OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3581, 31 October 1922, Page 58

OUR BABIES.

HYGEIA.

Bv

Pubtlahsd under the auspices ot the Royal New Zealand Society lor the Health ot Women and Children, “It Is wiser to put up a fence at tha top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

Here follows the conclusion of Mr Richmond Dunn’s lecture on Dental Hygiene: DENTAL HYGIENE. Need for Education rather than Free Dental Treatment. Tile cry at present is all for the right of free dental treatment from the State. What, is needed is not free dental treatment, but education; the right of free dental treatment is pauperisation, but the right to know how to prevent the necessity for treatment is freedom. The State, of course, realises that much treatment is necessary to patch up the results of past mistakes due to ignorance, but it also realises that the only lasting benefit a- State service can confer is an educational one. If the dietetic errors of the past are to continue, and are to be still further accentuated in the rising generation, then even the work of patching can never be overtaken; and dental services, medical services, hospitals, and asylums, and all tho side shows connected with them, as well as the thousar.dk of quacks and patent-medicine vendors, who live as parasites upon the community, will continue to increase in geometrical ratio, as I believe they have increased during the past generation. Oca Doom if we no not Reform. Other races more prolific, than our own and with greater vigour will sweep over our Western civilisation and wipe it, out. In what Mackinder calls the World Island, tiho great continent of Europe and Asia, such forces are now preparing. In Russia the cruel methods of evolution are weeding out the less fit by starvation and pestilence. When recovery takes place this may result in a new civilisation, or in an age of barbarism that may sweep over the earth as a flood. In every Western nation, including our own, the luxuries and vices of civilisation are preparing o-asy victims for such an inroad ; a falling birth-rate, a failing general fitness for the struggle will leave us an easy prey to more virile races. Dental disease in 95 per cent, of our children is the great danger-signal that must not be ignored. Signs of Awakening. There are some signs of a,ti awakening. A great many mothers are only too anxious to find out what is good for their children, and have tho courage and determination to carry it into practice. The Tlunket Society is doing an immense amount of good. I often say to mothers, “Your children have very , good teeth”; and the mothers reply, “Well, they ought to have, they are all Pluuket babies.” This Society is beginning to bear fruit, and the conditions in this Dominion for a healthy people with plenty of work and plenty of good plain food surely cannot be surpassed in any country in the world; but I can assure you thatonly a determined arid universal effort on the part of parents to find out the causes and to bring into operation the methods of prevention that are now being taught can ever turn aside this great debacle that threatens our race. Of course, there will be an ever-growing section of the community in which there will be a reaction from the errors of the past., and it is to ask you to help to increase this section that brings me here to-night. I am going to ask you to take an interest in the work of the Health Department, to understand its aims, and to help it along with your personal influence I want it to be clear that only by education and by example can we do anything to ameliorate the dental condition of the Children of this country, that the treatment that can be. given is as futile to remedy the evil as to wash back the incoming tide with a mop. The Training of Dental Nurses. I should like to say a little about the Dental Nurses’ Training School before I close. You probably know that there are 50 Nurses in training, and that 15 more are to start very soon. These Nurses are to he distributed over ihe country to carry on tho work for which they are being trained. The practical work in the Clinic began in February, and since then 3500 individual children have received treatment and have been given advice. Of course, it is inevitable that such an institution, and, indeed, all State Dental Services, will be simply looked upon try many as a place for cheap dentistry, so that, they may, although they do not put it to themselves, continue in the foolish way they aro bringing up their children without paying the immediate penalty. This is the obvious pauperisation that must accompany any such movement, hut I am glad to say that there are many encouraging signs that a great many parents are really desirous of finding out the truth about these things. Many are quite surprised to hear that any prevention is possible. The stereotyped phrase “the ills that flesh is heir to” has eaten into their souls. They have to be (old that their children are the heirg of the ages certainly, but that their heritage is health and happiness, sound teeth, beautiful bodies, and few ills except those that are the results of carelessness and ignorance. As for us, we are learning a great deal. I have already told you of the inquiries the Nurses make of the parents bringing children to the clinic, and what use we make of it.. It is not only with regard to children with defective teeth that we make these inquiries, for much more knowledge can be acquired by a study of the children with perfect teeth and of the habits that have resulted in this. Their Most Important Work. A very important part of the Nurses’ work is to try and influence the mothers in the direction of reform where it is necessary, or to ask those who are already enlightened to lot their lights so shine before' oilier women that they may see their good works, and bring up their children in

the same way. Those Nitrseg who have tiie desire or have special gifts for this work are allowed to address meetings of mothers and sometimes the senior classes in girls’ schools. One said to a class of girls the other day: “Now, why am I telling you all this?” The reply was at once, “Because we are going to have babies of our own some day, and we ought to know how to bring them up.” May I appeal to you again for all the help and sympathy you tan give us in this work, and for your influence wherever you can use it in furtherance of the aims that I have tried to make clear in this address.