A canoeist, who was attempting an adventurous voyage from Goulburn to the sea along the Wollondilly river, escaped a 30.ft fall only by catching a rope in his teeth! He and his partner, said the river was in flood. Their canoe was caught in some rapids on the first day. After leaving Arthurslelgh, all their provisions were swamped. They finished the trip to Barralier on bread 16 days old. They saw only one person between Arthursleigh and Bowman’s Hill, a man, who walked eight miles through the gorges to take them food.
An unregistered dentist, extracted the tooth of a client, who came to him one evening, and asked if he would take out an aching tooth. After receiving payment for the service, he was promptly taken to court by the patient, who was a plain-clothes constable!
Source: The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882-1950), Thu 26 Feb 1942
His life for his teeth was nearly the epitaph of a Dutch merchant, who left his teeth in a hut on the summit of a 7,000ft. Cxecho-Slovakian mountain. He went back and found them, but fell 70ft, and was unconscious for 12 hours until revived by rain.
Source: Shepparton Advertiser (Vic: 1914-1953), Fri 13 Dec 1935
A dentist at Pama, Illinois, lost the sight of an eye, when a tooth, which he was extracting flew from the forceps, broke the lens of his spectacles, and punctured his eyeball!
Source: Goulburn Evening Penny Post (NSW: 1881-1940), Thu 27 Oct 1932
Having to dive and retrieve his false teeth half way through the event, did not prevent a competitor from winning the 100 yards breaststroke handicap at Sandringham. He was at the half way mark, when his teeth slipped into shallow water. He immediately duck dived, replaced them and continued to swim!
Source: Warwick Daily News (QLD: 1919-1954) Mon, 14 Feb 1949
Dashing daringly through Alpine tunnels and holding a torch with her teeth because she had lost the headlight of her machine in a collision with a runaway motor car, which was careering backwards down the mountain pass, Miss Marjorie Cottlo completed the international motorcycle test without losing a mark. She won the highest award, the gold medal.
Source: The Queenslander (Brisbane, QLD: 1866-1939) Thu 7 Aug 1930
A Prospect resident, after being disturbed in the early hours of the morning, found a prowler’s false teeth in his front garden. The house owner was awakened at 4.45 a.m. by someone in the front of his home and looked out to see a man run off. Shortly after, the same man returned and was seen peering over the fence, apparently looking for his teeth!
Source: News (Adelaide, SA: 1923-1954) Mon 19 Mar 1951
On arrival to Australia after World War II, some of the Baltic women migrants had a morbid fear of losing their teeth. One of the women said she saw a picture in an American magazine of three smiling Australian girls. The caption read: ‘Pretty? Yes. But their teeth are false.’ On making enquiries, she was told that Australian water was bad for the people’s teeth. Another Latvian lady, was worried about her teeth too, but she was more concerned about our snakes. She had heard terrible stories about how huge reptiles slithered into houses at night and terrorised the occupants.
Source: The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882-1950), Thu 29 April, 1948
Pearly teeth have not always been the hallmark of personal beauty. England lagged far behind in teeth culture. When most of the world relied upon toothpicks for a modicum of oral hygiene, England, during Shakespeare’s days, contemptuously regarded them as the imprimatur of the foreigner, and even then, hopelessly out of date. Before the 12th century, little or no hygiene prevailed; but with the next hundred years came books of etiquette, which decreed that it was unmannerly to pick the teeth with a knife! Before this, apparently, it had been quite a fashionable habit. From then on, the desire to retain and maintain oral cleanliness flourished slowly and painfully, and it was not until 1813 that a type of modern toothbrush was described by a Parisian ladies’ dentist, one Joseph Lemaire. Even following that, the public was reluctant to accept the principle of daily cleaning.
Source: The Newcastle Sun (NSW: 1918-1954), Tues 2 Jul 1935
An old lady of large means, living in Massachusetts, found her side teeth falling out, and employed a fashionable dentist to manufacture a set for her in the latest style. The five artificial teeth were mounted on a solid gold plate. Several years later, the lady’s natural front teeth also began to drop from their places. However, the memory of the dentist’s bill for the original set, deterred the thrifty dame from again consulting that artist. Instead, she set to work, to do a little dentistry at home. Piercing the gold plate at the proper place with a needle, she sewed on an ivory button with strong linen thread. As additional front teeth fell out, she added more buttons to the plate, until at last, she displayed four of these, whenever she laughed and chatted with her neighbors.
Source: The World’s News (Sydney, NSW: 1901-1955) Sat 9 Apr 1904
