Open Wide! A Series of C.18th & 19th Caricatures on Dentistry

There is something uniquely demeaning and uncomfortable about lying down while a complete stranger scrapes and digs around in your open mouth; and uniquely terrifying about the bag of shiny knives pulled out with relish prior to the start of an annual check-up. But, if you think a trip to the dentist is rough now, there is some small comfort to be gained by a new book, the first to be published by Stow-on-the-Wold bookshop, Wychwood Books, which looks at a number of the painkiller-free techniques employed by dentists living in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

HUMOUROUS BUT HORRIFIC

Open Wide! A Series of Eighteenth & Nineteenth Century Caricatures on Dentistry showcases a unique collection of prints, compiled by John Trevers and Martin Orksey, which deal humorously with the horrific methods employed by dentists of this period to rid their patients of toothache. By enlarge caricaturists at this time focused on the ‘country' dentists (ie. the local blacksmith), rather than the town dentist, though quackery went hand-in-hand with both. Though humourous, some of these prints will make you shudder: from the grinning dentist, pressing his foot gleefully against his wailing patient's chin as he tries to yank out the recalcitrant tooth with a piece of string; to the dentist removing healthy teeth from the ‘donor', a chimney sweep, and transplanting them to the mouth of a pretty girl, whose fists are clenched in pain.

ACUTE PAIN

Sometimes, usually after spitting out another cupful of blood, one does wonder if today's dentists don't take some small pleasure from their patients' discomfort, but the dentists of old clearly took it to new levels. Prints are titled accordingly, from ‘Laughter and Experiment' (dentist, laughter; patient, experiment) and ‘Mirth Anguish' (dentist, mirth; patient, anguish) to the simple ‘Acute Pain'. Open Wide! is well laid out, with each print given its own space on the page, and information about the print, historical context and details of the artist given on the page opposite. A nice touch is in the book's dedication, which says:

Dedicated to the memory of W.T.G. Morton, Dentist of Boston Massachusetts (1819-68) who in 1846 successfully demonstrated the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anaesthetic. Thereby sparing patients of dental profession the extreme discomfort depicted in this collection.

Reviewed by Emily Jenkinson

Publication details:
Wychwood Books
Sheep Street
Stow on the Wold
Gloucestershire
GL54 1AA
01451831880
info@wychwoodbook.com
Copyright John Trevers 2009

5 October 09