AFTER an 83-year streak, there will no longer be a Chanoch dentist in Durban.
Dr Jeff Chanoch, (81), dentist, has finally hung up his excavator bringing an end to the Chanoch dentistry which was started by his father in 1937.
In 1937, Dr Abraham ‘Boof’ Chanoch opened a private dentistry in the Colonial Mutual Buildings in Durban.
“After school I used to stop off in town and I got into the feeling of dentistry and I did not think of anything else that I could possibly do.” said Jeff. “It sort of evolved that my father was a dentist and I was going to become a dentist too.”
That feeling of dentistry was also passed down to Jeff’s son Dr Michael Chanoch, who practises and lives in England with his family. Jeff said there is little chance of Michael ever returning to Durban and continuing the Chanoch streak. The progression from getting his Bachelor of Dental Sciences degree from the University of Witwatersrand to working with his father was not straightforward. After receiving his qualification, Boof did not feel Jeff had the necessary experience to work with him yet. As a result, Jeff got a job at the King Edward VIII Hospital as one of three dentists in the facility.
“Each of us was doing between 70 to 100 extractions a day. So that was about 250 teeth extracted each day,” said Jeff, talking about his three year stint at King Edward. Jeff would go on to work for two-and-a-half years at Addington Hospital, do a specialised course in England before his father took him into his private practise. Working at hospitals frequented by Black and Indian patients in Apartheid South Africa, would shape Jeff’s formative years as a young adult and budding dentist.
“The population at that time weren’t used to having fillings, some of them didn’t even know that fillings could be done. It was not in their culture that people go to a dentist and have feelings. If a tooth was bad, it had to come out,” said Jeff.
The socio-economic impact of Apartheid was not lost on dentistry, as Jeff explained that white people were likelier to get fillings than black people due to cost. “I noticed that a lot of people with worn teeth, because they didn’t use a toothbrush to clean their teeth because that was another expense, some of them used ash to try and clean their teeth. Some oke used a brick and he scraped lost half his teeth,” said Jeff. Although dental hygiene has vastly improved over the years due to education and changing socio-economic realities, said Jeff, people waiting until something is wrong with their teeth before visiting the dentist is still a prevalent practise today.
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“The movies have not helped at all,” said Jeff, talking about the misconception of dentists as sadistic nerds. While perceptions on dentists have changed, the Coronavirus pandemic has presented a new conundrum for them to deal with. A deadly airborne virus that is mostly spread through liquid droplets and saliva is likely to put people who work in close quarters with the mouth in danger.Also, studies worldwide are showing there’s an unprecedented drop in people visiting medical professionals due to fears of contracting Covid-19. The Coronavirus pandemic is but a small piece of a larger explanation for Jeff’s retirement.
“At 81, I have realised that new patients will not start with some old codger because maybe next year he will stop and they have to go to somebody else,” said Jeff. “Also, after you have been doing it for 59 years, you may feel it is enough.”
For the most part of those, Jeff has had Joan Botha by his side. Botha has worked as Jeff’s dental assistant for 53 years, moving from one office to another and sharing thousands of memories together. “He was a wonderful boss and a great man. It has been the honour of my life to work with him. When he wants something he says please and when you give him something he says thank you. A sweet, honest, good man,” said Botha.
Jeff said he could not have chosen anyone better to share his dental practise with. Botha will also be joining him in retirement. A huge sigh leaves Jeff’s mouth when he talks about the next chapter of his life. “I honestly do not know,” he said. “For the past 59 years I have been waking up, eating breakfast, coming here and at about 4.30pm I leave and go back home. It would have been nice to travel but with the Coronavirus that’s impossible now.”
As Jeff moves around his Musgrave Park office packing the last 59 years of his life into boxes, he points out his hand across his body like a military marcher and remarks, “81 and still steady as ever.”
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