Painless Parker

Who was Painless Parker?

Edgar R.R. "Painless" Parker was a flamboyant street dentist described as "a menace to the dignity of the profession" by the American Dental Association and yet “much of what he championed – patient advocacy, increased access to dental care and advertising – has come to pass in the US.” He attended Philadelphia Dental College which would become Temple University dental school. After 6 weeks without a single patient, Parker decided to advertise. He hired one of P.T. Barnam’s ex-managers to help him take his practice on the road. He created the Parker Dental Circus, a traveling medicine show with his dental chair on a horse-drawn wagon while a band played. The band attracted large crowds and hid the moans and cries of patients who were given whiskey or a cocaine solution that he called “hydrocaine” to numb the pain. He charged 50 cents for each extraction and promised that if it hurt, he’d pay the patient $5.

At one point he claimed to have pulled 357 teeth in one day, which he strung on a necklace.

He legally changed his first name to "Painless", when he was accused of breaking a false advertisement law by claiming that his dentistry was truly painless.