The Murder House

I'm a victim of the murder house at Hampstead school in Ashburton. Luckily not traumatised by the experience of having FOUR fillings without warning on my very first visit aged 5. No such thing as a local anaesthetic or a high speed drill. No the horrible slow belt-driven thing. In my late 50s I have perfect teeth EXCEPT for the 5 that were originally drilled by dental nurses when I was young. Heading for regular and costly root canals and other work in these teeth for the rest of my life.

To be fair, most of the nurses were nice; I recall a particularly sarcastic and evil one at Elmwood school in Christchurch though - hope you're reading this!

Lynda the murder house In Christchurch was in Colombo Street, we used to go there by bus.

I am 65 and still remember vividly having to hop on a bus and go to the Dental Nurse training School, somewhere in Christchurch. Does anybody remember where this was? Rows and rows of children getting drilled and drilled. "Oh we haven't time now for the real filling. We'll have to put a temporary one in and we will see you next week for the real filling." My teeth were fill of fillings, but I had never ever experienced any pain from having a problem. I am sure they just drilled for the sake of practice. A lifetime of distrust of dentists has followed.
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I knew my patients were scared of the work I might do as a dental nurse because I had experienced it myself as a child. I don't recall ever being angry or sarcastic as a nurse and I appreciated the children whose teeth I worked on. I tried to connect with them by participating in school sports and other activities outside of the clinic. We were trained to cut away more dental tissue than was necessary and that bothered me. If anyone thinks that we poisoned them with the mercury based fillings then there is the other side to that - as nurses we had to wring out copper fillings with our fingers numerous times every day and melt the copper over flames - inhaling mercury fumes. Most clinics we worked in every day would have had high mercury readings. I have no recollection of any safety equipment - not even gloves. But then, we were an all-women work force with orders and policies coming from male managers and supervisors and it was pre the womens' movement of the 70s - what else can I say????

An accurate portrayal of the murder house days. I was scared stiff of being called to go there and used to try and run and hide on the school field or behind class rooms. I have memories of nasty dental nurses and unfortunately I have had teeth problems most of my life I believe due to the drilling and filling done by the dental nurses. Dentists are kept busy now trying to fix all our ruined teeth from those days. I still have anxiety today when I visit the dentist and it takes me a couple of days to recover from having fillings.

Ohhh this film is GOLD!! So very accurate! Thank you! This brought back so many memories in just 10 or so minutes!
I remembered everything like it was yesterday...
The nose tingling smell, the grating sound of the drill... uuughh makes me shudder to this day; that awful injector thingy with the (vile metal tasting) filling contents that they used to ram into the many holes they made, and then they'd scrape away at the surface with the hooky-pokey thing until it squeaked and screeched that it was smooth enough; you'd have a rinse and see a fleet of black filling bits swirl around the basin and sail down the sinkhole ! That folding arm of the drill... those air puffers... the chair...
The best things about the dentist in those days were the cotton fairies or rabbits/animals (as others have said) that you maaaay have been given; and the exit door.
I am a survivor of the "Murder House" (I had forgotten we all called it that - thanks!). Unfortunately my teeth have not survived so well and I have soo many Crowns and root filings and repairs that are ongoing - 50++ years later). I'm still trying to get rid of the amalgam fillings but they seem to have more of a hold in my mouth than the actual teeth. Wasn't there a lack of flouride in the water as well back then or something?
I'm sorry, but LMJ Oct 2011: I don't think that you sound old enough to have known that this is no cheap shot, but rather a particularly accurate, tongue in cheek, look at a child's view of dentistry in the 60s, 70s, (maybe longer). 'Childrens diets' were "you get what you're given!"; and 'dental anxiety' was, hmm a term not created/used then.
On another note.... I had to have braces whilst at Ross Intermediate and had to suffer "metal mouth", "brace face" etc...; those cruel tooth extractions, sharp clamps and screws etc, etc aaaaghh!!! That's a whole other short film hahaha!
Very much appreciated this short film :-)

This makes very interesting reading and exactly conveys my thoughts. I was born in the early 50s and now facing serious problems with my teeth which are full of black fillings. I remember well the terror of your name being called to go to the dental nurse. I remember that hideous chair the foot drill and every time I had two or three or four fillings. The pain is vivid and I have lived in fear of dentists and sitting in that chair all my life. I’m now facing 8 restorative fillings roots canals and crowns and have no idea how I can afford this expense. Let alone the anxiety I’m not alone. There are a lot of us out there.

