Maine Man Details How He Used to Pull His Own Teeth to Save Money

Given the choice between a real dentist, and myself... Dentist all the way.

My dentist when I was growing up was an old-school guy in the Bangor area named Dr. Small. I don't remember much about him specifically, but I have definite memories of hating everything about the dentist. Getting your teeth cleaned the first time is a pretty traumatic experience.

On the other hand, I couldn't imagine having to take all my dental responsibilities into my own hands. While I do think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, pulling my own teeth isn't anything I'd like to experiment with. Even if I lived in the remote woods of Maine and had no money, I couldn't do it. But Bob Wagg did. More than once.

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Who is Bob Wagg?

In the 70's, a documentary was filmed in the remote woods of Maine, and featured the a year in the life of Bob Wagg and Walter Lane. The documentary is called Dead River Rough Cut. It goes through how they live, their philosophies on life, and even one uncomfortable depiction of how they deal with their obviously awful teeth.

You know it's a long time ago, because Bob starts out by complaining that having a tooth pulled costs $7 or $8. I can't imagine what it costs nowadays, but it's a far cry from 8 bucks. He talks about using copper wire and some brute strength to get the job done. And even doubles down and says it's better than the dentist, because the dentist takes too long, in his opinion. Check it out...

Honestly, I'm not sure how someone outside of Maine could even watch this without subtitles. His accent is so thick. But I'll say this... When anyone ever asks if it's true that Mainers are the most badass people on the planet, all you'd have to do is show them this video. And if Bob Wagg isn't at the top of the list, I don't know who is.

When your jaw drops, hopefully you have more teeth than Bob...