Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-07
TEETH or SCHOOL CHILDREN
THE CAUSE OF
MOST DENTAL DISEASES.
Crushing Force Of Normal Molars Is
275 Pounds-Mastication Needed
by Teeth and Stomach.

The necessity for the care of the teeth
and for instructing children therein. as
early as the grammar school course. Is
dwelt upon by DIR. Paul Gardiner White
of Boston in an address delivered before
the Boston school board and now printed
in pamphlet form. DR.. White makes the
statement, somewhat astonishing in these
days of frequent tooth brushes. that
three-fourths Of the highly intelligent,
well-educated people look upon the teeth
as able to take care Of themselves. even
in adult life. and that they receive With
surprise and even incredulity the sugges-
ton that the teeth Of children should be
carefully cleaned and attended to. He
goes on:
1T is time to come to practical prfncl-
Piles and rid our minds of the idea that it
is disgrace to remove foreign sub
stances from the mouth. 1t is our duty
to care for the health of the mouth IN
every possible form, and when that has
been accomplished there will be from
the physician, as most of the ailments of
man are caused by mouth-infection.
THE mouth under the most favorable
circumstances is an ideal Incubator for
terra. and bacteria, both pathogenic and
non pathogenic. are present therein at all
times. The life-circle of these bacteria
demands certain conditions-viz.. suitable
temperature, moisture, food and a re-
moval of their waste products sufficient
all these conditions are found within the
oral cavity goes without saying.
1.-THE oral cavity is the main gateway
to the entire body. and it is through this
gateway that many destructive diseases
find entrance originating from infectious
material in the mouth
Wherever there is decomposition of or
ganic matter these innumerable colonies
of microbes, the germs of disease. are
generated. Can any individual pass his
food through a mouth thus infected and
yet wonder why he suffers from indiges-
tion?"
! Digestion and Assimilation.
The relation of the mouth to digestion
and assimilation is brought out in an
other part of the address. DR.. White
calls attention to the fact that good health
requires good digestion, which in its turn
cannot take place without thorough mas
tication. He Celebrates this idea as fol-
lows:
I'm the mouth the crushing force of a
normal set of teeth is 275 pounds. This
remarkable power is given us SO that we
may thoroughly masticate the hard and
firm foods which are so important for
proper nutrition. Masticat1on breaks up
the food so as to facilitate the swallowing
of it., and to insure it's intimate admiXture
with the digestive juices, not only within
the mouth. but throughout the whole di-
gestive tract. 1t promotes the flow of
saliva and secures due insalivation of the
food: 1T increases the quantity Of alkaline
saliva passing into the stomach; 1t slim
ulates the heart and circulation and in
fiuences the nutrition of the jaws and
their appendages by stimulating the local
blood and lymph circulation.
THE teeth during mastication, especial
ly where the bite is good and the food
of a kind necessitating vigorous and sus-
both vertically and horizontally in their
sockets: the effect of this is to stimulate
the circulation in the tooth pulp, the
alveolar periosteum. the cementum. the
alveolar wall supplied by 1t and the cir
cumjacent membrane of the gums.
"All this makes for the health of the
teeth. Wherefore it is not surprising to
find that those who masticate thoroughly
suffer much less from dental cares and
its. complications than those who are &C.
customed to bolt their food.
1t is common. DIR. White says, to hear
people with poor teeth say that they
will have them all out and substitute arti-
fetal moarS The inSufficiency Of this
plan is shown by the fact that the crush
ing force of the best artificial teeth Is
only 80 to $50 pounds, compared with the
275 of the natural ones. The remedy for
all such false ideas and for the neglect
of the teeth, which DIR. White finds to be
lone of the earliest. most immediate and
most far-reaching causes of disease" Is,
he thinks, the introduction of instruction
In dental hygiene into our schools. He
then presents these striking figures:
Unsound Teeth.
DR. lessen reports the astounding fact
that out of a total of 100000 school chill
dren from the different German states
from 81 to 80 per cent were found to
have diseased teeth.
among 1O.517 school children of about
twelve years of age. examined by Cum
ningham in England and Scotland. 3d.
20 diseased teeth were found-only about
1900 of these children. or approximately
IA per cent, having sound teeth.
1T was in barbarouS Russia that dental
Investigations were conducted as early as
1879, with the result that so per cent OF
the inhabitants of ST. Petersburg we're
found to have defective or decayed teeth.
Is it not an object lesson for US. the peo-
pie of Boston. that in 1897 the pedagogi-
cal council of the college of the far-dis-
tant city of Batoum should have already
provided that the pupils teeth should be
regularly examined by dentists? In the
higher military schools of Russia dental
offices have been established, as they also
have In the United States Army, where
every available means is employed to pre-
serve organs which are there considered
Of the most vital importance to health.