Ohh yes! As a survivor of the "Murder House Days" I have to say this brought back many vivid memories of my experience at Cotswold School Dental Services and Casebrook Intermediate days - 1960-70's) in Christchurch. This short film was SPOT ON! Thanks to a school dental nurse practising at the time my teeth are totally ruined. I was informed in the later years that there was absolutely no need for the fillings (especially the lovely black fillings along the front of my teeth) to have been placed. Nurse -------- did not like me from day one and had it in for me - accused me as a smoker when I detested the smoking habit and never participated in this (parents were heavy smokers back in the day and she would have smelt it on me) Nurse ------- I hope this gets back to you as you will always be one of the biggest memories of my childhood and not a nice one at that! I sincerely hope that you have grown in to be a nicer person as you got older and that your judgement has improved over the years, as I am sure you were trying to punish me for something that I did not do. Luckily now I have the most fabulous dentist out there but it has taken him years for me to completely trust in the dentistry profession. Nurse --------, you should be ashamed of yourself, but I am thankful that not all school Dental Nurses were not all like you.

Beverley, 5 April 2020
I am an Ex Dental Nurse , trained 1957/59 and worked for 10 years as one. I would like to add that there was no way that we used to drill teeth just for practice, one must remember that dental hygiene in those years was not of a good standard and many children at the age of 2 years would be examined for the 1st time with cavities in most of their teeth. It was a struggle to keep up to date and we had regular inspections by the Dental Nurse inspector of our area and our premises had to be spotless at all times. I must admit that the equipment in those days was different to today, we did our very best and our 2 years of training and exams were pretty tough. I agree with many that Mercury was not a good option to have used knowing now so much about it, if anyone should have Mercury poisoning all of us nurses in those early days of Dental nursing should, I'm nearing 80 yrs and I still have all my own teeth!

This movie is incredibly accurate. Childrens teeth are constantly being remineralised through alkaline and mineral rich saliva. These dental nurses were brainwashed into believing that every tiny hole needed enlarging and stuffing an amalgam of silver and mercury - a potent neurotoxin - into our mouths to carry the rest of our lives or until the tooth finally died or cracked. The damage just in terms of future dental visits as the domino effect of abusive dentistry continued to play out is enormous. The “ murder house” is no joke and the devastation caused to us baby boomers can never be underestimated.

Central New Brighton School dental nurse Rose, I think it was ... My two front teeth got drilled and white fillings put in at the front. They were always drilling and filling my teeth. I now have only a few of my own teeth. You were cruel b*****s.

Trust issues with dentists - definitely! If I had never encountered a dentist-my teeth would have lasted me to my grave! I am 45 now. Went to Three Kings Primary. The troubles I've had with molars from the holes 'they started...' (makes sense reading earlier comment they got paid per filling, (12 cotton bug "rewards" at one stage) ...& my parents didn't do junk food at all!! Obedient, shy & dumb! ---Finally extracted what little remained of molar 2 days ago - feel so cheated. I hope those bastards who 'just practised' - get their KARMA for the unnecessary lifelong pain & self esteem issues they've inflicted on their victims.
My darling was fantastic; put a stop to being a victim with a headbutt (he was 6 yrs old) ... wish I'd known him then!!

Yes I too stumbled on to this site or was I curious. Schooled at St Marys Christchurch in the early 70's the murder house was adjacent to us. We were the guinea pigs of the nursing. The sound of teeth destroys and the smell of mercury still haunts me to this day. Every 3 months a nurse would come to our classroom and ask if all the last names starting with a-j to file up outside the room. The school had 3 classrooms. 15-20 poor souls single filed marched over to THE MURDER HOUSE. 45 years on my teeth are ruined and my gut full of mercury. Shame on my parents ,school and most of all the health board at the time for letting this happen. Still angry over what happen to my smile. Bastards

I was a victim and to this day I am frightened and distrustful of dentists and I will never forget. It was torture and I am sure the dental nurses took great delight in inflicting pain on small children and because of my fear my teeth are ruined.

