Dentistry in Britain is still primitive, but the perks are fun...

[Billy Beccles]

This vignette goes some way, I think, to show how we are very much superior to Americans with their preposterous fear of socialized medical care:

The patient had attended...[the dentist's] practice in Bexhill, East Sussex, for a filling in September 2001 and said that she found his attitude casual and unprofessional. During a second visit three months later she informed him that she had complained to a doctor about the dental treatment that she had received. It was then that he was said to have removed the teeth against her will and shouted: “That’ll teach you not to complain to the doctor.”

Amongst the pleasures in this report are the dentist's name, which seems to fit into a pattern of literary villains and loopies (Queeg, Queequeg, Quint, Quatermass) and the stern and unyielding judgment of the General Dental Council:

The panel concluded that, although Mr Quelch had failed to explain the risks or alternative treatment, the patient had not told him that he should not extract the second tooth.

(I'm hypothesizing here, but perhaps whimpering in pain and fear would provide something of a clue without the, uhhh, verbalization of permission.)

the chairman of the panel, said: “The committee is concerned that, in view of his unacceptable lack of insight and complacency, he presents a serious risk to patients.”

That's medical jargon, that; even allowing for the fact they meant complacency and lack of insight, that's medical talk for nfbsking madman who should be in a wrap-round jacket.

I regret to say that reading the article I couldn't help thinking of Evita Bezuidenhout's remark "My husband is a dentist and works part-time for the security services."