The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-25

these dangers would often have been
 disregarded through ignorance; but modern dental science has shown so close a connection between diseases of the teeth and those of the rest of the
 body-opening a field of research ln- deed. that Is as yet apparently only In
 its beginning-that the matter becomes
 much more far-reaching than might at first glance be imagined. Indigestion, dyspepsia, in fact all complaints that may be traced to an improper dental treatment of food are thus connected with proper dental treatment and to prevent these troubles proper dentistry Is an ounce of prevention that is worth many pounds of medicine. ..~. t4
 The bill has. therefore, two import ant aspects; the provision for imme-
 diate relief in those emergency cases where the sailor has need of prompt and efficient assistance. and the pro- vision for regular trained oversight and treatment as preventive of future serious turbances-disturbanc in-
 deed, that may go so far as seriously to incapacitate him for his prescribed duties. or even end eventually in a pen-
 sionable disability. Such oversight means not only good teeth but constant authoritative mastication of the sailor mans food. All accidents of the mouth and jaws are also nowadays included in the practice of dentistry-such ac- cidents, for example, as the fractured jaws that now form an important part of the clinical work of the Harvard Dental School in this city, although not many years ago similar cases were generally held to belong to the medi- cal rather than the dental surgeon. In this one dental school hundreds of cases of fractured jaws have been treated by students, who thus equip themselves for
 kind of service that future dentists may be called upon to perform in the
 heat of naval and land engagements.
 So far the navy has had a few regu-
 larly train dentists who have served
 under the contract system. The ma
 jority, however, of dental operations
 have been performed by hospital stew
 ards-such dentistry, as was recently
 said by Surgeon Rixcy, being obviously
 limited to simple procedures and UT gent cases" The arrangement has been a makeshift that has never been to the
 satisfaction of the medical bureau, and
 has of late been considered only per
 missiblo until legislation should be ob-
 tained giving the enlisted men of the
 navy the benet fiof efficient scientific treatment.
 Something of the amount of work that has fallen to the share of these hospital stewards may be judged by the fact that Tn single year, on one American receiving ship. 990 teeth were restored by filling, crowning, etc; 502 teeth were treated for various diseases; 92 were extracted; 165 dis eased nerves of teeth were treated; and 110 teeth filled and made service able. On another vessel, the Yosemite, on which d trained dentist was re- gently employed under a special agree ment for one years service, more than 70 per cent of the officers and crew came to him for treatment, many of the cases showing the i'll effects of pre- vious work by the well iptentioned but necessarily incompetent dentistry of the pospital stewards. The earlier age for enlistment in the navy than in the than in the mary is held to have made this need of authoritative desintry even more imperative in that branch of the service. although circumstances have given the army the first advantage of it's recognition as a necessity.
 To what degree the appointment of regularly educated dental surgeons has been of benefit to the army has been shown by tn reports of various officers whose experience has taken them through all the recent campaigns. There are times says one of them,
 when the service of a dentist is as necessary as that of an army srEs~"-z>