Fewer New Zealanders are wearing dentures

Press, 1 July 1985, Page 26

Fewer New Zealanders are wearing dentures

A fundamental shift in attitudes towards dentistry by dentists and the general public has become apparent in New Zealand. Dr Paul Swinburn, president of the New Zealand Dental Health Foundation,

said that for too long the approach to dental health had been to locate holes in teeth from an early age and to fill them. At the same time, the adult population accepted, almost encouraged complete extractions so that dentures could be fitted. These attitudes combined in the past to make New Zealanders amongst the most toothless people in the world, Dr Swinburn said.

With the launching today of this country’s first national dental health awareness campaign, the accent from now on will be on preventative dentistry. “We want everyone in New Zealand to have a Sleasant smile and a fresh ealthy breath,” Dr Swinburn said.

The change in the numbers of New Zealanders wearing dentures has been remarkable in recent years. In 1950, 42 per cent of the population aged between 35 and 44 years wore full dentures; but this has fallen rapidly in the last decade to less than 15 per cent (see graph). The school dental health service has also played an important role. It was first initiated when the dental health of New Zealanders as a whole was in a serious state, and through the years it has done a fine job in restoring and maintaining teeth and educating children in dental health. , With the introduction of fluoride — the country’s primary and most successful means of preventive dentistry — the emphasis has been shifted from drilling teeth to education and prevention with no drilling. Dr Swinburn says it has perhaps taken a long time to get the message to the public that filling teeth rather than preventing decay in the first place is a short sighted option.

A tooth that contains a filling is an inferior prospect for long life when compared with one that is completely unaffected by dental caries. A filled tooth is a weakened tooth, susceptable to further breakdown, and each time a filling fails more of the tooth to be

drilled out to ensure the filling has a firm footing.

In general, fillings do not last forever and the process must go on to its inevitable conclusion — expensive large restorations or the forceps. Dr Swinburn says it also seems likely that when many adolescents reach the age of “free to fee” dental care, they see dental health as being confined to further rounds of restorations, with a continuing input of time, cost and discomfort. He says this bleak view may make people think that dentures are an attractive alternative.

Education of the public and the improvement of oral hygiene is therefore a vital factor in the over-all dental health of the nation, says Dr Swinburn. For this reason, the emphasis during the current campaign will be on the need for people of all ages to take much more care with oral hygiene, to clean their teeth and gums more efficiently and more often, to be aware of the causes of dental decay and gum disease, to attend to them when they occur, and to visit their dentist regularly. “Even though the teeth of our young people are much better than they have ever been in the past, more than 80 per cent of the country’s adults have gum di ease to a greater or lesser extent, and it must be stressed that this condition too can threaten healthy teeth,” Dr Swinburn said.