday, 16 times before I was 14 but from 1972ish a Mr Bell became the dentist there, a nicer man, but still with the dragon nurses . He lasted until 1976, when a Mr Robinson took over, a short man, with a grey moustache, always smelt strongly of cloves, and one dragon nurse remained, and a new one started. Then in 1980 another dentist started , but I cannot recall his name, and 2 very nice new nurses, and in 1981 when I was 16, I had 2 extra teeth start coming through the roof of my mouth, so they had to come out. This time I was given a choice of injections or gas, I chose gas, much to the surprise of my friends at school, and with the nice new nurses, it was actually quite pleasurable , the nurse who looked after me after was probably only a couple of years older than me, but I fancied her like mad , and waking up to her standing in her close fitting uniform was quite an enjoyable experience for a teenage lad But, the place still haunts me with the memories of the totally unsympathetic Dragon nurses from my younger days!

[Richard Pollard]

Had none of you ever experienced the school dentist at Halton! they I'm sure were the worst dentists in the town, as I clearly remember being dragged there by my mother in the early 1950s whereby the dentist was up a long flight of stairs and greeted (oh no!) by a big nurse that sat you in a separate room on your own to be called by the dentist. Fear (whats that!!!!!) the nurse would come out and take you by the wrist in a gorilla hold to the electric chair (sorry meant the chair) you were plopped into this seat and raised some feet from the floor, and because you couldn't or perhaps wouldn't open your mouth wide enough, this great big jaw opener was put in your mouth and you were totally unable to speak. Hygiene I don't think was invented then as this piece or torture mouth opener wasn't cleaned after each use I'm sure, likewise with the tools he used that dropped on the floor, they were picked up and straight into the mouth (your cringe at the very thought of it all today). Many a time when you had to have a tooth out the option of gas or an injection wasn't given, it was straight on with the face mask and like yourself held down like a rag doll till you went into fairy land.
I have the school dentist to thank for the start of ruining my teeth as now I am to have whats left out and top and bottom plates fitted, oh the sheer fun of it all.

Just to add a little humor to this by using the poor kids that had to use this place, as many a time when you passed this building there were always screams and hollers coming from the room on the first floor, whereby some poor kid was undergoing what we all went through, sometimes the screams were so load that you could hear them along Bembrook Road and Halton top, people unaware of what these kids were going through might have thought that the building was a torture chamber......Well wasn't it?


I just hate dentists...........full stop.

[Hairygit]

By the sound of it, I'm glad to say no, it was obviously a bit before my time, born in 1965. Where was it exactly? Where the flats now stand?

[Richard]

I vividly remember the 'old days' of the nightmare gas-mask and the horrible 'red vision' and being told to look at 'Mickey Mouse' or a train, before going under, in the days before modern anaesthetics.
I have a lot of sympathy for anyone who has serious problems with their teeth.
The up-side is that, despite the pain and recovery period of up to 2 weeks following extraction(s), it is just a waiting-game before the gum tissues recover and things (relatively quickly) begin to settle down.
After extraction there is always the chance of Implants, at a later stage, unless you have the cash to go for that straight away!!
Better that than something like 'Cancer' - we have to count our blessings in the scheme of things.

[Oscoe]

I remember the Ore Clinic dentist in the 70s too. I distinctly remember the emptiness of the building and the stairs up from the entrance foyer. It had a distinctive smell and there was an air of fear! When I look back on it now, it did feel kind of like you would imagine a place from communist East Germany!

[Hairygit]

Yes, the concrete stairs with the polished stainless steel handrail, and it certainly echoed as you walked up or down those stairs. As for the smell, seem to remember it was a mix of the floor polish and fear!

[Hairygit]

I cant believe only 3 people have bad memories of this place, maybe we were just unlucky!