Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-07-07

The action of the State Dental as
sociation i'm offering to examine the
teeth of the school children of the state
free Of charge is coming in for more
or less discussion and is being gener-
ally commended. To be sure there is
some adverse criticism There are
those who charge that the motive OF
the offer is to get work for the dem
lists. OF course this is a very natural
conclusion, especially with people who
do not have a comprehensive idea OF
the Importance of the matter, and 1t Is
to be taken as a matter of course.
Such an inspection will result in work
for the dentists and expense to the pa
rents of the children. But II there Is
any work more important or any eX-
pense more justified, we do not know
what it is. Among the readers of
this, are hundreds Of adults who are
suffering from various ills of both body
and mind solely because of bad teeth,
and without even having an intelligent
COMPREHENSION of the trouble, much
less the cause of 1t. We are not ex-
actly prepared to say that the teeth
constitute the most important part OF
the entire human machine; but we
would be considerably puzzled IL we
were called upon to name any other
part as more important. For lack of
proper care, mainly, but sometimes on
account of accident, or ignorance, the
teeth give out long before they should.
To be sure the rest Of the machine
may often be kept going after the
teeth are gone; but it is with reduced
efficiency. In the long ago, about the
only thing mankind knew to do with
offending teeth was to pull them out.
Finally it learned to do things in the
direction Of preservation, repairing and
restoring. Now-a- days, almost any
good dentist can take a mouth from
which half the teeth have been lost
with the other half in state of decay,
and restore the whole equipment to a
state of efficiency and serviceableness
equal to what nature had supplied at
its best. OF course, to do this costs the
beneficiary something, as it should, be-
cause it costs the dentist something.
But the cost, even though it be exor-
bitant, where the beneficiary is able to
pay it, is of small consequence in the
long run. For instance, we sometimes
hear men say that they would not have
lost a certain good tooth for a hum
dred dollars, or maybe one thousand,
and there is reason in it. What then
about having decayed and useless teeth
made as good or better than they for
merly were by filling or crowning, or
bridging at a cost of say something
like IS a tooth. This matter is very
important, so important that If the
dentist had not offered to examine the
mouths of school children free, we
would feel it our duty to advise pa
rents to send their children to the dem
lists and pay for it. We are thor
oughly we'll aware of the fact that 1t is
a pretty strong advertisement for the
dentists that we are writing, and we
believe some people who have been
neglecting their teeth heretofore, will
as the result of what we are saying, be
influenced to give the matter more Sc
rious consideration. AS rule, we do
not print advertisements without pay,
and we do not print paid advertise
ments as editorial matter at any price.
Sometimes we refrain from saying
things that ought to be said, because
we think they should be said by the
other fellow and at his expense; but
this is solely for the good we hope
will be done, and in the assurance that
in the months or years to come, there
will be those who will feel grateful to
us for having brought the matter so
plainly to their attention.