For those with a phobia of impromptu dentistry made in dusty, excrement-covered streets by a man who puts his patients in headlocks while using rusty pliers to pluck out rotten molars, this gallery of India's street dentists is sure to have you lying on the floor in a panic attack.
I guess the question is, even if you don't have a dentistry phobia, would you let a street dentist work on you? I want to unequivocally state that I would have no hesitation about doing so whatsoever. The streets of India are jam-packed with booths and shops and the guys who work these are extraordinarily capable I was once in India and needed a really old belt repaired, so I brought it to a street side leatherworker. This guy did the best job I've ever seen — he practically transformed my cheap old belt into a crocodile leather Armani — and then charged me, no joke, 10 cents. When I gave him a buck? He practically fell on the ground and worshiped me. These guys can perform brain surgery on me as far as I'm concerned.
An Indian street dentist can't be worse than the mad Germanic who took out my wisdom teeth when I was 14, who stitched my inside lips to my gum line. My first kiss followed a week later, before the stitches were removed: remind me sometime to tell you all of the horrible tearing sound and the spurting gore as my first girlfriend's tongue was jammed into my mouth. It really is the perfect metaphor for teenage love.
India's Street Dentists (13 pics) [iStatic]
