DANGER OF BAD TEETH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18822, 12 July 1923, Page 6

DANGER OF BAD TEETH

WARNINGS FROM ABROAD. DRASTIC REFORMS NEEDED. Articles which have recently ap» peared in the Age on the question of the food we eat, and its relation, to health, have caused men of high medical repute to take into consideration the question of preventative rather than curative measures in their profession. Insolubly wrapped up with the que.stion of disease and the growth of many ills to which man is said to be the heir is the question of food, purity and nutrition. Scientists the world over have for a long time recognised that the food we eat is responsible for the state of the people's teeth and the health of the community generally. . . . To-day people are still suffering from diseases proved to have been caused by defective teeth and primarily due to malnutritive foods, and the most alarming feature of it all is the increasing number of child ren who are attending dentists to have their teeth attended to. Had the Governments of this country profited by the lessons of the war, in regard to bad health, they would have taken strong measures to see that the root cause of defective teeth in children was discovered, and (hs teeth rot prevented, instead of being allowed to grow until, at an early age, the child has to go to the dental repair shop. Dr. Thomas T. Alkin, a dental surgeon, of Sydney, who four reais ago toured the world on behalf of the Government, of New South Waler., to inquire into the methods employed in various countries to prevent mouth infections and pyorrhoea. He considers the reform will come only when the public is educated on the question of disease prevention and its great benefit, to other countries of the world. When it could stand up and demand organised official action with regard tc disease prevention as Its rights, then and then only, would the Governments, doctors, and dentists look to a reorganisation of the present system of "repairing” bodies.

Many people are apt, to turn aside when mention is made of America's experiments with regard to any question. But the Americans certainlv have shown the way to the world in the matter of disease prevention. Tn most of the factories in the United States, according to Dr. Alkin (and he has official data to prove it), den tai examinations are compulsory and in many of them the children of employees are attended to and diseases of the teeth prevented. Ths is done as a matter of business, and in the interests of health, and Dr Alkin wishes that the same be done here. “Why should American child ren have what ours cannot have? If the thing Is valuable to American children, isn’t it valuable to Austra han kiddles?” he asks. He advocates the inauguration in Australis of an educational campaign, backed up by research societies and the Governments of the various Stab’s, in view of the danger of diseases such as typhoid, he points out that ,ne Governments have legislation powerful enough to enforce conditions v hich will control the epidemic. Pamphlets are issued at such a period advising the people what, to do in emergencies. His argument that a modified form of legislation should always be operative and that pamphlets should be circulated advising people what to do to prevent diseases of all kinds is as common sense at the last-minute action of s regulation-bound Government de partment when an epidemic occurs is conducive to hysteria. It is a matter which could be taken up with decided advantage to the health of the community. He also advocates the rigorous examination of young children, and the prevention of d scases which are likely to affect them, as a beneficial alternative to the present official method of examining the child when the damage has been done and then repairing it. Profiting by their experiences of the war. the United States, when Dr. Alkin visited them, were spending large sums of money in educational campaigns with regard to teeth Infection. Great Britain, too, adopted strong measures to remedy the state of affairs which existed during the war period. Of the first draft of 5,000,000 men, after the outbreak of the -war, one-third was rejected because of defective teeth. That fact taught Great Britain a lesson (says Dr. Alkin), and in 1917 a Royal Commission on the question of defective teeth was held. In h » report to the New South Wales Government, Dr. Alkin Included an extract from the evidence given before the commission, showing that more than 50 per cent, of the medical cases examined were suffering from sickness of a kind directly or Indirectly attributable to defective teeth. The inauguration of preventive measures, Dr. Alkin considers will minimise disease in future generations, and the awakening of a public conscience will accomplish that which he and other researchers are working for. In the interests of public health, therefore, the time has come when the public should demand a thorough investigation Into the que» tion of disease prevention.