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The Dentists Chair

Keep still; it won't take a minute! Breathe through your nose!"

Long Mac was in a dentist's chair at the Camp Dental Hospital; he was one of a long row of patients who were being attended to by whitecoated officers of the New Zealand Dental Corps. The way in which Long Mac came to be in that chair at that particular time was this: when he enlisted, a dentist examined Long Mae's teeth and made "a plan of his mouth," according to Long Mac It really was a chart which showed the state of his teeth, and it was charted on a form so prepared that if! the paper had been curved in front of the patient's mouth it would have corresponded, in its details, with the arrangement of the teeth in the mouth. A perpendicular line divided the mouth in the centre, while a horizontal line ran along between the edges of the teeth, that the mouth was divided into four sections, and the extractions or fillings needed in each section were noted by the examining dentist. When Long Mac entered camp this dental card came with his papers and was sent on to the Camp Dental Hospital. He was one of those who had not time to have his teeth attended to between enlistment and going in. But Curly and Hoe had been able to have this done by some of the civilian dentists in their town, who, like many others in New Zealand, devote a good deal of time to soldiers' work, the cost being borne partly by the dentists and partly by the Government, while the soldier pays nothing at all.

Long Mac's dental card having reached the Dental Hospital, an orderly clerk sent an appointment card, accompanied by a letter from the Camp Adjutant to the officer commanding Long Mac's company, and a corporal took Long Mac and several others, including Blasty, to the dentist at the appointed time. As Long Mac said, "it saved a fellow a lot of worry making up his mind to go to the dentist."

Blasty was in the chair next to Long Mac, and he was watching with fascination while the dental officer filled a spoon with plaster of Paris from a basin which an orderly held and poured the white liquid into Long Mac's mouth. The Scotsman was very calm and was breathing through his page 103nose rather loudly. There was a metal mould in his mouth fitted against his toothless upper gums. Into this the plaster was going, so as to take an impression of the gums. But to Blasty's simple mind it seemed that the fluid was being absorbed by Long Mac, and he felt relieved when the basin and spoon were taken away. He just caught Long Mac's eye, when his own dentist told him to lead his head back; after that his own affairs absorbed his attention, though Blasty's dread of pain far exceeded the reality, it being one of the chief aims of the busy camp dentists to treat the soldiers as painlessly as possible. That they have succeeded in this direction is plainly shown on the placid faces of the men who are waiting their turn and are able to see, through the open doorway, how their comrades in the chairs are faring.

Long Mac was dismissed presently, and the date for the next appointment was entered on a card by the operator, for the information of the orderly who sends out the notices of appointments. Then the cast of Mac's mouth was sent into the laboratory, where primus stoves and vulcanisers hissed and roared and busy mechanics sat at benches and worked at dentures in all stages of manufacture, from the plaster of Paris to the neat brown vulcanite denture with ivory-coloured teeth firmly and accurately set in it. Soldiers' dentures (artificial teeth) are made much stronger than are those of civilians, it being recognised that they must be able to stand the extra strain caused by the hard fare of trench life.

During the month in which Long Mac went through the dentist's hands—which was some time ago, he being in the firing-line now—-the Dental Hospital at Trentham carried out 2940 fillings and 200 root fillings. The number of teeth extracted was 1851, dentures made 350, while 59 dentures were repaired and 888 smaller operations carried out. Altogether 3318 attendances upon soldiers were accomplished by a staff of eleven officers and eight mechanics, who were assisted by orderlies. Since then the hospital has been enlarged and a separate laboratory provided, while the staff consists of eighteen officers and sixty-three n.c.o.'s and men, the n.c.o.'s and men being under a regimental sergeant-major. And the enlarged building is more than six times the size of the first dental hospital to be used at Trentham. This was established, in a building 24ft. by 20ft., with a staff of two officers, one dental mechanic, and one orderly, on January 1, 1916.

The New Zealand Dental Corps is the youngest unit of the Army. When the war broke out there was no dental corps in the British Army, dentists being attached to the Army Medical Corps. The New Zealand Dental Corps was established in November, 1915, as a separate unit and dental hospitals were built in the different camps. It has been estimated by men who know page 104that in the early stages of the war fully 15 per cent, of the British and French Armies were invalided back because of systemic troubles caused by diseased teeth; and in regard to New Zealand, it is an indisputable fact that quite 30 per cent.—that is, 600 men out of a draft of 2000—could never sail as fit men were it not for the work of the New Zealand Dental Corps. In addition to this, the remainder of the troops who require it receive treatment and thus, as far as possible, avoid pain and dental trouble when at the front.

"Feel all right now?" the dental officer asked the Rooster, who had had two teeth extracted under a local anaesthetic, in the special room provided.

"Yeth," said the Rooster, lisping as people do who have lost some teeth—"yeth, ith thith thpeaking that annoyth me—thath all."

As he passed out to the waiting-room, where Long Mac was holding his hat, he heard Jallow say to an officer,

"But we're busy, sir. I don't know if I can spare time to come back. Haven't you got any slop-made sets of teeth that would fit me?"