DIET AND THE TEETH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22211, 14 March 1934, Page 6

DIET AND THE TEETH

The care of the teeth, a subject which in much debated, and the origin of many scientific reports, all possessed of the accoutrements of authority, but not perhaps of a singular unanimity, receives further attention in a report by Mrs May Melianby, released in Great Britain recently. Mrs Melianby speaks with some weight, for her investigation was commenced as far back as 1917, and her report is issued by the Medical Research. Council. Its conclusions have been described as “ revolutionary,” which is a portentous word. Briefly stated, they are that the reasons for the prevalance of bad teeth among civilised peoples —particularly those living in temperate zones—are an excess of cereals in the diet, lack of sunshine, the wearing of clothes, and over-early weaning. Mrs Melianby thus provides interesting material for consideration by sections of the community as distantly related as wheat fanners and the Plunket Society, gymnosophists and dietitians. In more detail, the definite conclusions which she formulates from her research are concerned in the main with diet. Teeth of perfect structure will not decay, and their perfection is, she finds, largely dependent on diet during growth, both ante-natal and post-natal. Moreover, dental caries may be resisted and arrested by the provision of a suitable diet. The most important elements in diet from a dental point of view, this investigator declares, are calcium and phosphorus, plus ample supplies of vitamin D, the “sunshine” vitamin, and of the anti-infective vitamin A. With a view to obtaining these elements the longer a child is breast-fed, it is recommended, the better. Her conclusion that cereals are the most powerful ally of dental decay Mrs Melianby claims to have established by experiments on children. Diet rich in calcium, phosphorus, and v vitamins was found to arrest decay, while the addition of any substantial quantities of cereals prevented the diet from having this effect. There will, of course, be those who question Mrs Mellanby’s statements, if not the careful and prolonged research on which she bases them. But they will find she has answered in advance many of the posers with which she might be confronted. Why, for instance, do the Polar Eskimos have magnificent teeth, though living in a climate with little sunshine? The reason, says Mrs Melianby, is that their diet is free from cereals and they obtain from fat and blubber the necessary vitamin elements. Then why have the natives of Africa, whose diet is predominantly cereal, perfect teeth? Because, the investigator replies, the super-abundant supply of vitamin D which they possess as a result of exposure of the: body to sunlight counteracts the excessively cereal diet. The islanders of, Tristan Da Cunha, whose teeth are excellent, go, fully clothed, but Mrs Melianby points significantly to the fact that babies there, as in the Arctic and in Africa, are frequently fed by their mothers for as long as two- years, and on Tristan Da Cunjia cereals are practically unknown. As a final shock to the hygienic complacency of civilised peoples, Mrs Melianby points out that many tribes immune, from dental decay never clean their teeth. “ There is, indeed,” she remarks, “evidence that, this practice is of little importance in preventing or arresting disease, although, of course, the aesthetic value of. the toothbrush cannot be denied.” Not only the manufacturers of dentifrice and tooth brushes will support the implication that even if the cleaning of the teeth fails to preserve them, it is still one habit that becomes the civilised race.