Thursday, April 15, 2010

Toothbrush Drill - Maori Dental Care - circa 1940s

 Children participating in Toothbrush Drill, Te Kaha Maori School, Opotiki, circa 1944. Photo: Pascoe

The school that brushes its teeth together, reduces cavities together... Toothbrush drill seems to have been a device for promoting better dental care amongst school children in the 1940s.

Getting the equipment ready for the Toothbrush drill at Te Kaha Maori School, Opotiki, circa 1944. Photo: Pascoe

2 comments:

Jayne said...

Slightly better than when my Dad enlisted with the RAAF and they proceeded to rip out Every.Single.Tooth.
Nothing wrong with them at all, just saving themselves future $ in case the boys developed a cavity up in New Guinea, far from the reach of a drill....

kuaka said...

Reminds me of the horror I felt when I was a kid when a friend's sister had all her teeth removed at about the age of 20. That was sometime near the end of the era of "if in doubt, rip 'em all out" dentistry and the emergence of the "do your darndest to save as many as you can" era.