Demensure now settled

[latviaman]

Does anyone remember the Market steps , am I correct , was there a hairdresser on the left hand side, and I remember a house on the right, which we called the haunted house, all boarded up but we found a way in , and I think there was an air raid shelter on the left after the hairdressers shop, anyone remember.

Does anyone remember Mr chin the Dentist in Castle Street CB will correct my demensure If I am wrong

[Charles Bannerman]

Latviaman... if you don't mind, I'll correct your "demensure" to "dementia"!

The Market (aka Post Offce) Steps now have a lot of commercial outlets such as a record shop, a florist and indeed a new hairdresser. At the bottom of the Market Steps, facing upwards, the premises on the left which used to be the Globe shoe shop is now HBOS. On the right on the old Post Office site is the RBS.

I believe there's been a dentist on Castle Street for a number of years and it's been through a fair number of hands. The door is just to the right of what used to be, I think, Thomson Brown Brothers, then the West End Furniture Store and now Reilly's Snooker Club.

[The Mantis]

Aye Bannerman, showing your age again. I worked for Brown Brothers Ltd from 1976-1980 before joining your own noble profession.

They were called Thompson & Brown Brothers at one time though, back when they sold saddles for horses, red flags for walking in front of cars and suchlike, or so the old gadgies behind the counter used to tell me :001:

[Charles Bannerman]

That would be the old gadgies in brown coats like Mr. Arkwright?

[Kingsmills]

That was Frankie Jew was it not ?

[Scarlet Pimple]

Yes--the dentist on Castle Street in the year 1954 or thereabouts was a Mr Nixon of whom I have some uncertain memories.

A rock busted my right front tooth and he put a crown on it after taking off half of it without anaesthetic.The crown was fitted with posts which had to be glued to the upper part which in turn had to be drilled out to take it. All this without anaesthetic and whilst I was squirming around and sinking lower and lower into the chair he was castigating me with "sit still boy, sit still". What kind of a person would do that to a small 16 year-old boy...I mean....cccccmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaannnnnn!

:crazy07:

[Kingsmills]

I had a similar experience with a dentist in Queensgate. My mind's self preservation reflex has caused me to forget his name.

[Guest eliza]

I used to have nightmares of the said Mr Nixon, the Dentist in Castle Street, even though in later years I went ski-ing in the Cairngorms with his daughter Rose.

I remember Mr Nixon had a bristly moustache, half specs, and had a strange habit of lodging your head under his oxter so that he could get leverage to deal with your offending tooth! 

After one tooth extraction, I got my own back on him by bleeding so badly during the night, my poor Dad got a fright and thought I had been assaulted as I lay in my bed!  After much shouting on the phone, the said Mr Nixon had to travel 12 miles out of Inverness the next morning to deal with my still bleeding mouth.  After that, I went to the school dentist, who seemed a bit kinder!

Wasn't there a Chemist just up Castle Street from Nixon the Dentist?

[Scarlet Pimple]

There you go Eliza-it is a small world isn't it?

Mr Nixon did actually do a good job of putting on a gold cap which literally lasted for a very long time.Very durable material -I guess that is why they use it.

However, once was enough for me and I never re-visited him. Mind you that may not be strictly true since he did pull out one of my lower molars, but whether it ws before or after my sad experience I cannot recall. Now why would a dentist pull out a molar at age 16 when he could have filled it. Maybe he had seen  the wild look in my eye before and decided that a quick extraction was a safer course.It never went too well either since he  broke the tooth into splinters as he pulled it.

I should have impeached him.... :002:

[latviaman]

Gosh I've rememberd he gave me gas when extracting a tooth and I awoke with blood streaming out of my mouth, he said it's only a short term problem. My mother who was with me nearly fainted at the blood on my cardy, and I said no matter the pain I will never go there again (Poetry)

[Charles Bannerman]

I also remember the days of gas (N2O - nitrous oxide or laughing gas). I used to get it from Mr. MacDonald in Queensgate when I was a kid. Then in the 70s Eddie Sharpe in Hilton started giving a different gas which became very popular although IHE probably relied on stamps.

[CaleyD]

I have a vague recollection of having a tooth removed under gas at Hilton when I was just a sprog.  I couldn't tell you what the place was like in any detail, but for some reason watching old movies where mad scientist types perform operations and experiments in dark cellars always seems to remind me of that tooth extraction!!!

[Guest Jock Watt]

I remember going to the county council building to have 7 (YES, SEVEN!!!) teeth pulled out in one sitting !!  I'm not at all sure that the seven were altogether necessary!   :008:   :029:

[Charles Bannerman]

One day whwen we were about third year in school, a large group of us were gathered together discussing our dentists. At one point I embarked upon an enraged rant about what a butcher my dentist Mr. Cameron in Queensgate was... how his injections ripped into your mouth.. how his drilling techniques created agony etc etc. Once I had said my impassioned piece, a girl at the back of the group piped up "Oh... that's my dad!"

It was at that point that I thought it safer to head up to Eddie Sharpe at Hilton.

[Downinthedumps]

There was another dentists surgery at the bottom of Castle Street roughly about where Macdonalds and G's are. They were one floor up and I think there were two dentists. The one I had the misfortune to go to was a real butcher whose name I think was McGlachlan. He had a surgery beside The Ness Bank Church before that. Among his torture methods on me were fillings with no injection  and as I had never been to a dentist before I assumed this was the norm. Only when I changed to another dentist did I realise I could have saved myself from years of torment  :019:

[Scotty]

There was another dentists surgery at the bottom of Castle Street roughly about where Macdonalds and G's are. They were one floor up and I think there were two dentists. The one I had the misfortune to go to was a real butcher whose name I think was McGlachlan. He had a surgery beside The Ness Bank Church before that. Among his torture methods on me were fillings with no injection  and as I had never been to a dentist before I assumed this was the norm. Only when I changed to another dentist did I realise I could have saved myself from years of torment  :019:

Castro (a husband and wife team) were dentists there .... Mr Castro was a regular dentist, Mrs Castro was an orthodontist. He's the guy who used to work on my teeth without anaesthetic because I had a fear of needles ..... thank goodness that fear is now long gone.

[Charles Bannerman]

[Castro (a husband and wife team) were dentists there .... Mr Castro was a regular dentist, Mrs Castro was an orthodontist. He's the guy who used to work on my teeth without anaesthetic because I had a fear of needles ..... thank goodness that fear is now long gone.

Richard Castro is now part of the Kingsmills Dental Practice across the road from the Heathmount where anaesthesia can be administered by the pint, possibly - even at Heathmount prices - more cheaply than in a dentist's.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Charles--you seem to have had your moments! Ha!  :001:

Compared to the dentist's rtechnique in Canada for th epast 34 years I have to say that  things have improved greatly in comparison to the likes of Mr Nixon'a  performance .

I could , somehow, stand the pain but when he brusqely told me "sit still boy" that broke my spirit. As if I had no right to be there and I was not helping him to make a living.

Do you think his stipend at the end of the month was greatly augmented by not adminstering a wee shot of anaesthetic to the young and vulnerable.

As it was,  since I was slipping lower and lower in the chair I was faced by his assault up top and my short pants were also grabbing tighter and tighter between the patients's legs such that the poor wee lad's tentacles were in the grip of unreasonable and growing pain. It was at that point thjat my right eye caught sight of the left just over the bridge of my nose!  :002:

That was indeed called a visit to remember :008: :029:

Hoch! Hoch!