DENTAL DISEASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 126, 31 May 1938, Page 17

DENTAL DISEASE.

NUTRITIONAL TEST PLAN.

WELLINGTON EXPERIMENT,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

AY ELLINGTON, Monday.

The object of the nutritional test for tlie control of dental disease it is proposed to carry out at the Mount Cook School. Wellington, was explained bv the Minister of Health, the Hon. P. !• raser, this evening. He denied that the Smith family was embarking on a nutritonal experiment in one of the State schools on its own initiative and without expert guidance, and said that the proposal to make the test emanated from the New Zealand Dental Association. The Smith family had offered to co-operate by providing meals for selected children. The meals, however, would be arranged under expert guidance, and there would be no question of "experimenting" on children to the detriment of their health.

The proposal, said Mr. Fraser, was to enueavom to carry out under local conditions what had already been done successfully for groups of children in other countries, namely, to arrest the progress of dental disease by means of what is considered a suitable diet. If it could be shown that this could be achieved in New Zealand, the test would be worth while. Mr. Fraser added that he had asked that the dental sub-com-mittee of the Medical Research Council should overlook the arrangements and consider the findings, and he understood that the New Zealand Dental Association had readily agreed to co-operate.