Tooth and Veil: The life and times of the New Zealand dental nurse

(Paperback)

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The story of the young women charged with waging war on our nation's poor teeth In 1921, when the School Dental Service was established, New Zealand embarked on a unique social experiment: improving the terrible state of the nation's teeth. Set up by veterans of the First World War, the service - focused on 'battling Bertie Germ' - was run like a military operation and the all-female dental nurses were treated like foot-soldiers: underpaid, overworked and poorly resourced. Eventually they rebelled. In this lively history, Noel O'Hare details the nurses' experiences on the front line of dental health, and explores what that reveals about our society's attitudes to women, work and children's health.

Reviews

'I thought Tooth and Veil a good read. Letting some of the dental nurses tell their stories in their own words and the many black and white photographs of dental nurses at work brought the part New Zealand dental nurses played in the battle for women's rights alive for me. Any residual hard feelings you may still be harbouring about the pain that was inflicted on you in the 'Murder House' will more than likely be dissipated as you read about the Dental Nurses' side of the story.' - Lyn Potter, Grown Ups; 'That a dental history should rely so heavily on 'oral' history is just one of the delights of Tooth and Veil. The other is that those much-maligned heroines of dental health have at last had a chance to tell their side of the story.' - Jim Sullivan, Otago Daily Times

Author Bio

Noel O'Hare is a freelance journalist, columnist, blogger and author. Northern Ireland-born, Noel has lived and worked in New Zealand since the early 1970s. In the 1980s he became a staff writer for the New Zealand Listener magazine, where he wrote many award-winning features on subjects as diverse as reading, tantric sex, diet, mental illness and alternative therapies. He was awarded a 2003-2004 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism to write articles on mental health, in particular about the effects of migration on mental health. He is the author of Think before you Swallow: The art of staying healthy in a health-obsessed world (2007) and How to Save the World by Recycling Your Sex Toys (2009). Until recently, he worked as a researcher and writer for the PSA.