FAULTY DENTISTRY

Southland Times, Issue 18984, 19 November 1920, Page 6

FAULTY DENTISTRY

MENACE OF THE CHEAP PRACTITIONER. A WELLINGTON OPINION. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, November 18. A Wellington dentist of high standing was interviewed to-day with reference to the Sydney cablegram anent dishonest dentistryPie admitted regretfully that there were dentists in this country who did not do their work properly, and thereby encouraged the destruction of teeth. “We have frequently,” he said, “taken' out fillings, fillings only a few months old, to find that the cavity had never been properly cleaned out. A dentist who does such work, if he knows anything about his work at all, must know very well' that a person so treated would have to return for. extraction or further treatment within six or eight months, and it is not surprising such men as I refer to cannot do work properly at the low prices they charge. When a tooth is to be filled the utmost care should be taken to take away every speck. The cleaning out of the cavity is really the most important part of the work, as it is on the thoroughness with which such work is done that the work stands. I have even had people come with bridges over teeth that have been split in the riveting process. The dentist concerned had not revealed to his client that the tooth had been split, but went on patching it up with a makeshift bridge, and within six months the client visited me to ascertain what was the matter with the tooth. Any dentist of experience at all could quote examples of ‘slummy’ work done by cheap dentists who rush work through and collect cash on the spot. It is such dentists, I suppose, that the writer of the paper at the Sydney congress referred to. The type is not confined to Sydney. He is everywhere.”