Laurence Oldham describes his training as a dentist soon after the second world war. The tedium of General Dental Practice and frustration of an unsatisfying academic job in the north of England is contrasted with the inspiration of a Rotary Foundation Fellowship in the USA and surgical practice in East Africa with committed surgical mentors. Laurence Oldham widened the scope of hospital dental surgery after gaining the confidence of surgical colleagues and inviting friends to help him with operations he had not hitherto been trained to do. A milestone in this development was the changing of the 'Dental Department' sign in the hospital to 'Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery'. This was carried out by himself and his house surgeon during the night. This is just one of many stories from his generation of how Oral and Maxillofacial practice evolved from hospital dentistry and how ambitious young surgeons developed their craft without anything approaching an adequate training by today's standards.