Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-11-28
Facts About Teeth.

There are seventeen thousand den
fists in the United States, and they
pack into the teeth of the American
people ton of pure gold every year
| | guess about five times that weight o
less precious metal, such as tin, silveI
and platinum, go the same way. Now
these metals are worth one million dol
lars, and in the twenty first century
all the coin in the United States viii
be buried in the graveyards." The
dentist looked distressed at the result
of his calculations, and the reporter, tC
revive him, suggested that the figures
were an argument in favor of cremation
The dentist shrugged his shoulders
Yes" said he, "but you've no idea
how the gold is thus being used up
People used to be content with filling
| the dark caverns Of their molars with
any kind of metal, now it must be gold
There is also a growing industry IN
filling artificial teeth.
:'How can they want flling!" asked
the surprised reporter.
"Whv, my dear sir, they are made
so. You know how carpenters will
pick the fairest, smoothest board for
interior work in house and will then
have painter to daub it all over with
knots, crossgrains and splits : So the
modern patron of artificial teeth takes
his elegant new set to the dentist and
has him drill out vacancies to bill.
Looks natural, don't you see? Hun
dreds of pounds of gold are disposed of
in this way every year. 1t isn't SO
particularly the gold that the wearer
of these artificial teeth wants to dis
play as it is to have the average citi-
zen look upon them as their natural
grinders. You see, don't you 2" and
the dentist tapped his own false teeth
with small probe he held in his
hand.
is the artificial teeth industry a
growing one p Inquired the repor-
ter
"Oh, yes; although statistics show
that only one-third of the people of
the United States who really need
artificial teeth avail themselves of
them. Strange, isn't it Yet there
are about four millions Of them made
in this country a year. as 1t Is.
Prices have come down terribly,
though, and where dentists used to re-
tire after eight or min years of practice
and live in luxury the rest of their
lives, they now have to struggle on the
best part Of their lives and then die
poor. We formerly had from forty to
one hundred dollars for q double set of
teeth. Now twenty dollars is good
price, and good ones that will last five
or six years can be bought for from
eight to sixteen dollars"
as the decay of teeth increasing or
diminishing among the people of tLis
country 2"
"Oh, increasing. Two hundred
years ago one person in five had sound
teeth, hundred years ago but one per-
son in twenty five had perfect teeth;
and in this nineteenth century age of
reform our latest satisfies show that
but one person in eighty has perfectly
sound teeth. Its an alarming condition
of things, and by the same ratio it does
not take a very deep mathematician to
see that the time is near at hand when
unsound teeth will be universal. Their
decay is largely augmented by the use
of cheap dentifrices and powders which
are advertised to give them a pearly
look. 1t does just the reverse. re-
moves the sparkling enamel and puts
in It's place a ghastly plaster of paris
color that is positively repulsive.