Tooth does its insidious work even in the most remote and secluded corners. This used to be particularly true at one time in some of the more isolated Swiss mountain villages. In six remote communities in the Oberhasli area in the Swiss canton of Bern, 18 schools with a total of 1300 children had no access at all to dental care until 1960.

Eventually a mobile school dental clinic, based on a Mercedes-Benz L 319 van chassis, came to the rescue. The mobile clinic was able not only to accommodate highly sophisticated equipment but also to offer generous space and a surprising amount of comfort for three trained staff. Whatever the season, it was soon taking the fight against tooth decay to some of the remotest corners of the land. However, even the most sophisticated technology was powerless to solve one problem: how to overcome the wary village children’s fear of the dentist’s "infernal" machinery!