THE DECADENCE OF THE TEETH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2371, 10 August 1899, Page 56

THE DECADENCE OF THE TEETH.

That a " toothless age " is near at hand for this country, if not, indeed, for the entire civilised world, is the theory of a New York dentisi of prominence, Dr Vieto . 0. Bell. "We are becoming a ' toothless people,' and that very fast," says the doctor. Dr Bell first brought, these views of his before the public in a lecture under the management of the Board of Education, the other night, and he illustrated his statements with magic lantern pictures. "Tc begin with," said Dr Bell, in his lectu-e, "I must make this bold statement, 'We are becoming a toothless people.' For otherwise how can we account for the fact that thousands of people to-day are wearing artificial teeth, and there are as many thousands who would wear them if they could afford to buy them? Look at our children at the age of two ; their little teeth are already decayed. Our girls at the age of 14 and 16 have beautiful teeth indeed, but do not be deceived ; in many instances they are artificial. Our mothers and fathers at the age of 40 and 50 cannot boast of having many sound teeth. " Now, when you consider how much acute suffering and pain these people go through, how many sleepless nights and restless day 3 they pass before they arrive at that happy moment when they have gotten rid of their own teeth and can wear artificial ones instead, you will naturally ask yourself the question, ' Has the Creator given us these organs for temporary use and with the intention of inflicting suffering upon us? 1 No, they were given us to last us through life. If we do lose them prematurely and if we do suffer excruciating pain while we have them it is due to our own carelessness, negligence, and ignorance of the first principles of hygiene which govern the preservation of the teeth and mouth."' " I can add more to those statements," &aid Dr Bell the day after his lecture. "It is not realised how the teeth are going in this generation. It is due to the food we eat, to the artificial conditions of the life of to-day, to the lack if care and attention people give to their mouths. " Now here is a case in point. The toothpick is not considered proper in fashionable society after a meal, and floss silk is almost never used. Yet both 3f these, if people would only realise it, are good things. After eating particles of food are entrapped between the teeth. The toothpick or floss silk will carry them away. But they remain, the particles of food decompose and an acid is formed which attacks the enamel and finally combines with the salts of the teeth to destroy them. " Teeth do not last as long as they used to. My experience has taught me that of men and women from 50 to 60 years of age, from 60 to 75 per cent, now have artificial . teeth. This statement seems astounding, but it is nevertheless true. There is dental science enough to preserve them ; but people will not give dentistry a chance. They let them go, and a minute vegetable organism collects upon them. The enamel goes away, and the dentine is attacked, and the nerves and the blood vessels are exposed ; the nerves are devitalised and the teeth die." It is Dr Bell's theory that one great reason of the country's progress toward a " tothless age " is due to the lack of care of the temporary teeth of children. If Ihes.e temporary teeth are bad, he says, j the pennanfiiiti teeth, jvill bo weakened.

And yet very little attention is paid to a child's first teeth. ' " Thumb or finger sucking is a bad habit for children," said the doctor. "By this habib the lower teeth are forced inward a,ndi the upper outward. Mouth breathing also produces irregularity of the teeth. The most effective way of breaking this habit is that employed by the Indian mother, who bandages the mouth of the child, and in that way forces it to breathe through the nostrils, or not at all." Another import-ant tendency the doctor says he has frequently observed is that the lower jaw is becoming more and more contracted. It is now, he says, frequently necessary to remove some of the maiden teeth. The modern ' jaw, brought about through modern considerations of living, cannot accommodate all the teeth nature gives to us. Hence the teeth, besides being poorer year by year, are gradually and steadily getting to a point where they will be fewer. " Whenever there is decomposition of organic matter," Dr Bell declared, " innumerable colonies of microbes, the germs of disease, are generated. Through a mouth thus infected fresh food is daily taken, and during the process of mastication it is naturally mingled with the decayed matter in the mouth and then is passed into the . stomach for digestion. Is it astonishing then why one suffers "from indigestion or other diseases? " Goo.d health demands thorough rtitfpstion, thorough digestion demands thorough mastication, thorough mastication demands sound and healthy teeth." — New York Herald.