The Murder House exhibits exactly how we felt as children all those years ago when we went through the trauma of going to the dental nurse.

Ha ha love it, primary school memes.

An ex dental nurse told me that they used to be paid per filling. The reason our mouths are full of amalgam.

Very well done, brought back memory's of going to the old dental nurse training school in upper willis street in Wellington back in the 1970's. I know now that school dental nurses were nothing like the one in the movie, but when you are in primary school they were really scary.

Scary place to go?

I have in my baby book (i am now 51 years old - born in the 60's...)that I had 15 fillings at 5 years old and how disgusting!!! There is no way i would have needed all or any of those as i never really ate anything sweet! To this day I hate going to the dentist because I just know they did all of this to me!!!

Blob of mercury? Wow! That's jogged my memory of being handed the mortar and pestle to mix the mercury amalgam myself! A shocker when you think about it!

It's brilliant how 'The Murder House' ends with 'the boy' returning to class 'a man' and he's not at all frightened by the sight of inoculating jabs - a jab which ironically, contained additional Mercury!

I can now, 40 years later, confess that in the early 70's one bored weekend, some older boys and I broke into the dental clinic of a local primary school and stole an entire test tube of Mercury. We took it home, played with it, divided it into four, and I, as an unstoppable curious kid, continued to play with it for about 18 months! I mixed it with vinegar and bi-carb, salt, sugar - the whole kitchen cupboard... then shook and sniffed the mixture!



Certain industrialised countries, while still offering free-of-charge mercury-amalgam fillings to patients, have ceased manufacture of the toxic stuff in their own countries 'cause they know it invariably ends up in the drain! If the stupid, toxic stuff wasn't there in that dental clinic the first place, none of that risk could possibly have occurred! There's no serve-you-right about it as retribution for burgling and vandalising the clinic - it should not have been there in the first place!

My dentist friend knows dang-well the dangers of what she's obliged to put into her patients teeth and she does intravenous chelation therapy every six months!

The only thing they missed out were the cotton thingies being made into buzzy bees or fairies for us, and the most fun part was a blob of mercury to play with and take home... if you could hold it in your hand long enough (true story)

this is was the old primary school i went to i was in the film

Funny but this brings back bad memories for me. When I was at Breens Intermediate School in Christchurch (in the 70's) the bloody sadist dentist (female) pulled out my left upper molar without a needle and the thing wasn't even loose. Cow!

NZ school dental clinics were exactly like this except mine had more than a dozen chairs - I cannot remember exactly how many (Mt Roskill Primary, Intermediate and Grammar School dental clinic).

The dental nurses did not lock the door, nor were they sarcastic like the one in the movie clip, but EVERYTHING the boy in this short movie felt, we all as kids went through (including the bars on the bathroom windows as well as the matron standing guard at the entry door until every child was seated with the bib on; also including the incident with the hot boiled dental instruments being touched on your neck to test them to see if they were too hot to use.

This movie clip was sooooo accurate!

I met a lady in the mid to late 1990's who was in charge of the Auckland region dental clinics (Carrol; those who were in the know will know of her) and I asked her the question. "Did they just drill our teeth for practice?"
She said for the most they did, but, that practice stopped in the late 1980's - too late for me.

the classroom and playground sequences were authentic so its a pity the film takes such a cheap shot at a unique approach to children oral health. If parents took more care of their children's diet, dental anxiety and the murder house concept would vanish. This is an insult to dental nurses.

WOW from a retired SDN. I loved my patients and made every effort to make them happy. This is a spoof on our daily work.

WE CARED.

This was my experience exactly! Well captured!

I used this with my year 3 and 4 students when we were talking about feeling scared and how movie makers use music and sound effects to enhance the mood of the movie. This was a perfect example to use with children at this level. As a survivor of the "Murder House Days", I have to say your movie was spot on, and brought vivid memories to the fore.
Congratulations, team. This movie is a winner.