HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1944, Page 7

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

FILLINGS IN YOUNG TEETH (No. 190). (By the Department of Health) Some parents have been concerned and a little puzzled by what they regard as the unnecessary fillings in newly-erupted teeth made at the dental clinics. There is a very good reason for this treatment. The first permanant molar appears about the sixth year. If the nutrition is good, following years of adequate milk and a balanced diet the biting surface of that sixth year molar is rounded, with shallow grooves. But to find the first molar in this condition is rare in New Zealand —a fact which is a striking commentary on our indifferent dietary practice. Indeed a very, high proportion of these first permanant molars, have at the time of their eruption, deep fissures on their biting surfaces. These deep fissures are caused by a failure of calcification —due to shortages of lime and vitamin D in the diet. These deep, narrow clefts provide ideal harbourage for starchy foods, the fermentable carbohydrates, and the toothbrush can’t get into them. Decay of these first molars, therefore, is inevitable, and parents express astonishment that the tooth should go so soon. The clinics are merely, getting in first when there are deep clefts within six months of eruption. The narrow fissure is cut out and filled until the tooth is a nice rounded and proper shape. This is known as a prophylactic filling, and it forestalls certain decay in the toot-h.