The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-01-03
HUMAN TEETH FAILING.
A Marked Change for the Worse
In the Past Century.
The Modern Degeneracy Of the Teeth
the Result of Neglect to Properly
Conserve the Nervous
Energies.

A comparative examination of the
skulls of savage and civilized races
shows that the increased brain develop
ment of the latter is always accom-
panied by marked modification In the
| form and size of the jaws and teeth.
| This modification is usually spoken OF
as degenerate condition. While it is
quite true that decay of the teeth is
much more prevalent among highly
civilized than among savage peoples, 1t
is open to question whether 1t be an in
| evitable concomitant condition. The
Greeks had, apparently, nearly solved
this problem at the height of their civ
| ilization, for it is not until the COM
mencement of the period of their de-
cadence that we find any marked de-
cay of their teeth. The modern de-
generacy of the teeth, therefore, is not
to be regarded as directly due to modi-
| fications produced by changes in the
| contour of the face and skull conse-
| uuent on increased brain development,
as some scientific men have contended,
but rather as the result of neglect to
properly conserve the nervous energies
necessary for maintaining that balance
of physique upon which health or
Wilderness is primarily dependent A
weakened or diseased condition of any
part of the human organism, excepting,
of course, such as is produced by me-
| chanical injuries, is always local ex-
preston of greater or less general de-
cline of systemic vitality. That there
has been steady and rapid deteriora-
ton in the quality of human teeth
among nearly all the great civilized
| nations Of the earth during the past
century, a deterioration especially
marked during the past thirty or forty
| years, no one can deny.
| Are we, then, to consider this degen-
eracy of the teeth as a local indication
of general decline of racial vitality?
asks a writer in the New Review.
can see no possibility of avoiding an
| affirmative answer to such a question,
but there are, at the same time, as we
shall see, certain peculiar circum-
stances and conditions attending de-
cay of the teeth which largely qualify
such an affirmative answer. The prob
lem, however, is very grave and de-
mands the most serious consideration.
We are always prone to overlook the
| Importance of any disease which does
| not Immediately threaten to extinguish
| life; but it would not, believe, be diff
| cult to show that the sum OF physical
evils which may be directly traced to
| decay and loss of the teeth is far greater
| than any likely to be inflicted by the
advent of any contagious or infections
disease. On first thought this may
seem a bold statement, but the simple
truth is that the foundations are laid
and the way prepared for the incoming
of many diseases, both contagious and
non-contagious, by degenerate condi-
ton of the teeth. A high state of vital
| ity is the most perfect protection against
any form of disease, and this can only
be secured and maintained by perfect
nutrition. Perfect nutrition results
from perfect digestion of food materials,
and perfect digestion is an impossibility
without perfect mastication. The life
of the whole body is poisoned at Its
fountain springs when food, half masti-
Gated, inadequately moistened with
saliva and loaded with the nitro-organ-
isms which proliferate in the cavities OF
| decaying teeth is taken into the stomach.
| If natures adaptive powers were not
wonderful almost beyond belief thou
sands of people would speedily die
1 from this sort of self-poisoning; as it is,
the beginnings of many persistent
chronic diseases are established in this
way. I am probably considerably
within the bounds of my statement
when / say that the loss Of the masti-
eating teeth before the thirtieth year
means a shortening of the life of the
| individual of from two to five years.
! To know the extent to which many Of
! these teeth are lost, even before the
| fifteenth year, one has only to turn to
the recently published reports OF the
examination of the teeth of children In
the schools and orphan homes of Lon
don and elsewhere. If some effective
measures are not adopted for combat
| ing the ravages Of dental decay II looks
very much as though another half
century would find the poorer classes OF
English people practically edentulous
before the twentieth year.