The Colorado statesman., 1914-11-14
WHY TEETH DECAY.


most prevalent disease known to man.
both civil and military of more than
forty years in which he examined
many thousands of mouths he has met
but four persons who. having reached
adult life, were free from every form
of dental or oral disease. Decay of
the teeth seems to be pre-eminently
disease of higher civilization. as it is
most common among those nations
which are recognized as having the
highest culture.
Tones reports having examined the
mouths of 1888 English boys and girls
at the Hanwell and Sutton schools
and at the Exmouth training ship.
These boys and girls ranged from
three and one-half to seventeen
years OF age. OF all those e1-
amined n per cent were affected with
decay of the teeth. 1.-TWO hundred
and five children belonging to high
class schools did not compare favor
ably with those less fortunately
placed" Cunningham found that in
1O,517 pupils of the age of twelve
S5.S per cent had dental decay.
The statistics lately compiled of
children six to fourteen and youths
twenty to twenty-three years of age
in Germany by the recommendation
OF Rose, are no less lamentable," says
the same Investigator.
We are in the midst OF strong
for VaSta
and loss are measured and carefully
considered from every point of view
and the gospel of efficiency is being
preached in and to every line of busi-
ness. In the shoveling of coal, the
laying of brick, the manufacture OF
machinery, and even the delicate art
of moving pig iron, scientific manage
ment enters and every move is photo
graphed, measured and studied and
improved until the efficiency of the
workman is raised to the highest de-
gree and loss of time and labor is re-
duced to the minimum. But why all
this careful work If its results are not
also conserved?
All this effort will be lost unless
men and women as good and compe-
tent as those now being standardized
are raised to succeed the present
workers. Obviously this is not being
done, because the available evidence
appears to prove that the teeth of the
present generation seem to be inferior
to those of their immediate ancestors,
while the children of today have, as
rule, even a greater predisposition to
| dental diseases than their parents.
Decay of the teeth is symptom of
body impoverishment evidence of the
lack of that element or elements in
the body juices and tissues which en-
able the individual to resist the at
tack of micro-organisms, be they of
tooth decay or other disease. The
authorities are agreed that decay of
the teeth is caused by an agent act
ing from without never from within
the tooth. 1T is something extrane-
GUS to the teeth acting upon the sur
face in the beginning and penetrating
little by little into it's substance"
The medical profession has given
careful attention to practically every
organ of the body except the mouth.
Here we have an open, moist and
warm cavity approximately twenty
three square inches in area, not in
cluding the tongue and tonsils, ma
king an ideal incubator. The investi-
cations of Miller, Black, Robin, Goad-
by, Vicentini and others show that
cur mouths at various times and un-
der varying conditions contain moro
than 100 different species of micro-or-
ganisms.
Tests show that these organisms
will be found in the mouth of prac-
tically everybody. They are as nu-
merous In the mouths of those who
pass into old age without ever having
had decayed tooth, and they grow as
abundantly in these healthy mouths as
in the mouths OF those whose teeth
have the strongest tendency to decay.
Tests also prove the saliva from
these healthy mouths to be as acid az
that from the mouths predisposed to
disease. and cultures taken from them
develop bacteria of the same character
and virulence as cultures taken from
the mouth of one whose teeth are
most susceptible to decay. The diff
ference between decay and soundness
is one of personal resistance, assisted
by cleanliness. This is proved by the
fact that sound set OF teeth at twen-
ty years or beyond will frequently dis
integrate and decay dHring an attack
of some fever or other enervating
acute disease and that lactation fire.
quently costs the mother one or more
teeth If she is not very carefully
watched and her vitality guarded.
The rapid increase in tooth decay
simply means that nature is overtaxed
and unable to balance accounts. She
is unable to manufacture resistant It's
sues out OF lifeless materials, and un-
less we intelligently cooperate we
shall surely pay the penalty for our