GOOD TEETH

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11305, 2 September 1922, Page 10

GOOD TEETH

TOOTH BRUSH CONDEMNED. SOLIDS ADVOCATED FOR CHILDREN. In a paper on teeth and their effect upon health, Dr. Sidney Barwise, of Derby, told the Plymouth' Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health that he had com© to the conclusion, after careful- consideration, that, as fora as .the health of individual übits ef the community was cohcerhedT*' i 6h% would get. the best value for their money by building up and preserving good teeth. He insisted that, after two years, infants should be fed on solids and taught only to drink after meals. He had forard*'cirildren witty good teeth in homes where the toothbrush had never been seen, and if he had hia choice as to whether a child: should be fed -ion hard foods, drink after . meals, and never use a toothbrush, or he brought up like a middle-class child and use a toothbrush; he would prefer the former. Sufficient instruction had not been given on the nse of the right form of toothbrush, or on the use of lime a mouth '.wash.':' Years ago it was the common practice to give water and milk to children to form bohe, and this might be the reason the present generation just expiring had better teeth than their children. If. they , could carry out a programme on some such line as this the services of dentists and cjontal dressers would not be required; .at present* they were an absolute 'necessity, and he was afraid, seeing human nature was what- it was, they always would be.-" - - ■ ■Acting on the lines he suggested, he believed they could have less adenoid growth, less debility leading to tuberculosis, ' and less - rheumatism and heart disease, and given the capacity to eat the right food they would get rid of that bugbear to them all—a, delicate child. NATIONAL CAMPAIGN. Dr. James Wheatley, medical officer for Shropshire, advocated a national movement of the kind they had fox the prevention of consumption and infantile mortality. Its effect upon the health of the people would not be inferior to either of these, \ . No liquid should be taken at meal times, no meal should be finished with jam, marmalade, or , -miik, and there should be no milk, biscuits, chocolates or sweets the last thing at night. If these rules were followed they would have a good effect upon health generally. They could- not afford to cover up defects by dental treatment, or the toothbrush.