DEFECTIVE TEETH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 22 August 1928, Page 10

DEFECTIVE TEETH.

ALARMINGLY PREVALENT. CHANGES IN DIET AD VISED. MUST BEGIN" WITH YOUNG. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN, Tuesday. In spite of the boasted favourable living conditions in New Zealand it is probable that more than one-half of the children of school age have enough defective teeth to interfere seriously witk their health.

In making this statement to-day af the annual meeting of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Womeß and Children, Dr. R. B. Dodds, who i> director of the dental school at Otago University, remarked that it was uncommon to find one child in a district with a normal and healthy mouth and teeth.

Dr. Dodds also quoted from a report by Sir George Newman, chief medical officer of the British Ministry of Healthy who stated that dental decay was the cause of much ill-health, impairment &nd invalidity In children and in after life* and that nearly all of it was preventable. School medical and dental inspeo* tion had revealed the fact that more than half the school children at eight years •! age were suffering from dental carie% and many of them from oral sepsis. Prevention could be established, sail Dr. Dodds. The reason why it was not more widely established was that if entailed many changes in diet., and civi* lised people did not change easily. It entailed care and discipline, but peopl* were careless and undisciplined in ths matter of hygiene. An important factor In prevention was to establish proper development of the teeth and jaws to begin with. Thus they must begin with the young. If they were to establish a dental mechanism possessing its own barriers of defence, they must indeed begin with the expectant mother. The commonest defect to-day was maldevelopment of the jaws. He lecturer suggested fresh fruity nuts, raw vegetables, lettuce, watercress, celery, radishes, onions, c*ru?t of whole? meal bread, crisp toast. twice baked bread, fish and bacon as suitable food If They should avoid sugars and starcheSj except in granular form, and also botlf together unless followed by the aboff foods. T3* nm pf the tootfc brush hpi(»4 iohring sbooi t» al sw niha&ioty