DIET FOR BAD TEETH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 17 (Supplement)

DIET FOR BAD TEETH.

Decayed Parts can be * Made to Heal.

* QAREEULLY REGULATED eating! •was envisioned in Washington recently as promising mankind freedom from thp misery of decaying teeth, and even the healing of those in which decay had made considerable progress. The successful healing of decayed teeth solely through treatment with special diets was reported at a dinner given by the Capitol Clinic Club in honor of Dr Sherman L. Davis, who was credited with recent nutritional discoveries which may bring about profound changes in the practice of den- , tistry. A case of the filling of a cavity in a tooth without mechanical assistance in Washington was described. At least a dozen similar cases were said to have been reported by dentists in various parts of the country, and it was held to have been demonstrated that decay of the teeth almost always can be pre- , vented and in many cases arrested after it had made progress through dietary treatment. % Dr D. C. Robinson, chief surgeon of the Youngstown and Inland Steel Corporation, described Dr Davis’s accomplishment as “ one that bids fair to rank with that of Louis Pasteur,” and Dr M. A. English, a Washington physician, said he was “ so impressed from a medical standpoint” that he would insist on every new case of his taking an examination to determine whether there was need for the nutritional treatment. The Washington case of self-restora-tion of a tooth was described as that of a man forty-eight years old, who presented himself for an examination on February 1, 1930, and was found to have eighteen cavities, of which six were new and the others had appeared around good fillings. One, a cervical erosion cavity in the lower right first bicuspid, was left open for observation purposes and a special diet worked out by Dr Davis was prescribed. This cavity was reported smaller when examined on October 4, and had entirely recalcified, or filled up naturally, on June 2, when the patient was last examined. ■* Dr Davis told of 675 cases over which he had maintained personal supervision. After checking them for a period of six months, during which time an average of four cavities appeared in the teeth of each patient, each patient was examined and placed on a diet deemed; best suited to individual needs. Uponj

examination after another six months’ period, he said that instead of finding the 2700 new cavities which might have been expected on the basis of the first six months of observation, only five were disclosed in the group. He added that he had made numerous tests of treating hypersensitive teeth with the same method and had not experienced a failure. Dr Leo W. Solbach, a director of the Clinic Club, described the method of procedure in diagnosis. Assuming that nutrition is of primary importance, he said, the first step should be the taking of X-ray pictures of the mouth. A history of the physical condition of the patient in the past, and various analyses should be obtained, he went on, to determine sugar, albumen and phosphorus requirements and disclose such conditions as anaemia .infection and dia betes. With the patient’s needs thus jdetermied, he said, a proper diet and [treatment can be prescribed.