ENEMIES OF THE TEETH

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7446, 22 May 1911, Page 7

ENEMIES OF THE TEETH

In an address to members of tho School Dentists' Society, London (says’tho "Standard''), Mr Hopewell-Smith gave the result of tests which ho had made to discover Uu effect of various kinds of food—chiefly sweets, frail, and condiments—on the teeth. After explaining that carles, 01 decay of tho teeth, was primarily a condition of adolescence, ho said that tho way in which tho bacteria produced tho decay was stilt a mystery. The object of his experiments had been to find which substances accelerated and which retarded the growth of the germs which caused decay. Tho most striking factor in the promotion of growth was sweets. Acid-drops apparently prevented it, but chocolate was extremely bad. and' bullscycs. buttorballs, and sticky sweets were worse still.. From a dental .point of view, sour milk, often proscribed by physicians, was very bad, as ihe germs grew rapidly on it. He had tested the effect of oranges, apples, grapes, lemons, etc., and found that in sixteen hours a huge amount of growth of bacteria was presented by them. Mustard, vinegar, and coffee were good, as, they stopped the growth, while tea. salt, and cocoa retarded decay. On the other hand, pepper encouraged it to an enormous extent. Wheaty and starchy things wero not good, as anything containing starch was converted into sugar when in the mouth, and from that into aeid. Mr Hopewcll-Smith showed a statement, which ho bad prepared, and this revealed the following classification r Favourable to Decay—Pepper, sour milk, chocolate, oranges, starch, apples, grapes,, butfcrballs, figs, lemons, bullseyes, pineapples. , Unfavourable ,to Decay.—Milk, glucose, acid drops, mustard, vinegar, coffee, tea, salt.