PYORRHOEA.

Thames Star, Volume LXI, Issue 16277, 22 January 1927, Page 5

PYORRHOEA.

A DREAD DISEASE.

GROWING EACH YEAR,

PAINLESS, YET DANGEROUS

Pyorrhoea has increased from 200 per cent., to 300 per cent, in the last five to 10 years.

Children of three and four years of age are losing the temporary teeth which should be retained until they are nine or ten years old. It is only in recent years that the general public has given much thought to the dread disease of the mouth teat is now the big problem in the dental world, but even now scant thought is given to it except by those who have been treated for it. It is becoming clearer each week, however, that the very great majority of people know very little about the proper care of the ■teeth. This was recognised by the Government a few years ago, and dental clinic s were established in State schools but despite their .undoubted good work, the condition of teeth generally becomes worse each year. Cause and Effect.

Inquiries into the cause and effect of pyorrhoea are given by Mr F. P. Tymons, of Christchurch, who was Deputy Director of Dental Services in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the Great War, and who was able, to note conditions in other countries during his service abroad. In the course of an interview, he made the two statements with which this story opens. Pyorrhoea aveolaris, to give it its correct name, is a disease of the aveolar process, and the symptoms are the symptoms are the oozing of pus around the free edge of the gum, and a loosening of the teeth. It spreads poison throughout the body, and, if allowed to continue unchecked, will materially affect the strongest physique. It is really that there is very little pain attached to this dease, for it is thus often able to spread considerably before the sufferer is constrained to seek medical or dental advice. Pyorrhoea is hereditary in some cases, and many persons who take meticulous care of their teeth have been surprised to find that they suffer from it.

Too Much Soft Food,

Research work into the cause of the disease is going on at present, and dentists are puzzled to account for it and for the great increase in recent years, but Mr Tymons holds the opinion that the lack of mastication of hard foodstuffs is one of the principal factors. Too much soft food is eaten, and the jaws are not used enqugh. He holds that if “the teeth were used in the way nature intended them to be used there would not be so much pyorrhoea, ond in support of this contention turns to his experiences among the peasants of Belgium and France, and the hardy poor folk of Ireland and Scotland. These people he found to have beautiful teeth, and all were used to exercising their teeth on hard foods that called for proper mastication. The Arab, too, has splendid teeth, but perhaps the best illustration is provided by the Maori. Before the pakeha ■brought civilisation to the land the Maori had splendid teeth, as is shown by old skulls that contain teeth worn down to the pulp, but otherwise in the best of order. To-day the Maori, living as the white man does, has teeth that are as bad as, if not worse than, those of the white man. Sweets, white bread and soft food that requires practically no chewing bring the trouble upon the present generation in the form of teeth that have not been exercised and developed as nature intended them to be, and the position is very serious in relation to children. The average child to-day is allowed sweets from infancy, is not taught to deyelop the jaw-bone for proper mastication, but lives on soft and easily masticated food. Consequently, caries develops too early, and the majority of children lose their temporary molar teeth at the tender age of three years and four years. These teeth, should be retained until children are nine or 10 years of age, for the temporary teeth that are lost permanently allow the other teeth to develop prematurely and irregularly. Moreover, the loss of the temporary teeth so early gives the children less chance to masticate food properly at an age when it is important for them to do this. Worse still is the condition when these early teeth decay and are allowed.to remain without attention, causing pain and injury. If the teeth of children of even the tender ages of three to six years can be treated, and the small cavities in them filled, so that they give service for the time intended by nature, the child has a much better chance of health when the permanent teeth come.

Parents’ Responsibility.

Mr Tymons blames the parents for the fact that the children are growing up with decaying teeth, but finds some excuse for them on the grounds of ignorance. Children going to school are provided with money for sweets, and sweet shops at the school gates cater solely for their trade. Some parents even provide money for children to buy biscuits for lunch instead of providing them with a good lunch that calls for proper mastication. The State clinics at the schools are certainly doing something in the fight against dental disease, and are doing good to the extent that they are educating children to look after their teeth, but until the cause of the disease is removed they can only tamper with it. And the child can step out of the school clinic into the sweet shop at the school gates. ‘‘Where is it going to end?” he was asked.

“Really, it looks as if, in another generation or so, we shall be dentureless,” said Mr Tymons, who expressed the opinion that it should be made compulsory for every child to undergo regular dental examination, and he would extend that compulsion even to children of three years of age.