THE TEETH OF THE PEOPLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 9, 10 July 1909, Page 10

THE TEETH OF THE PEOPLE.

A committee of the British. Dental Association (says the Daily Express) investigated the teeth of over 100,000 school children in all parts of the country, and found decayed teeth in 86 per cent. ; German statistics give 38 per cent. ; one later report from a Northamptonshire town gives 100 per ceni-. A New York investigator gives an average of five or six decayed teeth to each child. The medical officer of health of Brighton reports 2.12 as the average. But left alone the disease spreads, and on an average one more decayed tooth may be added for each year of life. The reason of this is clear — -the conditions which gave rise to the onset of caries persist and are intensified by the tenderness of the already decayed teeth. Hardly a cffild with sound teeth, and 5000 a year in London ' with hardly a tooth left ! Is there not here matter for tho serious attention of practical men? The poisoning itself is brought about in two ways. With each mouthful swallowed, pus, germs, toxins (the poisonous products of the life activity of germs), and decomposing food debris are swalkfived. Each mouthful carries its dose of poison, and locally, from the inflamed gums and from the waHs of the chronic abscesses there are absorbed into the blood toxins and germs, some of which latter actually live and multiply in the blood and tissues. Small wonder if the list of diseases is long and serious. It comprises : — Toothache; neuralgia; dental abscesses, some opening on the face and leaving unsightly scars ; swollen glands of the rieck, which may later become tubercjlar; abscess of the glands ; enlarged tonsils and sore throat (pharyngitis) ; brain abscess ; blood diseases— pyaemia,, septicaemia; abscess in distant parts of the body; painful joint disease, often called rheumatism; starvation (malnutrition) ; anaemia ; neurasthenia ; acute and chronic inflammation of the stomach ; appendicitis ; eye disease, e.g., chorodo-retinitis ; cysts and tumors of the jaws, both innocent and malignant (cancer). The general health is lowered, increasing the liability to contract every disease to which the child is exposed, e.g., tuberculosis. An unclean mouth may be a carrier 'of disease germs (diphtheria, influenza), and may spread them broadcast with every cough or sneeze, in shouting or whistling. Every unclean mouth is a danger and a nuisance both to its owner and to the community at large, and this point alone will justify the assertion that the evils of bad teeth are nothing less than a national menace.