CARE OF TEETH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 23

CARE OF TEETH.

NATIONAL PROBLEM.

N.Z.'S BAD REPUTATION.

HEALTH EDUCATION WANTED,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

NAPIER, this day.

New Zealandera as a nation have reputedly bad teeth. It has even been said that they have the worst teeth in the world, but while allowing for the slight measure of extravagance which such a statement carries with it they quite definitely have teeth which are on the whole sufficiently bad to warrant notice and attention on a national scale. These facts were the text of a discussion in an interview given by Professor R. Bevan Dodds, D.D.S., dean of the dental school at the University of Otago, who is in Napier to attend the annual conference of the New Zealand Dental Association.

Professor Dodcls discussed New Zealand's need of organised health piopa ganda from a dental point of view, wi i the object of combating dental disease and of raising generally the stanc ait 0 the teeth of the people. The fact that dentistry was to-da,y perhaps the on y profession which did not suffei dnec y from the effects of unemployment among its mer-bers was also mentione by Professor Dodds.

"The onlv organised health propaganda from a dental point of view is that carried out by the State service through radio talks, and the instruction of pupils/' he said. nc 1 dual practitioners undoubtedly do a of good in the way of preventive dentiatrv, some of them being enthusiasts in educational matters, but then ra ® is, of course, limited to their ovv patients. The matter of an organised movement of health propaganda .has been very much before the dental pro fession for a number of years, but the matter of adequate organisation to a concerted effort has so fax een , difficulty. Health propaganda can only be carried out successfully by a mass attack. Sporadic attempts are of little value in any national sense.

V A Popular Profession. Discussing the work of the dental school at Otago, Professor Dodds remarked that the profession of dentistry still continued to be popular with the youth of the country. "That this is so, he said, "is evidenced by the fact that entrants to the school have steadily increased in number during the last few years. The school is the national school for Now Zealand, and it is the largest and best equipped in the southern hemisphere. There are some 135 students in attendance at present, most of them taking the New Zealand University degree of bachelor of dental B \ ir " „ er v. This degree receives official recognition throughout the British Empire and from certain famous dental centres in other countries, such as the University of Pennsylvania. The professor said that the number o students had increased in a gradual manner, and that there was no suggestion of any necessity for restriction, as had been found necessary with the number of students passing through the medical school. "As a matter of fact," he said, "wast- ■ a <*e in the profession from such factors as death or retirement is just met ! adequately by the number of graduates, and dentistry is perhaps the only pro--1 fession whore there is to-day no overI crowding, due, in some measure, to the fact that from about 1910 to 1920 comparatively few graduates went through the school, development being hindered ' and delayed by the war."