From: george.kincaid@worldnet.att.net   
      
   Our local county historical society museum has a display of a dentists   
   office from around 1910-1920 in it. It has a vicious looking thing I believe   
   called a turnbuckle, a set of long handled pliers (like vice grips or some   
   such device) with long sharp curved blades on it. The display has an   
   electric drill and a chair and light fixtures. There's a bottle of some kind   
   of anesthetic and a rinse bowl like the dentists have now. The instrument   
   tray would scare Steven King, though! I swear  I remember a mallet and   
   chisel! I went on to the bottling plant display pretty quick! Coca-Cola   
   might send you to that chamber of horrors, I suppose. Columbia is a   
   university town, and must have had some decent medical care around, but   
   still I can't imagine the pain involved in something like that.   
      
    wrote in message   
   news:1114061919.002708.15290@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...   
   >A dentist typically used a "turnbuckle" to pull teeth.  It was a nasty   
   > looking instrument reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition.  Whiskey was   
   > the primary anesthetic.  Little thought was given to saving a tooth. If   
   > it caused discomfort, it was pulled.   
   >   
   > A dentist in Oregon periodically conducted a tooth-pulling "bee" at one   
   > of the nearby ranches.  The ranch hands with dental problems would   
   > gather, drinks lots of whiskey before for courage and lots of whiskey   
   > after in celebration.   
   >   
      
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