Table of Contents

Introduct ion 7
1 R ai s ed i n the Tomato Hous e 1 3
2 The colonel s take charge 2 9
3 Survi v ing the D epres s ion 47
4 Keep d r i l l ing and carry on 6 3
5 The baby boom years 8 9
6 ‘We were cookie-cut ter p eople , real ly’ 1 2 1
7 Di s s ens ion i n the r anks 1 41
8 The march that changed every thing 1 6 3
9 Decl ine and fal l 1 8 9
1 0 Everyday mercury p o i soning 2 0 9
1 1 Pai n and pol icy 2 2 5
Appendix: Dent i s try’s painful pas t 2 3 3
Notes 2 3 6
About the author 2 4 6
Ackn owledgements 2 47
Image credits 2 4 8
Inde x 2 49

About the Author

Noel O’Hare is a freelance journalist, columnist, blogger and author. Born in Northern Ireland, 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, 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 Public Service Association.

Reviews

‘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.’ 
*Otago Daily Times*

‘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.’ 
*Grown Ups*