Sham Shui Po Dental Clinic

Heroes Remember

Sham Shui Po Dental Clinic

Transcript

We had got our dental equipment, brought it over from North Point. We operated the dental clinic right up until VJ Day. There was quite a stock of dental supplies in this military hosptial and we would tell our boys when they were convalescing from the hospital and return to camp to fill their pockets with some dental supplies - burrs and filling material and this sort of thing and we never ran out of local anesthetic. The reason being that there was a good stock of Novocaine hydrochloride powder in the powder form which had a good shelf life and our pharmacists would make up a 2% solution and we never ran out of local anesthetic. Our needles became very dull and I remember we had some fine sand paper and we sharpened them a bit but they became rather dull alright. But, actually there wasn't a great deal of dental deterioration you might say because there was hardly any sugar at all and as you likely know sugar is one of the evils of the dentician.

Description

Dr. Cunningham describes setting up his dental clinic at Sham Shui Po Camp with equipment brought from North Point POW camp. He indicates that dental health was good due to the lack of sugar in their diet.

Dr. Winston Ross Cunningham

Dr. Winston Cunningham was born in Elgin, Manitoba on January 4, 1911. He was the third of five children. His father was a storekeeper and moved the family to a permanent home in Souris, Manitoba. Mr. Cunningham decided to pursue a career in dentistry, studying in Toronto. After graduating in 1934, he returned to his home in Souris to take over a vacant dental practice. In 1939, he volunteered for military service, assuming the rank of Captain. Doctor Cunningham was sent to the Hong Kong garrison, which quickly fell to the Japanese. He spent almost four years in Sham Shui Po POW camp, where he provided dental care to the internees. After the war, Doctor Cunningham remained in the military, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1963.

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