DENTISTRY UNDER FIRE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 114, 18 May 1918, Page 4

DENTISTRY UNDER FIRE

WORK OF THE. N.Z. DENTAL CORPS.

A SPTjEN'DID' RECORD

(From Malcolm Ross.)

■NORTHERN PRANCE 1 , 'March 13

I remember in the days that now .-eem far away—one has gone through so much since then —watching the shelling of the dental hospital near the beach at the No. 2 Outpost by a Turkish battery on the Galipoli Peninsula. On the side of the low ridge that fronted the blue Aegean a man was standing, taking snapshots at the bursting shells with a small hand camera. I found lie was an officer of the Now Zealand Dental Corps, connected with the Dental Hospital that had' been established in a couple of dug-outs within easy range of the enemy trenches. While he was photographing, earth and timber and other things were flying about. "That almost got you," remarked a man who was standing near. Intent "on his picture-making, the dentist did not notice what "it" was. It was a foot blown from the leg of a, patient in the hospital about a hundred yards away.

Before this time the New Zealand dentists had already done a good deal of work under fire. Two of their number had landed with the force in April, having with them only their forceps. Later up-to-date appliances were procured and the scope, of the work was extended. The first dental chair -was made by an Australian non-com. It was a rude enough bit of furniture, but it had an adjustable wooden head-rest, and was quite a success. Material for the first surgery was begged, borrowed, or stolen, and three Turkish prisoners helped to build it. The day it was opened there were forty patients. That was on Sunday, 14th June, 1915. and "surgery" was quite close to the Turkish lines. Teeth*were extracted, fillings done, and dentures made. The shells from ".Startling Annie" on the north and from "Beachy Bill' on the. south came flying past, and at time the shrapnel burst overhead, sending pellets through the blanket roof. After that timber and iron—which from start to finish were at a premium on the Peninsula —were sent along to replace the blanket, and the operators worked in less fear of the overhead bursts. Once a shell landed within ten feet of the surgery, and exploded in the ground without doing any damage, but it was sufficiently close to add a little excitement to the work.

Looking back on that shelling now, one realises how much less deadly it was than the shelling on the Western front, yet, in those days, we thought it sufficiently destructive. In a few weeks about a hundred men per day were coming to the surgery to have their teeth attended to or to have dentures made. The making of dentures under fire was surely a new experience. It was in August, 1915, that the New Zealanders started, at Cape Helles,_ the first dental hospital known in British warfare. It was established in a marquee on the cliffs above the Lancashire landing, by an officer who is still with us in°France. There were two operators, and six mechanics, the latter drawn from men in the famous 29th Division, several of them with degrees, but! who were drawing only a shilling a day. Generals and othtr officers coming down from the front used to look in and express their astonishment at the establishment of a dental hospital m the war zone. '.Several availed them : selves of the services of the New Zealand dental surgeons, and, generally, much useful work was done. _ Later in the year the second dental , hospital was established at No. 2 Ouct post, near the beach, and below u.e J frowning heights of Sarai Bair. .'luring (the last days of the historic adventure jit had to be somewhat hurriedly evacu•l ated, and it was not possible to carry away all the material that had been ac: cumulated. The Turk, wandering down the ridges during the days following the evacuation, would come upon appliances land material that he was perhaps.,'Jn- • used to in war. But before the Main Expeditionary ' Force had sailed two dentists had em- ■ barked with the Force that went tQ Samoa on 11th August, 1914. Ten, den- •> tists landed with the Force m Egypt on 3rd December, 1914. At first the dental officers were attached to the Medical Corps but subsequently a New Zealand Dental Corps was formed. This was in November, 1915. From the yery commencement • the New Zealand- dentist with our Forces have done splendid i work,, and at the present moment rthey are working harder than ever, and saving to the army many a man who ! would otherwise become at least tem'porarily unfit for active service. Preliminary , work was done m New Zealand before the Force sailed, more was done on the troopship during the long voyage, «till more in Egypt, while the •work accomplished in the early., day & on Gallipoli undoubtedly kept hundreds of men in the firing line at a time when men were sorely needed. There can be no doubt whatever that in this war the dentists have come into their own. and New Zealand will always be able to' look back with some i pride to the fact that she was the pion- ! eer in the movement It has already j been published in England that the teeth of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that.landed at the same time as we did on the Peninsula were often in an unsatisfactory condition. Indeed, the position was, considered so serious | that the British Suvgeon-'General approached the 0.0.0. of the New Zealand' [Force for a/loan of several of its den j tal officers, which loam was readily granted.. The Australians, also, were] ' without" dentists, and in their case, a"ain, New Zealand supplied the want. ; , We exchanged dentists for nurses, our ' officers working with the English and Australian'troops till the end of 1915. j Only two of our-own dentists remained at work with the New Zealnnders for a number of months in consequence of this loan. I Since then there has been a general ■ advance in Army dentistry, and the English, as well as the Australians and , Canadians, have well-equipped dental I corps, but New -Zealand still leads, iniasmuch as it is the only country along I the entire Allied front that has a dental 'hospital in the field, or, in other words, in the divisional area. The Germans, with their usual thoroughness, have | their dental surgeons close up, and as. the result of always having recognised I the necessity for an efficient dental service, the conditions of the teeth of their troons leaves little to be desired. • s An immense amount of work is done jbv our Dental Corps in the United rFvingdom. Wherever our troops are | gathered together in considerable numI hers there our dentists will be found. /Even Egypt is not neglected ; for there one officer and an orderly, with -\ H*"' surgical equipment, accompnnv the mobile section of the Mounted Field Ambulance, all extensive work audi Prosthetic cases being sentbnek to the !Now {Zealand Base Training Unit and "Dpnot, \ where there are one officer and three

