DENTAL CARIES

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 45, 19 September 1930, Page 4

DENTAL CARIES

"PREVENTION" THE CRY. HABITS OP LIFE TO BLAME. If any improvement is to be brought about in the dental health of the people of New Zealand it must be by more preventive work. This was the keynote of the presidential address given by Mr. W. J. Bright at the opening of the conference of the New Zealand Dental Association on Tuesday. "The whole of a dentist's practising life is a continuous war against an incurable disease," said the president. "Possibly many have not fully grasped the fact that dental caries is incurable. The dentist may, certainly, more or less successfully arrest the progress of the disease, and with different materials build up the cavities which the disease has brought about; but for the restoration of lost tooth substance Nature has made no provision. We must admit that up to the present this continuous war the dentist has been waging is a losing one. The number of practising dentists has increased tenfold within the last 50 years, yet the ravages of dental disease are more widespread today than ever before. If, then, this profession is to fulfil its mission as guardian of the nation's dental health, it must endeavour more and more to aim at prevention. That which cannot be cured must be —not endured —but prevented.

"I am afraid the people are being lulled into a false sense of security. So long as they can receive dental treatment, whether from the State or by paying for private treatment, they are led to believe that all is well; whereas, in reality, prevention must come from the homes. It cannot come from the dental surgeries. It is time the public was plainly told that the cause of dental disease, and all the attendant evils which accompany it, lies at its own door. The responsibility cannot be put upon the dentist." Education of Young - . Every farmer knew that to get good results with his animals he must feed them on a properly balanced ration, which was best supplied in whole grains as oats, barley, wheat, etc., said the president. He would not expect to take three parts of the elements from these grains and still grow healthy animals. Then, why should he expect anything but disaster if he allowed his children's cereal foods to be robbed of many of their essential elements? There were those who claimed that the food habits of the people could not be changed, but with this he did not agree. Sir Truby King made drastic changes in feeding babies, with what wonderful results was now known the world over. It was by education of the young generation that they might expect to achieve results. "That Utopian state, when teeth decay no more, will not come in our day," said Mr. Bright. "I trust we are doing what we can to hasten it along. In the meantime there is much good work to be done by the members of this profession in dealing with the conditions as they exist to-day. We can justly claim that, inasmuch as we alleviate pain and suffering, ours is a work of service to our fellow'men. What higher aim can man attain than conquest over human pain?"