Didn't the army use tooth paste?

The

Australians were the first to introduce army dentistry in 1915/16 - the reason was that so many had had to be evacuated from Gallipoli and discharged because their teeth were so bad that they could not eat their rations and were suffering malnutrition as a result. The British army followed suit. At first civilian dentists were paid a retainer to be available but still continued with their civilian practice, this included many French dentists. However as demand rose this proved impractical and full time army dentists had to be used. War Office dentures were introduced and these were said to be of higher quality than many civilian false teeth as military specifications had demanded a certain robustness. One of the (few) advantages of joining the army was that your teeth got sorted out, it was the only way that many could hope to obtain dentures.
Outside of the USA dentistry everywhere was pretty primitive until after WW2. Anaesthetic was very expensive and rarely used so that having a tooth extracted was often over relatively quickly and less of an ordeal than having a filling where a treadle powered drill was used for a long time.

 

My dad claimed to tell the army dentist to ".. take the bloody lot out". This request was largely driven by his discomfort, although I suspect he had one eye on Civvy Street and the prospect of having to pay, if the promise of a future NHS failed to materialise.

Sergeant ACK-ACK: The Toothbrush Legacy

 

In the immediate post war the Irish army made a thing of giving its soldiers the best medical treatment. A colleague of mine back in the 70s was the son of one of two full time Irish Army dentists. Apparently at that time if an Irish soldier got a filling it was a gold one but the practice arose that the day after the soldier would seek out a civilian dentist and have the filling replaced with an ordinary amalgam and the money got from selling the gold paid for going on the lash! An ordinary filling soon became standard.

 

if my memory serves me right (on this occasion) Toothpaste was never issued but along with Blanco had to be bought at the NAAFI

Ron

 

Thanks Ron! Any idea if it came in tubes or in boxes (like the one in my first post)? I do realise it's 76 years ago...

Kind regards, Ronald.

 

See my post #10 - before the NAAFI it was canteen stock usually bought in locally (like Egyptian beer). I think the reasons why the Andrew had its own brand was that ships could find themselves in ports where there was no local production.

 

As you both rightly point out, it was a long time ago.

i never quite forgave the army for making me pay for Blanco !!!!!

Ron

 

Militaria Zone

Just for info .

Kyle

 

Recruit selection for the second AIF was sloppy and haphazard, at least in part because recruits only came in a trickle between 1939 and the June 1940 crisis. The AIF was desperate to get men in that first year, and I strongly suspect that the local boards felt this. As a result, the AIF took in far too many unfit and marginally fit men, including the too old, the too young, the mentally unstable, etc. Dental selection was no better. I've read the Australian medical volume covering the AIF in the Middle East, and the Australian Army dentists were appalled by what they found. In Tobruk, just as at Gallipoli, there were men who could barely chew their rations. The painful lessons of 1915/16 had been forgotten between the wars and in the haste of 1939/40. Such regression, of course, happened in many departments of the British and Commonwealth armies.

 

There was an historical precedent (which of course doesn't make it right, merely regimental). In the eighteenth, very early nineteenth century. soldiers were expected to whiten their hair but pomade was not provided by the state and members of a mess had to club together to buy it (indeed since a pomaded soldier's pigtail was called a club this may have been the origin of club). Inferior products were offered (at cheaper cost) mainly involving mixtures of fat and flour and resulted in pests (insects mice and rats) being attracted to sleeping soldiers' hair. The Duke of York (the one who marched then all to the top of the hill) attempted against much opposition to introduce the "short back and sides". His protege (Duke of Wellington) finished the job. For Wellington a uniform had only three requirements

• It allowed one to distinguish friend from foe even in the smoke of battle.
• It kept the soldier warm and dry
• It allowed him to march.

 

We Germans are known (or rather notorious) for regulating everything immediately by law or in the sense of an administrative regulation. And therefore it was German custom that the Wehrmacht stipulated the "daily ablutions" in every detail:

"Every morning after getting up, the soldier must wash his face, neck, chest, and hands, and clean his fingernails, rinse his mouth, brush his teeth, comb his hair, and tidy it. ... At least once a week the feet must be washed and the nails of the same must be cut."

By the way, the original regulations for this are from the year 1883

 

Which does not specify tooth powder
It was Jerome K Jerome who stated that the German authorities did not need condemned cells etc etc but merely to issue the sentenced with a length of rope and a set of instructions. (see Three men on the Bummel).

 

Toothpastes were NAAFI goods (Marketenderware), the usual brands were "Chlorodont", „Ivodont“, "Bofu" and "Thoramat" (contained Thorium-X)
By the way, on the eastern front also popular as winter camouflage for helmets

 

A radio active that emitted alpha rays! It was fluorescent so your teeth glowed!

 

Which all somewhat refutes the image of sun bronzed Australian supermen towering over the undernourished rickety stunted dregs of the British slums that Kieth Murdoch and others of that ilk liked to paint.

 

Absolutely.

 

My dentist told me that when he was in dental school he was assigned to work with an experienced dentist deep in the country of Tennessee. He said he had to pull a molar of a fairly young guy and when he was done the man said to him, "While it is numb go ahead and pull out the rest on that side."

He said he was shocked and told him there wasn't anything wrong with those teeth and he wouldn't pull them. He said the dentist told him later that he probably should have pulled them because when the man got home he was probably going to pull them himself with pliers while the novocaine was still working. This was in the late sixties.

Just being practical, I guess. Both sad and scary to me.