[Brushing Your Teeth Waste Of Time?

Northern Advocate, 29 August 1947, Page 4

[Brushing Your Teeth Waste Of Time?

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. PEOPLE who brush their teeth last thing at night and first thing in the morning are wasting time. Prevenxion rather than patching up dental disease is an essential requirement. ' The institution of a free dental scheme in New Zealand is the setting up of an expensive treadmill.

These forthright statements were made today by Dr Cecil D. Hearman, lecturer in preventive dentistry and dietics at the University of Melbourne who has been attending the New Zealand Dental Association’s conference here.

Only in the last year or two had dentists been able to say with a reasonable degree of certainty that they knew the cause of decaying teeth. CAUSE OF DECAY The cause of decay was decomposition of food in the mouth and foods which counted were those coming into contact with the outside of the teeth. The outer layer of enamel, which was the first to be attacked by decay, was formed after birth.

Dentists in the past devoted too much time to repair work and neglected the causes he said.

Thus, any attempt to improve its resistance by pre-natal feeding of minerals and vitamins was an impossibility.

The only foodstuffs causing trouble were, for all practical purposes, refined sugar and refined flour, although there were others. 1

Ninety per cent of the trouble was caused by sugar. Enamel-eating acids reached their greatest concentraiton 15 to 20 minutes after eating and continued to harm the teeeth for 90 minutes. Dr Hearman added that among ways in which dental decay could be prevented, was cleaning immediately after a meal, with emphasis on immediately, owing to the discovery that acids form so quickly after eating.

Elimination of foodstuffs known to be a cause of trouble was impractical, but destruction of acid-forming bacteria by diet was being done by the Health Department in Michigan, United States. Dr Hearman said that if vans toured schools with equipment for spraying children’s teeth it would be better than a free dental treatment service.