Stratton Park Message Board

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Can you believe Dr. Nelson is still a dentist at 1469 White Plains Rd??? I was in the Bronx on Sunday & just happened to drive by the old neighborhood & was amazed to see Dr. Nelson's sign up. How old must he be? My mother used to take us to him when we were kids (I think because she thought he was handsome) but all he knew how to do was give fillings & pull teeth. I never even heard of a root ~~ until I moved out of the neighborhood. Any other Dr. Nelson stories?

Not sure of name . But with address' could it be. It seem to take months to get my PS 102 health card up to date. In otherr words alot of cavities. Fillingswith a sloow belt driven drill. Nightmares to date. Ouch. Chas

Lydia, he was handsome, wasn't he! I hope he has aged gracefully. I recall he had jet black hair. It was so convenient to simply walk around the corner to go to the dentist. Now we have to travel a moderate distance by car because of insurance plans, etc. Quite a pain when you have a toothache.

I can't believe Dr Nelson is still practicing. I still have nightmares about visits to his office. I am not able to make an appointment with a dentist without sedation which explains why I have not gone to a dentist in ten years. I remember how he would say to raise your hand if it hurt, he never used any form of painkiller, and then he would ignore your waving arm and groans of pain. I truely think he enjoyed inflicting pain on helpless children. The sound of a drill can actually cause my blood pressure to go up. Well, enough of those memories. Hopefully he is no longer "practicing" and actually knows what to do now!

hey guys,
I remember Dr Nelson too. 1st let me explain to Chas, he was not the dentist at PS 102, with the dental hygenist from hell.
thats why there are a lot of us with dental phobia today. As far as Dr. nelson was concerned. when i was a kid, i had excellent check-ups. so after 3 yrs, Dr Nelson joking, offered me $1 to buy a candy apple, so he could work on my teeth.
but when i got a little older, i went back to him & he was sort of weird & didn't give pain meds as often or wait for them to kick in. he did only drill & extract teeth. so like my old friend Lisa, i haven't been to a dentist in a very long time. Dr Nelson must be at least 70 yrs old by now. There is also a dental surgeon in Parkchester, that has been there for 45 yrs. he had to remove a molar for my son Marc, a while ago. this is the same Dental Surgeon who my niece saw 40 yrs ago, when he had to cut her gums for her baby teeth to come through. His office was packed and i know that 1/2 the dentists in the Bronx, still send their patients to this surgeon, for procedures they can't do. Dr. Nelson went to work for another dentist who was at that location on White Plains Rd. Then took over the practice. My mom use to tell me about some old dentist who use to have that office. So glad to see some old friends back on the site. guess we have all been busy with summer plans. Well i'm off to do some grilling for dinner. Does anyone remember the original dental hygenist that worked for Dr Nelson? I remember also seeing another dentist, who's office was over the Chinese restaurant on the same block as the Palace Movie Theater. His name was Dr Broncotto. He too, would do dental work without Novacaine. He was drilling a tooth in my mouth,that cracked & had to be extracted (they didn't encourage Root ~~ back then) So he grabbed his pliers and pulled the tooth. My mom had left me in his chair, while she went to Cornelle's to buy something. So by the time she came back, i had a mouth full of gauze & couldn't tell her about my experience until we got home. After that i became a patient of Dr. Nelson. A few months later I heard Dr. Broncotto, retired. No wonder why i am so afraid of dentists.

