The wild part is what's cut off in the bottom section.
However, "Much of what he championed—patient advocacy, increased access to dental care, and advertising—has come to pass in the U.S.
So I guess, possibly not as bad as the opening line makes him sound, and perhaps even an improvement over the standards of the time
Some other choice sections.
The band attracted large crowds and hid the moans and cries of patients who were given whiskey or a cocaine solution that he called "hydrocaine" to numb the pain.[2] He charged 50 cents for each extraction and promised that if it hurt, he would pay the patient $5.
he Historical Dental Museum at the Temple University School of Dentistry has a display dedicated to Parker, with his necklace of 357 teeth and a large wooden bucket filled to the brim with teeth that he had personally pulled. The bucket of teeth sat by his feet as he lectured the crowds on the importance of dental hygiene.
Almost sounds like the guy may have been maligned by his fellow dentists for calling them out on their BS.
Honestly, as someone who's lacked dental care for 15 years, while it surprises me "street dentist" is a term, what surprises me the most is that I've never considered trying to find one. Lol. I've pulled my own teeth, why did I never consider finding a shady dude to do it for me?
He legally changed his first name to "Painless" when he was accused of breaking a false advertisement law by claiming that his dentistry was truly painless.[1][2] When business thrived, he hired assistants and established a chain dentistry business.[2] In the end, Parker ran 28 West Coast dental offices, employing over 70 dentists, and grossing $3 million per year.
That's also where the concept of a "barbershop quartet" came from. Dentists would have the aforementioned quartet singing loudly outside of their shop to drown out the screaming of patients inside.
One might ask, "why the barber"? Well, they had the sharpest blades in town which made them the defacto surgeon, and before anesthesia, amputations involved at least as much screaming as pulling teeth.
It is suppose to be a guy coming to local market to put out the teeth of however cannot pay for dentist. It would usually come with a band to hide the cry of the "patient" and would commonly lie by telling to be able to do it painlessly. Exactly like the qikipedia describe it.
It was still pretty common at that time in France. It's not fine to pretend to be painless however it was a commun line in the trade. It has give us the saying "mentir comme (lying like) un arracheur de dent".