JAPANESE DENTISTRY.

Gisborne Times, 16 December 1911, Page 3

JAPANESE DENTISTRY.

HOW THEY LEARN THE BUSINESS

Japanese native dentists conducttheir business in a manner which would undoubtedly cause any European practitioner to open his eyes in amazement. r |%e victim is seated on the ground, the dentist bends over him, and forces his left hand between the patient’s jaws in such a manner that the mouth cannot jK.'Ssiblv he closed. Then he grasps the doomed tooth between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, and with one deft wrench removes it and throws it upon the ground. So great is the skill of those native dentists that many of them are able to remove, six or seven teeth per minute. Indeed, their skill is hardly to ho wondered at, when one considers the* course of preparatory training they arc obliged to undergo. A number of holes are bored! in a stout plank, and this is fixed firmly to the ground. In the holes are driven wooden pegs, and the would-bo dentist has to extract them with, his fingers without dislodging the hoard. This process is repeated with a hoard of pine wood, and finally with one of oak. and it is only when he has succeeded in cxtratcing the pegs from the oak plank that the Japanese considers himself qualified to practice upon his fel-low-men .—London ‘‘Tit-Bits.”