If you’ve ever spent an afternoon digging through the Toronto library archives, you’ll find many interesting stories from a bygone era, including the unlikely story of how a Toronto dentist and public health advocate once held political office. Back in the 1940s, Dr. Frederick L. Conboy was the mayor of Toronto for four years, but … Read more
Did you know that one of Stephen’s King’s ten favourite books is about a dentist? Specifically, a turn-of-the-century novel about a San Francisco dentist, McTeague, that’s become a minor classic of American literature. What has changed in dentistry since the time that the novel was published in 1899, and what is still the same? Here … Read more
Other historical eras can seem more appealing than our own. If you yearn for simpler times, then you might wish you lived in early 20th century Canada, in a town like the one described by Stephen Leacock in “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.” If the hippie counterculture is your thing, then you might wish … Read more
File this one under “history of dentistry.” It seems hard to believe now, but cocaine was once touted as a remedy for tooth pain. The photo shows a 19th-century advertisement for a toothache remedy that would certainly not pass muster with modern dentists. The ad itself, which promises an “instantaneous cure” for tooth pain, might … Read more