ANOTHER strange question if you were at primary school in the '70s.

[AgentProvocateur]

That other thread about school milk (vom) and a biscuit prompted me to ask if anyone who was at primary school in the late '70s, got a visit from a "dental person" once a week with mouthwash? She came into our class with a huge bottle and we all got a small plastic cupful from her pump dispenser. I can remember her coming in and the taste of the mouthwash, and I have a vague recollection of us spitting it into a communal bucket... (Is that too disgusting, even for the 70s?)

DH is the same age as me, and I think in these days both our schools would have been in Strathclyde Region, but he has no recollection.

Wasn't the Tufty club the road safety squirrel? I was in the Happy Smile club for dental health!

old you're probably right about that! weird as I can almost see the toothbrush and mug

Ah, that takes me back! I remember the Happy Smile club because a man came with a huge, really huge head on (you could see him through the mouth) the 'head' had a big smile with gleaming white teeth and he told us how to brush our teeth etc.

I had to leave a comment on this subject because by the strangest of coincidences my and friend where talking about that very thing! Apart from over in a primary school in East Lothian we knew her as the “spit lady” and I remember there being a competition each week to be the one that carried her bucket after we’d been swilling a mouth full of fluoride around our wee mouths for three minutes! It was always the same two girls that battled it out for the privilege of the bucket.
What I remember is when the shout of spit lady went round the school my jaw automatically started to ache à la Pavlovs dogs! (excuse the spelling)

Lothian Region in the 1980’s. I dreaded every Friday morning when she appeared with her tray of mouth wash. Then you spat it in to a basin.

Yes! Lothian region, started school in 1977 and remember this every week/fortnight until about P4/P5?

I did it too. Edinburgh, deprived area. As far as I understand it was some sort of fluoride trial. It's maybe the reason that I now only have 3 fillings, 2 of which are tiny.

Strathclyde in the mid 70s. Thankfully we never had that. Sounds gross. I do remember having to go to the medical room for some vaccination that you got on a sugar lump.

Strathclyde in the 80s. I remember a dental visit in the late 80s where we all had to brush our teeth and spit into a shared bucket! So must have still been a thing. I remember getting milk and sometimes an apple.

Polio sugarlump @feellikeanalien

I started this thread in 2015, and I’d managed to purge the memories of the communal spit bucket from my mind until it showed up in ‘threads you’re on’ today! 😂

That was it.