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Thursday 23 February 2012

THOUGHTS ON TEETH AND MUM

Just watched BBC One Show... the article (segment) on teeth of children in Northern Ireland.... How desperate a a situation, down to fizzy, sugary drinks mainly. 
My teeth are not good , but in good order. Like many of us aged 60+ we were conceived after the war, when diet had been poor for many of our mothers. 
My mum came from a very poor family of miners. Her dad left when she was very young. Her last memory of him was that he waved as he went down the hill to go to work. He never returned. She always told this story with tears in her eyes. Many years later he died in Canada leaving   Mum and her sister the princely sum of £134 each. Know one knows what happened in the interim, perhaps she had half siblings...? maybe one day when I'm less mobile I'll investigate.
So Back to teeth. Mum did her best to give me milk as a youngster. I know I was breast fed... but at a young age we moved to the Bahamas. Milk then became a real problem. I was given KLIM.. a powdered milk, ( not good) and diluted carnation (really not good).
One memory I have is Mum saying :You will sit there till you drink it.(carnation that is) This meant I was late for school. Dad was the Headteacher. Not wishing to show leniency ( he had been having a difficult time on this island, Cherokee Sound, and , I now know, was on the verge of a nervous breakdown which would change all of our lives for ever. Anyway I would not drink the horrible warm stuff ( no fridge), so he came and dragged me to school ( 100 yds), me screaming and certain I was in the right, then I had the cane... in front of the 300 pupils. Three swipes across the hand. 
I continued to defy the calcium efforts of mum.. she gave me a pill each night, I popped them down the side of my bed... some weeks later... when cleaning, mum found them all. I was not too good at deception!
Just after this I got pneumonia. There was no doctor on the island. Nurse Netty ( not a real nurse) but the one who delivered babies, came to see me. ( Planes to Nassau and a doctor only every 2 weeks)   .. well it was her or a witch doctor. She prescribed breathing Turpentine in hot water. Somehow I survived.
On each visit to Nassau we went to the dentists .. our dentist had an assistant for normal duties ( like now) but an additional assistant whose soul job was to wipe the sweat off his brow!... How vivid are these memories.
So it;s no wonder I have lots of crowns, but they are all mine, despite the terrible start.
Beginnings are important. My eldest daughter who lived in Cambridge till she was 5, fluoride is added to water..... has no fillings, my younger daughter who was 6mths when we left Cambridge , has only 2. Not bad.

HUG ME , I'VE GOT MND

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