‘Monty, Bring the Blood Can!’ Pulling Teeth in Working-Class Lancashire, 1900-1948

Working-class health cultures before the NHS have long been of scholarly interest but those related to oral health are chronically underexamined. This article examines one important aspect of this history - tooth pulling - in early twentieth-century Lancashire. By highlighting the dynamics of market supply and demand, it demonstrates how and why the tooth pulling services of non-orthodox practitioners called dental mechanics remained popular despite the increasing monopolisation of oral health by dentists. While dentists characterised mechanics as quacks and offered expensive and exclusionary services many feared, working-class Lancastrians sought out mechanics because they formed a trusted part of their communities. This demonstration of a population’s preference for unorthodox over orthodox practitioners provides a much-needed counter-narrative to professionalisation in oral health and highlights the significance of geographically specific traditions over the values of medicine and science.