AN ART NOW

Evening Star, Issue 20988, 30 December 1931, Page 10

AN ART NOW

THE DENTIST'S TASK Another excuse for postponing a visit to the dentist has been shattered (writes a contributor to the London ‘Daily Telegraph’). No longer can we try and persuade ourselves - that one of the reasons _we stay away is a hope that if wo wait •a ■ little longer revolutionary improvements in dental science' will diminish our tribulation. _ _ ' Dentists are by nature an' optimistic race—but not until I visited the International Dental Exhibition on its opening day at the University of London did I realise what good grounds they had for cheerfulness. I asked an expert at the show what new developments in mechanism were to be seen. “ Very few,” he said. “ A stage so close to perfection was reached a year or two ago that now we concentrate largely upon improvements in_ the appearance of apparatus and in small additional conveniences for the dentist.” He told me that there was no reason why any extraction should be felt by a patient nowadays. It was possible to make the whole jaw insensitive by ansesthetic, so that absolutely no pain is experienced. “ This means that, so far as the extraction of teeth—the patient’s bigfest bogey — is concerned, the ideal has een reached,” he said, “The longer people stay away the_ less soon will they realise what strides have been made, and the more difficult will the dentist’s job be when they eventually overcome their hesitation.” One new development which has been sanctioned by the National Health Insurance authorities is the use of rustless steel in dentures instead of gold. This, Mr Sugden, the organising secretary of the exhibition, pointed l out to me, meant an improvement in the strength, lightness, and px-ice of teeth. Gas apparatus has been, simplified, so that it is now possible for anaesthetists to give more attention to patients than was possible when their machinery was a constant source of anxiety to them. “The actual appearance of dentures has altered very little in the last few years,” said Mr Sugden, “ but great progress has been made in the matching of teeth.” This might be realised by anyone who walked round the stands and saw the innumerable shades and shapes of teeth which are displayed on endless rows of shelves. Various compositions of different coloured rubbers, which .are slowly superseding vulcanite, are also shown, as well as many blended colour schemes in modelling wax. There are _ 14,000 registered dentists in Great Britain, and more than half of them are expected to visit the exhibition. I could not help feeling that many of those who now falter nervously on their dentist’s doorstep should be allowed to visit the exhibition. If they did they might . realise that the “jagged hatchet” days of dentistry—if they fiver existed—are safety dead, and that most .of the work in this branch of surgery is every bit as delicate as a jeweller’s. Even those who still feel bitter about their dentists will find one exhibit to please them. It is a plate which can be hurled to the floor and trodden upon without so much as cracking.