By Robert NeffDavid E. Hahn, an American, is credited as being the first Western dentist to reside in Korea. He arrived in Seoul on Jan. 18, 1906 and received an “enthusiastic welcome from the foreign residents who (hoped) that he (would) long continue to make (Seoul) his home.”
Apparently the Western community in Korea ― not just in Seoul ― were somewhat lax with their dental hygiene and had mouths filled with cavities. Prior to Hahn’s arrival, Westerners living in Seoul were forced to travel to Shanghai and Nagasaki to have dental work done and this usually involved several days of daily visits and jaw-numbing pain. One American residing in Seoul apparently had excellent results with a dentist in Nagasaki who “filled and extracted teeth without pain with the aid of electricity and cocaine.” This appears to have been the exception rather than the rule.
Occasionally Western dentists residing in China and Japan, much like Hahn, would make “house calls” to Korea ― usually spending two or three weeks in Seoul or Jemulpo and setting up their office in a hotel or at one of their patient’s homes. Even American naval doctors occasionally set up shop while serving with the Legation Guard in Seoul. In December 1894, the American Minister to Korea’s wife wrote:
“Dr. Broderick (naval doctor on the U.S.S. Baltimore) has opened a dentist office; he has a room in Dr. Scranton’s hospital, and seems to have plenty to do. He says he has a month’s work ahead already.”
But when a foreign dentist was not available the Western community was often forced to take matters in their own hands.
Most had little, if any, education of dental procedures and were forced to learn through trial and error. Unfortunately, error was often the case.
Dr. Horace Allen wrote: “I had tried to learn to pull teeth while at medical school, but about the only advice I could get was to select the proper forceps, get a good deep hold, give a deep hold, give a twist, and ‘pull for dear life.’” But not all were successful on their first attempts.
Mattie Ingold while trying to remove a tooth from a fellow missionary broke the tooth instead of pulling it. Her patient, not uttering a word of complaint, quietly sat there as she finally completed the extraction of the tooth. Allen also knew what it was like to be a patient of an inexperienced dentist. He recalled Dr. Busteed as “the fellow that smashed my teeth so in trying to extract one.”
Eventually practice made many of these amateur dentists fairly good. Dr. Allen became so popular, at least with his Korean patients, the he became fairly skilled. “I had to pull teeth so much that I soon grew to rather like it.”
It was a common observance amongst Westerners that Koreans had excellent teeth white and well maintained. But there were exceptions. Korean men were forced to extract teeth from their wives and children using pliers. Others used salt and a dead rat to chase away the pain. “The rat is covered with salt, and when anyone suffers from a toothache salt is taken from the rat and rubbed on the affected member.”
So it is no wonder that Hahn was greeted with an enthusiastic welcome especially considering one of his reasons for becoming a missionary dentist was that “the regular fees for dental services were far beyond what the missionaries could pay” and he intended to remedy this injustice. Ironically, shortly after he arrived, rumors circulated that he was overcharging his patients _ a charge he vehemently denied. Hahn did eventually settle in Seoul and went on to train dentists as well as provide free dentistry to the poor _ Koreans and foreigners.
