The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-04
Summary.


 To summarize: we have found that in schools or districts where little or no attention has been given tc mouth hygiene it is difficult to fint three children out of a hundred witt teeth entirely free from dental cares We have also found that. owing tc this lack of education and enIighten- ment, not more than ten per cent. ot the children were using a tooth brush daily. That malocclusion, whicE means that the teeth are out of theil normal position in the mouth, thus preventing their striking the teeth in opposition, as nature intended they should strike, is as common as den- tai carries.
 That retardation are grear:y 1nr1u- enced by the toxic effect produced by numerous bacteria in unclean
 Iouths and in diseased and pulpless teeth.
 Although properly tabulated records of the Board of Health do not date back far enough to show facts and figures regarding communicable dis eases, yet we have suffcinet data which, on close observation, convinc- ed us that mouth hygiene is to be a very powerful factor in the restric- ton of communicable and infectious diseases in childhood.
 The Dangers from Focal Infections.
 For years the dental profession has appreciated the toxic influence on the system of unsanitary mouths and the dangers presented to the indivi- dual by such mouths incubaung hun dreds of millions of bacteria It has been apparent that among adults +,1 place around the necks of the teeth, but it was not until the N-ray re vealed the infected areas at the ends of the roots that dentistry appreciat- ed to the utmost the seriousness of neglected mouths and pulpless teeth. These apical infections are difficult for the laynan to understand, because they produce no soreness, no pain, no inflammation or pus. They are caus- ed by a bacteria known as the strep- toccus Viridans, which is quite friendly and harmless in the mouth, and which belongs to the .aprophytic class. When a pulp dies in a tooth these bacteria commonly gain ingress through the root canal of a tooth to the apex, or out into that area, when the tissues are bathed with the body juices or serum In this new environ ment they gradually, change their nature and instead of securing their food from dead animal or vegetable matter, such as they found in the mouth around the teeth. they are now able to obtain their nourishment from the blood serum which surrounds them
 Action of the Bacterial Toxin
 Like all bacteria, they eXude waste
 
 toxin; but these bacteria, being of low toxin as many of the pathogens. How ever, the toxin is of sufficient irrita- ton to cause theosteoclasts to break down and absorb the bony wall around the end of a root of a tooth, which destruction of bone may be readily seen in the X-ray picture. This toxin is absorbed by the lynlphatic vessels and it's presence in the blood undoubt- edly excites the production Of an anti toxin which neutralizes this poison and may successfully control it for years. As long as the individual maintains normal health and the anti-toXin is produced in sufficient abundance to act as a neuTaIiZer these infected areas remain harmless.
 Action of the Bacteria.
 
 this environment or serum, the more aggressive they become, and although they do not seem to take on the vir- ulency of a true pathogen, yet when the bodily resistance becomes lowered they make the trip from the end of the root of a tooth through the lynn phatics and into the blood stream. These micro organisms vary in their affinity for certain tissues, some find ing the valves or the lining membrane of the heart the most favorable, others the kidneys, while still another class may locate Gn the joints. In fact, there seems to be no limit to the organs or tissues in which the various members of this family may find a congenial habitat. Having once located in a, fav- orable environment in the body, they again form colonies, and, exuding their toxin, so poison and lower the activities of the cells of the tissues upon which they are located that these cells eventually find it impossi- ble to properly functionate and carry on their individual work, and we have the beginning of a diseased tissue or organ of the body. It is because the action of these saphophytes is so slow and possesses such a low virulency that the medical and dental prores- sions at large have failed to grasp, as yet, what a terrible menace these focal infections are to human life, and again the sad fact is that they are so common, for nearly every adult has one or more pulpless teeth in his mouth, and nearly every adult will show under the X-ray affected areas above such pulpless teeth. If the resistance remains high they may carry such infection for ton-yes, 20 years,-but a colony of these bacteria living within bone bone tissue and ex- lding their toxin into the blood stream will sooner or later create systematic which, if not taken in time, will mean the beginning of the end. Recently the writer has been