A GOOD TOOTH

Grey River Argus, 23 August 1934, Page 8

A GOOD TOOTH

How to Build It (By Spencer Cotton, 8.D.5.) (Under the auspices of the Sunlight League of New Zealand). The Sunlight League has asked me how to build a good tooth. And 1 am a dentist, and so I ought to know. But T don’t know and all I can do is to answer as best I can. That is, it is my duty to tell all I know. Dentists the world over are thinking hard to supply the answer to just such a question. Not one of them can be dogmatic on the subject; they can simply tell the simple tale as science and research has seemingly revealed it to them. And science delving and groping for the truth, can as yet only tell a tale that is but half complete. Science can only give you an outline of a story that at present stands but half revealed.

The history of our teeth begins long before our own story is on record and usually it is true that dental history is over before our life’s race is run. Perhaps it is natural that it should be so but it is also true that our tooth history concludes far too early in life to be comfortable. Modern life as we know it is becoming more and more detrimental to our teeth. The incidence of dental decay is to-day well nigh alarming. Tiny infants are becoming afflicted with the ravage and the reason is still far to seek. What then are the latest conclusions of the whole matter. What is the recipe for building good teeth. Is it not better to ask how to maintain the teeth that Nature has already built for you? This is really the essence of the whole problem.

As far as I can see —and I have been observing for many years now—there is infinitely less dental disease in mouths that are well cared for. The greatest amount of dentistry is necessary in mouths that are dirty. Dentally speaking ‘ 1 dirt ’ ’ is those masses of food debris that cling in and about the little crevices of the teeth and accumulate round the gum line and cheek folds. A dirty mouth is one that is in a condition of stagnation; particles of starch (and sugary) foodstuffs collect on and between the teeth and form ideal breeding facilities for million upon million of bacteria. This then is the mouth where dental disease is rife. So in my estimation mouth hygiene is necessary. These stagnant masses must be cleared away. To do this there are two methods, and the best mouths employ both as a deterrent, to decay. The first and obvious method is by conscious cleansing with a tooth brush. The second is the obvious one of preventing the stagnating accumulations from taking place. Both these methods of prevention are worthy of a great deal of amplification. The former is purely mechanical. The latter is dietry. THE MECHANICAL ASPECT OF PREVENTION. Without doubt we must concede that in these modern days when foodstuffs are as they are, recourse must be made to some form of mechanical cleansing. Far above all other methods of accomplishing this, is the use of the tooth-brush. By this I mean the efficient use; not the average daily ritual that is called the “cleaning of the teeth.” In most cases this cleaning is not. done efficiently. It is slurred and skimped till it is ineffective and hence in many minds it stands discredited. “I clean my teeth,” says one man, “and yet they go.” But he uses the word ‘clean’ in a very erroneous way. 1 doubt if a man who talks like this has ever really cleaned his teeth. He may have brushed them but cleaned them he has certainly not. He stands self convicted of slovenly workmanship. And moreover he cheats himself, which is a paramount form of roguery. “First to thine own self be true, then it follows as the night the day thou eanst not then be false to any man,” says Shakespeare. A man or woman, boy or girl who cannot be faithful to himself or herself in the matter of bodily cleanliness is ill-fitted to be trusted with greater things in life. The great bulk of dental decay, toothache and poor teeth is really gross laziness; guard the gateway to your life and to this end you will find that the humble tooth brush so much despised, is your most powerful weapon.

THE PART PLAYED BY GOOD FOOD. Dental decay or caries is coming to be regarded rather as a symptom of general disorder than as a disease per se. A fit healthy human being usually has fit and healthy teeth. Lowered resistance means a predisposition to dental disorders. This then is our axiom. Be fit and keep fit and your teeth will look after themselves. How then can we keep fit ? Routine and regularity in the realms of commonsense are the watch-words and good sensible dietry principles are the keynote. Let us then at once learn a new word, “roughage.” That is the new term to keep in mind. If you are to keep well in mind and body you must guard against unemployment and so with your teeth. Keep them employed—not all the time, but when they should be working see that they work hard. A diet of soup and sloppy foods wont keep good teeth well. Thev must get exercise. They like it and will respond to it by keeping healthy. Give them plenty of crisp and tough stuff to exercise on and they will play fair with you. It is all these easilychewed easily-digestible foods that make all the trouble. And there is trouble. All these don’t-eat-that-it’s-foods are really the things that you want. And you want plenty of them too. Ido not advocate that you be foolish with them, but if at mealtimes you have a choice between an “easily chewable” and a “needs-a-deal-of chewing” food, then always prefer the latter and your teeth will benefit greatly. So we see that this coined word is born of necessity and is expressive. We are beginning to talk of ‘ ‘ roughage f ’ —that

rough fibrous coarse part of food that has little nutriment therein, but which has a value par excellence for our health. It is something to be got rid of and our organs glory in getting rid of it just as our teeth glory in tearing and crushing it. And so with our present knowledge of first principles, the men and the women of the world of dentistry almost universally will subscribe to the raw fruit, celery and crisp toast types of diet rather than to those so-called very nutricious slops oi childhood memory. Lazy teeth have to pay for their idleness. This truth I see demonstrated a score of times a day. They suffer for their unemployment and this is scarcely fair for there is work for them to do if we wmuld only let them do it. Our muscles are lazy and we prefer not to be bother about it. We leave our hard crusts, we cut the toast into little pieces, we grate and pulverise our nuts, we crush and drink our fruits or pummel them into a salad; we mash our potatoes when a hard baked chip would make that grilled chop so much more delicious; we cook our rice into a sploshy pudding and stew our glorious apples; we turn our celery into a cooked atrocity with white sauce and we prefer a sausage to a steak. So our teeth are combined together into a league of laziness not of their own volition and like the Arabs, will take up their tents and silently steal away.

The problem of our teeth is not yet solved but it is a wise person who will take heed of those who have a solution. of this problem at heart. Cardinal facts are really worth noting. New Zealand’s teeth are as bad as any in the w r orld and it thus behoves us all to be interested and to at least apply first principles to our own mouths that we may further the great cause of national health. The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, but in what direction we are going. To settle the direction of one’s travelling it is necessary to see. one’s goal. The dental goal is plain to see.