The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-07-24
THE CHILDREN'S TEETH.
Valuable Suggestions Concerning the Food
Question.


Question.
It becomes mothers, from the moment
that their children begin to eat solid
food, to see that they have meat and
veget2 Sles and milk, eggs, fruit, bread
| and porridges of the unbolted grains,
| and as little pastry, fne-hour bread,
and confectionery as possible, in order
that they may at once begin secreting
| the material for sound second teeth
which come under any circumstances,
| to be sure, but which under hostile cir
cumstances go without long waiting on
the order of their going. 1t is equally
necessary to see that the food agrees
with the child: for if it is not of a kind
easily digested, then the gases of its
| fermentation will rise and injure the
teeth, and the heated blood occasioned
by indigestion will make diseases of the
gums, also hurtful to the teeth, and
create more sensibility in the nerves to
pain and to heat and cold. Alterna-
tons of heat and cold, by-the-way, are
| quite as bad for the teeth as indigesti-
BILE food, the delicate enamel being Ole
dent, as every other substance is, to
crushing and splitting under the proc
ess, and affording opportunity for the
| beginning of decay by Judgment OF food,
or even by the entrance of the common
air. Thus it is hardly matter of doubt
whether ice-water and ice-cream are
not of great detriment to the teeth,
whether good or bad for the stomach,
and if hot tea and coffee, or even plain
hot water, are not equally potent for
harm.
Nor must the mother, if it can be
helped, allow the first teeth to be
| drawn Real pain that can not be al
| laycd-for there was never yet philOso-
pher that could endure the toothachc
patiently. says Leonata-is the only
thing that should make her yield on
this point: as it is right that the fangs of
the first milll-teeth should be absorbed
in their place. and not extracted, after
which absorption the little crowns will
drop away of themselves.
Food Astounding with lime, phospho-
rus, and other bone-malling material,
and care to take it always at the same
temperature, and that a moderate one,
together with complete cleanliness and
effort to leave no obstruction of any
sort in the intersticeS-clear water with
little soap being as good a dentritice
as any-can not but make and preserve
perfect teeth, and cause professional
| dentistry to be almost unneeded, wheth-
er of the pristine sort, where clamps
and wires of gold. for centuries before
our own era, secured false teeth in the
place of those that were gone, or of that
vigorous sort in use when John Gerard
carved an entire set out of ivory for the
Father of his Country, or of that which
to-day defies the gossip and the Paul
Pry, and makes and sets pearls so that
nature, that bcauty-lover, seems to be
their sole sponsor,
Yet dentistry has its place, and that
even when the teeth come and remain
strong and sound. For there is posi-
bility of their crowding and slanting,
whose slightest symptom no mother
can allow herself to overlook and at
the first sign of which the art of den
tistry is to be invoked, and little clasps
and bands of metal are set at once to
hold the growing tooth in the right
position, and hold it there till all is Sc
cure and shapely. There is no beauty
superior to that of a mouthful of clean
white, wcll-made, and wcll-sat teeth;
they give an idea of health and whole
somencss, of sweet breath, and even of
sweet temper, since they arc usually
accompanied by the red lips of good di-
gestion, the parent of sweet temper;
| / 4. /
checks and sparkling eyes and ambros-
ial locks. And whatever may be said
of their beauty, their comfort is some
thing not easily to be exaggerated,
hardly, indeed, to be felt, till the want
of it brings about such discomfort as
occasions the necessity Of making not
two, but twenty bites at q cherry, and
causes us to recognize the blessing we
have, only, like most other blessings,
after we have lost it.-liarpcr's Bazaar