Marie,
Was that dental surgeon Dr. Hammer in Parkchester? When I was little (like 4 or 5) Dr. Nelson sent me to Dr. Hammer in Parkchester to have some baby teeth looked at. I was so scared I bolted from the seat, ran out of the office, across the street and through Macy's before my mother & his nurse could catch me. He told my mother I was completly out of control & had super-human strength. I remember his nurse's name was Ray & I was so impressed because she knew Sherry Lewis (lamb-chop's Mommy)

Testing

Nelson is still there. I pass by routinely. Your Mom might have been enamored with his young looks and his black Porche. I went to Syms across the street for my cavities,etc but always looked down Nelson's driveway at the Porche and thought dam "fixing teeth is good". At that same period of time a guy on Beach Ave, by Mansion had a new Datsun 240Z and a guy on Taylor Ave, by Sams had a new Opel but otherwise ower neighborhood in the early 70's was devoid of hot foriegn cars. Tommy Stead had a TR4 but it had already seen it's prime .
Miss Calaudes with the hygenist at PS 102. Nice Lady.
How are ya Linda?

Before Dr Nelson, I also went across the street to Dr Sims. The previous dentist occupying that second story office was a man named Stelgist. Dr Stelgist was old and slow; must have been in his sixties circa 1962. Dr Sims was young and fast, too fast. He worked by the clock. If you were in at 2:30, you had better be out of the chair by 2:45. Seems as if he also saw the Porche parked in Harvey Nelson's alley, and he wanted one too, and quick !
Once, I had a molar that contained a huge filling. It was my chewing gum molar, the one I used to crack those gumballs. "Ohhh, bad tooth here", said Dr Sims, breathing his tuna on rye sandwich from Joe's luncheonette into my face. "That's gotta come out". I had never lost a tooth before, (nor since) and it bothered me that this was about to happen right then, just being in my teens.
While he eagerly laid out the hammers and sickles and the like, I interrupted, "But Doc, can't you save it, can't you do a root ~~"? He looked at me like I was nuts. My Mom was paying him by the week at that time, and a root ~~ was costly. "How you gonna pay for it?", he asked, no doubt with visions of Nelson's Porche dancing around in his head. With reality starring me in the face, I replied, "Ah, go ahead and pull the damn thing". Well, you could've blown the work whistle, because he sprung into action like a Japanese patriot assembling a Kamikaze fighter. Without missing a beat, he was in my mouth with a sophisticated pair of pliars, and a look on his face that had a little too much enthusiasm for my liking. Well, that molar was a stubborn little ~~. It was in there for some fourteen years, and it wasn't giving up easily.
Before I knew it, he was up straddling the chair with his knee in my chest, and two hands on the pliers. His nurse was around behind me with some kind of strap across my forehead, holding my head firmly against the headrest. I felt like I was going to be drawn and quartered at any moment. All the while this aspiring millionaire was looking at the clock as if I was keeping him from a heavy date with destiny. He pulled until his face was red; he was biting his lower lip and grunting like he had just gone ten rounds with Jake Lamotta. But that molar wouldn't budge. He decide to take an x-ray. I guess he thought there was something bionic going on down below the gum line.
Turns out I have curved roots. He told me the right way to do it was an oral surgeon. That would be an expense. There was only one other way.
With the nurse re-gripping the strap, and him with a firm grip on the pliars, he gave my tooth a quick twist. "Crack!" That was it. Most of my tooth was in the pliers, including one of the roots. With a little digging, he retrieved the other piece of root. He told me to rinse out my mouth into the little round sink with the swirling water. It was the most blood I had ever shed up to that point in my life. The experience left me shaken. When I left his office, I made up my mind I was never coming back. I also made an oath to give up chewing gum; no way was it worth it. Two weeks later a sliver of tooth worked its way out of my gum, through the gum wall. I was amazed.
From then on, I went to Dr Nelson. I figured he already had his trendy car, and maybe I'd have a better chance of keeping the rest of my teeth. Most of my subsequent check-ups revealed only minor cavities, so I consider myself lucky. Eventually, after marrying and moving to Florida, I found a nice Jewish dentist who made a permanent bridge to fill that gap in my teeth. All of my dental experiences since then have been uneventful. But as long as I live, I'll never forget that time in my youth, when Dr Sims excavated my poor gumball molar.

I went to Dr. Nelson, had some fillings there. They were not good ones and fell out and had to be replaced. I don't doubt the stories about Dr. Nelson.