TEETH OF THE MAORIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3860, 6 March 1928, Page 6

TEETH OF THE MAORIS.

EVIDENCE OF DETERIORATION.

AUCKLAND, March 1. The perfection and beauty of the teeth’ of the Maoris when living in their natural conditions have always been a source of admiration and interest to observers, and many attempts have been made to discover their secret. Twenty years ago Dr Pickcrill, the Dean of Otago School of Dentistry, devoted some months to careful investigation of the problem, and he embodied his observations in a standard work which won the Cartwright essay prize. With a view to comparing Dr Pickcrill’s results wifh the conditions existing to-day, a well-known Auckland dentist spent part of his holiday last mouth visiting the most inaccessible Native settlements in the Urewera Country. The extraordinary deterioration which he found in the teeth of the Maori children there affords strong confirmation of the view that the highly-refined foods of modern civilisation arc most injurious. When Dr Pickerill made his investigations he noted among the Maori children of the Urewera Country 99 per cent, of freedom from dental caries. The Auckland dentist, when visiting Rua’s settlement at Maungapohatu, examined many children sent out to him at random from the school, and he found that approximately 75 per cent, of them were suffering from dental caries. In one boy of 14 years of age he found pyorrhea. When Dr Pickcrill made his observations the Urcrcwa Maoris were living almost solely on fruit, roots, ami berries. The children whom the Auckland dentist examined arc making much use of refined sugar, white flour, tinned meats, and tinned fruits, and it is to this diet that he attributes the striking change in he conditions of their teeth.