My earliest memory of dental problems was when I was about seven years old. I was a child of less than nothing as far as money in the bank. If something broke, Daddy fixed it with bailing wire or Mama fixed it with Vicks salve. Grandma Minnie Smith fixed it with a poultice made of road bank clay and vinegar.
I had a toothache that gave me a fat jaw on one side. I looked like a half full jawed chipmunk. My tooth throbbed, I cried. Mama held a hot water bottle to my jaw. The swelling went down somewhat. My first-grade picture shows my chipmunk look.
I didn't smile.
I hurt.
I was taken to see Dr. Purefoy in Flomaton. The office was located on the second floor above Rexall Drug store. Up a stairway from the back alley if my memory serves me. I smelled something strong and suspiciously like medicine. I stood as close to Daddy as possible as he explained to Dr. Purefoy that I needed to get my tooth pulled. Daddy had no use for teeth fillings.
"Take it out, it's rotten."
I have such an indelible memory of dark hallways and Nurse Ratchet with her starched white dress, the sounds of her thighs sheathed in rayon stockings rubbing together making a noticeable sound as she moved around. The most memorable thing about the tooth extraction was the smells of what I believe to have been alcohol. Dr. Purefoy held up a needle that looked like a basketball pump. He talked to Daddy as I lay in that hydraulic chair that seemed to cause the ceiling to fall down on me.
I may have fainted several times.
My heart beat out of my chest. Dr. Purefoy and Daddy talked as if I wasn't near death. Nurse Rachet never smiled. I didn't like her then and I still don't like her. I never knew her name, never saw her again, but she remains someone that stays in my memory until today as a lady that should have been trained to care for little children better. I wanted her to hold my hand, she didn't even ask my name. Dr. Purefoy pushed that needle into my jaw…
Next thing I remember was hearing my tooth cracking away from my jaw bone. He pulled me up off the chair. I couldn't feel any pain, but I felt myself being lifted.
That was a bad day.
My next dental visit was to get another jaw tooth extracted. I was about nine or ten years old. Daddy took me to Brewton to have Dr. Dozier do the do. Same kind of procedure as the first tooth extraction with Dr. Purefoy except Dr. Dozier packed the empty space with a wad of gauze, sent me home to bleed. By midnight Daddy and Mama became alarmed at my loss of so much blood. I was taken to the hospital in Century for care.
Daddy said,
"Tuberville will fix it."
I'm not sure which Dr. Tuberville put a stitch in my gums to close the bleeding off, but it stopped and I went home to sleep for a long time.
In the summer of 1957, I was staying in Jay, Florida with my Aunt Carrie Williams to help care for Grandma Minnie Smith. Grandma had entered that road to nowhere called dementia. Aunt Carrie was old and needed help caring for Grandma who was older. Our days were never the same, but things were always funny. At least to me because Grandma had a new vocabulary.
I had a toothache. Aunt Carrie was old school like my Daddy with using home remedies for health care. She brought me a bottle of horse liniment to help calm the ache.
"Rub this on you tooth, it will stop the hurt."
I took a cotton ball soaked in HORSE LINIMENT and pushed it down between my tooth and my gums. About a New York minute I knew something was off. My tooth ache had stopped, the lining of my gums sloughed off, my sinus cleared, my heartbeat drummed my brains. I danced in circles like those native tribesmen did in Ramar of the Jungle. Aunt Carrie laughed like a woman possessed and Grandma Minnie laughed like a hyena on steroids because Aunt Carrie was laughing. Eventually, Aunt Carrie said,
"Sugar girl, you needed to rub it on your outside cheek, that is HORSE LINIMENT.”
Uncle Dan had come to see what all the ruckus was about. He decided to put the bottle of horse liniment back out into the barn.
THEN
In circa 1962 I had a tooth to get abscessed. The weather was cold and rainy. I was working shift work at Chemstrand. Daddy and Mama were both passed away and my siblings and I were responsible for our own health care. I had put off having the tooth taken care of timely, it was HURTING.
About 1:00 a.m. that tooth was throbbing so bad I could feel my heart beating in my jaw. It would throb, I would cry and walk the floor. The throbbing seemed to change gears to throb harder. I thought I was gonna die…
I woke my younger brother Buddy up to drive me to Flomaton to check with Dr. Purefoy if perhaps he could help me. This was back before phone lines had brought communications out to Barnett Crossroads. So,
Buddy drove me to the nearest phone booth in Flomaton which was located outside Nolin's Service Station. Nolin's sat about where Jeff's Feed and Farm Supply is now located. The rain was pouring down, the morning was coming in a few hours and I was hurting to death.
I finally found Dr. Purefoy's home number in that old dogeared telephone directory. I pushed my money into the slot, it clattered, I dialed numbers, the phone rang. Dr. Purefoy listened through my pain and told me to meet him at his office. I was in my ratty old peddle-pushers and flipflops, he was in his old BVD underwear top with a sweater over with a pair of double-knit britches and scruffy house shoes. I sat and waited while he loaded that dreaded needle with precious Novocain…
More recently I forgot to wear my partial when I attended my beloved W. S. Neal Class of 1959 chat-n-chew. We always have a good laugh or two, but this time it turned into a real Hee Haw Show. Everybody told a funny as tea spewed back through my nose and both hands I held covering my mouth.
Lawdhammercy, that was a fun day.
I made a promise to myself I would never again suffer a toothache. I have had much dental work done in my 79 years. They aren't pretty, but they don't hurt. I have had partials done, I have had bridges fitted into my mouth, I have had fillings done, I have had root canals done, I have had caps put on my teeth; but I have never suffered a toothache since fall of 1962.
***Brush your teeth, floss and see your dentist.***
