“SUCKLE-THUMB ”

Evening Star, Issue 19351, 10 September 1926, Page 5

“SUCKLE-THUMB ”

WON’T BE A BEAUTY DENTIST’S EXPERIMENTS. NEW YORK. August 25. The beauty of the human face is determined in the first six months of This theory was propounded by Dr Stanley Wilkinson, a Melbourne dentist, in a lecture before the First International Orthodontic Congress here. Detailing experiments upon Melbourne babies, in the course of which he took impressions of infants’ jaws and faces from the ago of seven days to six months, ho said: “ Even a slight sucking of the thumb in the first six months directly ’ inhibits the . normal growth. The lower jaw, during the first six months, gets a much accelerated growth of the mandible (lower jawbones), as opposed to the upper jaw. It is possible that the weak and receding chins marring facial beauty are usually, the result of-thumb-sucking in the first six months.” _ Dr Wilkinson has visited the leading countries. He saw great progress in dental colleges of America, Canada. England, and in seven South American countries. He saw great progress in dental ocicnce everywhere. . Teeth were much the same the world over, he said, hut Americans took the best care of them. England excelled all in pure dental science, and America in technique, while Australia had an advantage in perspective on both. Ho was proud of Australia’s standing.