Feeling No Pain

Many dentists have some such specialty as pulling teeth or straightening them. Washington Dentist Raymond Herndon, 36, specializes in jittery patients. More than half of the patients he treats are the kind that other dentists dread: alcoholics, "uncooperative" children, adults with neuroses or psychoses, people who begin to squirm at the sound of the drill.

Last week Herndon told the District of Columbia Dental Society how he deals with sufferers from "burr psychosis": he puts them to sleep. He has an anesthetist and two other assistants to help him, and a dental chair that can be converted into an operating table.

One advantage, Herndon says, is the time saved. For a neurotic schoolteacher, he did 42 fillings in three hours. A Washington business woman, who was just in a hurry, had ten teeth filled and five pulled during one appointment. The day may come eventually, thinks Dentist Herndon, when all dentistry will be done on unconscious patients.

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