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A Century of Family Dental Practice in the Northeast of England - Part 3
Anthony T Brown, JP LDS (1940— )
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As the third generation of dentists, I joined the family practice in Parliament Road, Middlesbrough, following qualification, in August 1962. Full of new ideas and enthusiasm for what could be achieved in the modern practice of dentistry, I had, in principle, plenty of scope to change a building and system in which, time, for a number of decades, had stood still. Dentists were just beginning to realise that standing all day was not an ideal situation and Murray Stools were bought. These were operating stools cantilevered off the chair base on two strong pivoting arms and allowed full access to the semi-recumbent patient with tip-toe control on the footrest. A consultant anaesthetist was brought in on a sessional basis to administer generals and dental surgery assistants, as they then were, were increased in number and quality of training.
By 1970, father had retired to a part-time position and I and my new young partner set about expanding and modernising the practice. The caretaker's accommodation was taken into the practice and a new office extension was built at the back. This was a time of great shortage in dental manpower and in the interests of efficiency and high output consistent with high quality we each had the use of three surgeries so a half hour conservation patient could be awaiting anaesthesia whilst a scaling, denture stage or casual extraction could be carried out in the other rooms. A separate X-ray room for peri-apicals and lateral obliques was fitted out with protective screens and manned by trained and qualified dental nurses who also took all of the OPGs when this very useful machine was subsequently installed. Although principally an NHS practice since the scheme’s inception, an increasing number of private patients had discovered our enthusiastic interest in private and cosmetic dentistry and perhaps a little ahead of most of our colleagues we promoted private dental treatment for fee-paying patients. Somewhat to our surprise, we hit the headlines in the local paper in 1974 with the headlines “A private shock for man at dentist’s”! As an early and ardent supporter of the new white “composite” filling material, a particular interest of mine was the advantages and limitations of composites in posterior teeth. When light-curing composites first came onto the market, the light guns were very expensive and given their fairly simple working principles I followed my interest in making small items of equipment by manufacturing two of these light guns which served us faithfully for many years. By the 90s, the need for high output had eased slightly but I maintained my three surgery configuration to cover the increasing amounts of time that had to be spent by support staff, conforming to more and more stringent sterilisation and decontamination requirements between patients. Whilst traditionally this was a strong denture practice with up to three dental technicians, our unrelenting efforts to promote conservation reduced the need to one technician and in the interests of increasing specialisation and equipment in the technical field, the work was eventually sent to an outside dental lab. By 2004 I had come up to retirement and with the increasing, and I now think, totally justified concern over the imminent new contract, there was little enthusiasm amongst colleagues to continue offering family dental care in Parliament Road, Middlesbrough so the end of an era was marked by the sale of the Victorian twin terrace house and its conversion into student accommodation. Dr. A. T. Brown |
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