Mercedes L319 dentist van at home

It may happen that while looking for something complex, other things can be found. It so happened that when we searched the Mercedes-Benz archives, we found an old file with the title "Dentist's Van".

So, driven by curiosity, we entered old photos, slightly yellowed from time to time, but really representing the era and at the same time quite curious: Mercedes Transporter cars, used as dental clinic mobile phone in the Swiss mountains sixty-five years ago.

University of Bern

It was half fiftiesIn orderly, clean and efficient Switzerland, there were several truly isolated mountain villages, where many children not only did not receive the necessary dental care, but also hardly knew about its existence. Thus, the University of Bern, based on the Mercedes-Benz L 319 van, has created a modern dental clinic for local residents and the public. small primary schools lost in the mountains Canton of Bern.

In short, wherever the cavity was hidden, it was inexorably found inside one well insulated construction which, thanks to the reasonable distribution of spaces and volumes, not only allowed the installation of the most modern equipment of the time, but also provided the necessary space and comfort for medical and paramedical personnel.

A team of handymen

Crew of the Transporter with the Universitat sign Bern - school dental clinic (dental clinic for schools) consisted of three persons: an assistant from the university institute and a nurse who took care of the treatment itself. The third was Dentist the area he visited and decided on the treatment.

Two of the permanent team (an assistant and a nurse) had to not only be well versed in their subject and have special feelings for boys, who, of course, were not used to visiting dentists often, but also had to be great drivers and, even if partially, mechanical.

To get to the villages, we actually drove along the roads bad mountain, sometimes it is dangerous, maybe it hangs where snow and ice, of course, do not allow to go too calmly. In addition, the very condition of the roads, almost never asphalted, with holes, irregularities and stones, often caused replacement of one or more tires.

Big success

In addition, we cannot forget that it was always in the 50s, and despite the fact that the L 319 was a great, solid and reliable car, the mechanics were not what they are today so from time to time two specialists had to crawl under the hood.

However, the initiative, which expired in 60, had big success Not only that, it has brought relief to hundreds of children (sometimes even adults) and helped spread the concept of prevention, but it has also made high profile on L319, with a relative commercial development in the rich Swiss market.