SMOKERS’ TEETH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 19

SMOKERS’ TEETH.

The 'smoker has a heart, we always knew. Even more often lie has a throat, and sometimes he has eyes which suffer from his burnt offerings of tobacco (says the Daily Telegraph). But hitherto he had flattered himself that hig teeth were none the worse for “cur holy herb nicotian.” But Lord Malmesbury, discoursing on the parlous dental state of the nation, now' sets our flesh creeping with the suggestion that heavy smoking makes our teeth decay. How the cause produces the effect wc are not informed. Whether the smoke arcta directly on the tooth or the influence of smoke upon tho body is pernicious to teeth. Lord Malmesbury does not explain. Whether the theory has medical authority or is a layman’s conjecture remains obscure. Upon the admirable principle that one ought to try everything we would have it tested. Let tho teeth of heavy smokers be compared with the teeth of those who smoke moderately and those who smoke not at all, a task which each dentist can perform from his casebook. One only difficulty will occur. What in these days is a heavy smoker? How many cigarettes, how many ounces of tobacco diurnally or hebdomadully are required to put a man in the first class? What is the rate of exchange between cigarettes and pipes? For no pipe-smoker will admit that what comes from his pipe is fairly to be compared with the product of the cigarette. There are some farailar facts for Lord Malmesbury’s hypothesis. The noble savage, it is notorious, has better teeth than we civilised creatures. Our remoter ancestors had sounder teeth than modern men. Shall we say that the enfeebling factor is tobacco smoke, unknown to the barbarian, unknown to the Middle Ages? But some of tho noble savages have been smoking like furnaces for centuries. When America was discovered the natives knew all about tobacco. Yet it is not alleged that Rod Indians ever needed the dentist. I topic had toothache on this side of tho oroan in ancient times, and before ever a whiff of tobacco had been smelt in Greece or Egypt tooth were decaying. Is it not notorious nowadays that childhood is the age in which tho mischief is done, and that dental treatment in the elementary schools is going to save the white teeth of old England? Let tobacco leave the court without a stain on its character or a tooth.