mechanics and an orderly. These flections are efficiently coping with a great I deal of work. . The main difficulty in connection with a dental hospital in the field is the question of transport. One week the hospital may be housed under canvas. At another time it may bo in a shell-bat-tered building in the evacuated zone. You may even find our dentists operat- * ing in what had been, in time« of peace, a dairy. But whatever the building occupied is, or may have been, it is always washed clean, and every available . measure is taken to render the clinic generally aseptic, andi to maintain it so. Heating and ventilating arrange ments are installed. At the entrance to every clinic a prophylactic bench, is installed, and all ranks parading for examination and treatment must cleanse the mouth thoroughly either with their own toothbrushes or with the sterilise** brushes supplied for the purpose. In a half-destroyed 'village well within range of the German batteries one has noted with interest the men lining up at the prophylactic bench, the waiting room full, and queue of 50 or 60 men outside. ] The strain on the teeth in war is naturally much more severe than in peace. The teeth of men making a prolonged stay in the line arc tried by the hard food. The lack of adequate prophylactic measures on the paj't of men in tho battle area has its effect, while the severe mental stiuin endured by the troops in the trenches has a contributory effect in sending patients to tho dental hospital. Everyone has heard of trench foot, one of the ailments of the war that the medical service has had to cope with, but how many people have heard of trench mouth? Yet we have trench mouth just as we have trench feet. Otherwise known as Ulcero-membranous Stomatitis, or Vincent's Disease, it has, for some considerable time now, engaged the attention of both the medical and dental services. The result of a bacillous that causes ulceration and bleeding of the gum.?', it occurs on the German as weli as on our side of the war none. It is not confined to men who have been in the trenches, but has affected also men in barracks who. havo never seen a trench, and is a disease apt to bring other disorders in its train. A satisfactory method of 'treatment ho* been discovered—the painting of the gums with salvarsan or ail arsenical solution—and a cure is generally effected within two or three weeks time. The Germans credited their war bread as one of the contributory causes—a cause that up to the present is absent from the British war zone. ■ " From the foregoing it. will be seen that the New Zealand Corps has. rendered valuable services to the troops in the field "in the great war. The .corps has had its vicissitudes, but it is now established on a'firm, footing. -I write feelinrfy on the subject, for I hayc ivist rhade a pilgrimage of over. twenj> r, two kilometres and have been sitting, in a dental chair in a town from which, all the inhabitants had fled whDe it was being bombarded by German gnn. The two dental officers having- sent most of the .personnel of the corps'awa.y to a place of safetv .remained nt their posts, working their dnUB to Sie accompaniment of .the crashing ] shells.