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True Stories of an Irish Upbringing and Other
lies by Dan Daneen
Price $ 17.00>> 
 Dentistry
and Other Health Matters
The terror of dentistry is well rooted in my early years.
Vivid memories of people who came to my father, the
local doctor, for help are imprinted on my mind and come
to the front at the very mention of a visit to the dentist. The visit
to the local doctor for dental discussions was based firstly on the
fact that we did not have a dentist in town. The nearest was in one
of the distant, larger towns. The second and far more important
reason was that the tooth in question had rotted to the level of the
gums and its now temporary host had decided that enough was
enough. The initial visit was to assure the doctor that the patient
was about to die if he did not intercede. Liberal applications of
Holy Water had neither stopped the pain nor miraculously failed
to make the tooth disappear.
It was also common practice to solicit the assistance of the parish
priest. This help did not succeed for some totally unfathomable
reason, possibly related to the victim’s absence from confession.
“God Willing!” The good priest passed the martyr along to the executioner,
namely, the doctor. If this paragon of health care was not available,
the job of extraction sometimes fell on the broad shoulders of the
blacksmith or whoever felt up to the challenge.
Acceptance of this role by some individual was often based
on the amount of gratuity that went with the event. The gratuity
was usually in the form of some illegal alcohol. This will come
to the surprise of none. The good doctor’s counsel would have the
victim return the next day equipped with a piece of rope, a cork,
a bottle of whiskey and two strong friends...
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