Ritter Painless Dental Co.

[Ritter Painless Dental Co.], circa 1908, v1973.2.186; Brooklyn Oversize, 19th century collection, v1973.002; Brooklyn Historical Society.

The photo of the week depicts the Ritter Painless Dental Co. office located at the intersection of Third Avenue, Schermerhorn Street, and Flatbush Avenue, sometime around 1908. If you look closely above the boy on the billboard, it reads “it won’t hurt a bit!” The business specialized in painless teeth extraction, as seen on the multiple advertisements displayed on the building. It appears the advertising didn’t work-- the business was listed in the 1908 business directory, but not listed again the year after.

It’s interesting to note that this photograph also coincides with the introduction of Novocain as the local anesthesia used in dentistry. Invented in 1905 by a German chemist, it was widely used in dentistry up until the 1940s. Prior to Novocain, there was experimentation using different forms of anesthesia including cocaine and ethyl chloride. The American Dental Association has an interesting timeline that displays the significant strides in dentistry over the last several hundred years.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org