HEALTHY TEETH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21574, 9 February 1940, Page 10

HEALTHY TEETH

EARLY TREATMENT SYDNEY PROFESSOR ON PREVENTIVE WORK Work being carried on at Sydney Dental Hospital in the preventive sphere, especially the early examination and treatment of children's teeth, was described by Professor A. J. Arnott, 8.D.5., D.D.Sc., F.A.C.D., Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, Sydney University, in an Interview at Wellington. Tire professor, accompanied by Mrs Arnott, has arrived in New Zealand to attend the Dominion Dental Conference. At the conference he will deliver addresses on the latest developments in the technique of oral surgery with modem apparatus he has brought with him. He also has a large quantity of lantern slides. "Great Importance is attached now to providing dental treatment for children of pre-school age," he said. The aim is to give attention to their temporary or milk teeth so that when the permanent teeth erupt they will have good occlusion, that is, that they will have a good, even bite. If the occlusion is good it favours normal development of the arches and prevents development of pockets, which affords protection against pyorrhoea and other conditions that occur when the teeth do not function properly. It is also known that proper nutrition is essential if the child’s teeth are to develop under the most favourable conditions. Attention is also given to the pre-natal diet of the mother-to-be, and after birth to the nutrition of both herself and the baby. All this care is necessary to ensure good bone and teeth formation.

The professor said the Dental Hospital contained a special department for pre-natal and ante-natal treatment and advice to the mothers, and for the subsequent examination and care of the young children's teeth. They were brought to the hospital from the kindergartens and from the children’s playgrounds.

Lesson to Parents

The service at the hospital was provided only to children whose parents were of humble means, but the work being done there was becoming widely known, and, in conjunction with information disseminated through the Department of Health, was acquainting parents generally with the need for placing their children under dental observation from an early age.

The Dental Health Education Division of the Australian Dental Association worked in close co-operation with the children’s department at the hospital, and also disseminated information to the general public. At the hospital mothers received advice on dietetics and the children were kept under regular supervision during the eruption of their milk teeth. The child remained a patient of the hospital until the whole of his permanent teeth, with the exception, of course, of the wisdom teeth, had erupted—in other words, until he was 12 years of age. The professor said that, as a result of the work being done at the hospital, he was sure the Incidence of carles in children’s teeth would show a substantial decrease in the next few years. One of the important lessons taught in the children's department was that the first permanent teeth erupted behind the temporary teeth at the age of six years. It was frequently found that parents, though Ignorant of this fact, allowed their children to develop defects in their first permanent teeth and did nothing to obtain treatment.

Modern Hospital

Professor Arnott said the Dental Hospital occupied a new building recently completed at a cost of £155,000. It contained departments for dealing with oral examinations, X-ray examinations, pathological and bacteriological matters, prosthetics, preventive dentistry, the children’s department, an operative and conservative department, an oral surgery department, and a research department.

The hospital dealt with from 40,000 to 50,000 patients annually, who ranged from persons earning the basic wage and having dependants down to those with no means at all, as well as invalid and old-age pensioners, and so on. The hospital was also the training school for the University of Sydney. There were at present in the dental faculty 115 students, Including 11 women, studying for the degree of Bachelor of Dental Surgery.