Obscure dentist chair question

[IndigoSpritz]

If you were a dental patient from the late 1960s to the early 1980s did your dentist have a chair anything like these grim specimens ? Mine did, one blue and one pink and they terrified me as a small child. I think they were dated even for the 1970s. Thank goodness they're obsolete now. I still have weird dreams about them !

The other pics:

At my dentist the chair still kind of looks like that, only in white....

That's awful Neptune. Are you in the UK ?

This is what mine looks like. Its still scary and unpleasant. As is the vulnerable feeling of your head being upside down

They were very good for sitting the patient upright for impressions for prosthetic work.

Surely that's what dentists' chairs look like?? The one stop our surgery does. 4 year old DD absolutely loves it because it goes up and down!

Martha, I don't mind the modern chairs at all. I'm sorry if it's an issue for you.

Interesting answer Ada. Do you have a dental background ?

I kinda like the old style chairs. I just hate going to the dentist. Not been in 2 years but have appointment next week

What do you dream about? What a bizarre post

They just look like normal dentists chairs to me! Except they're white nowadays

Topsy. I was very scared of the dentist when I was a youngster - in particular those unpleasant looking chairs. I never sat in one voluntarily and I think that's the issue. Unfinished business from about forty years ago that my brain is still trying to make sense of. I appreciate this is a weird subject.

Its pretty interesting that its the chairs that get you. For me its the smell that instantly makes me panic before i even get to the chair.

I think they were used in the 90's too. It seems only recently that dentist chairs changed, when they began to compete with each other with all the extras like Invisalign, whitening, botox, fillers and swish premises. In 2010 or thereabouts I went to a dentist that still had a grey, old looking chair, the waiting room was grim too, lots of plastic covered hospital style chairs crammed into a stuffy room, back to back so that the person behind was leaning on you. An unpleasant experience for a very high price.

I have since discovered the modern, all white, comfy sofas, coffee machine with china cups kind of place but sadly it comes with pressure to use all the above treatments too. No sign of any previous NHS equipment at all.

I could be wrong but the chairs in the photos and the two I remember were made by Siemens, most likely in (West) Germany. A triumph of functionality over looks and patient comfort. The last time I visited that particular surgery was in 1981 and both chairs had thankfully been replaced with much more up to date numbers. I started to relax a little about going to the dentist from then on.

I'd be amazed if any dentists in the developed world are still using old stuff like this. Museum pieces or scrap heap fodder !

My dentist has one failry similar to that now (obviously a bit less clunky looking, but same positions) he always sets it so I am lying virtually flat and I have this weird fear that he might drop something on my face (like an out of control drill )

Also the chair once sort of dropped down suddenly of it's own accord and the instrument he was using jerked in his hand and cut my gum (it was one of those kind of clampy things)

Looks the same as today's dental chairs to me!

The chairs in the photos were designed for an upright patient position. They could only be reclined if it was necessary because the patient had passed out ! Modern chairs can do all sorts of positions and angles, not just limited to up and down and tilt like the antiques.

Maybe there is still some vintage equipment in use after all. I'd probably freak out if I saw old dentist chairs again; then again, the dreams might stop.

The other thing about the nasty chairs (the blue was worse than the pink - don't ask why - they were otherwise identical) was the very business-like mechanical humming and whirring when they were raised and lowered etc. You could hear the bastards in the waiting room downstairs which just added to the fear.