Milford chronicle., 1920-05-14
TEETH AND HEALTH
By r. ALLEN GRIFFITH, D. D. S.
INSANITY AND TEETH

The first investigator that we have
any record Of who connected teeth
with insanity was DR.. J. Foster Flagg.
In 1878 he stated that insanity had
been produced from reflex irritation
from hyper-cementOsis of the teeth.
In 1900 DR.. William Hunter Of Lon
don, after thirty years of research
work, showed that multitude of dis
eases. including insanity, were due to
pyorrhea and abscessed teeth.
From that time on experiments have
been carried out by various physicians
and dentists with marked success in
the treatment of the milder cases Of
insanity. The reason that only the
milder cases fall into the hands Of
the ordinary physician and dentist is
because the violent cases are cOnfin-
ed to institutions. ROsenhhO mentions
a case of petit NAL treated and cured
in the Mayo hospital, simply by ex-
traction of two teeth and the removal
Of Lymph gland from the neck in 1916.
Our local dentists have treated and
cured several cases Of melancholia,
and records of the milder cases hav-
ing been treated and cured by remov-
al of mouth infection are fairly num-
erous.
1t has remained for DR.. Harry A.
Cotton, medical director of the New
Jersey hospital for the insane, to
make an intensive study of the re-
iatiOn of infected teeth to certain
forms of insanity.
His report is based on eleven years
of close study and scientific research.
Numerous cases of different mental
maladies have been completely cured
by extraction of dead teeth, the treat
ment of pyorrhea and the removal of
infected tOnsils followed by proper
medical treatment to remove from the
system the poisons thrown of by the
mouth germs.
Dr.. Cotton writes:
I'VE are able to cure early cases in
a very short time, prevent the disease
from becORing chronic in a large
of cases and restore a certain
who have been in the hospi
tai for as long as nine years
This we are doing daily.
I'VE have found that infection of
the chronic type and the resulting
tOXemia are the basis of many mental
These chronic infec-
tions are know as focal infesctions /
and may be present for years without
their existence becoming known to .
the patient, and until quite recently I
the physicians and the dentists have I
been ignorant of their existence.
''We are practically prepared to
state that this infection originates in
the teeth, as we find the same organ
ism in the abscessed teeth. tonsils.
stomach and duodenum, and in no case (
have we been able to eliminate the
teeth as the origin of the infection.
I'VE have had five acute cases who .
lied within a short time after COM
ing to the hospital Formerly the
cause of death was considered due to
from excitement, but a
study in these cases
showed all the organs practically in
'ected.
I'VE feel that we have established a
very important fact as applicable TO
general medicine as to nervous and
mental diseases4that is. the infection
originates in the teeth and after some
years infects other organs through the
system"
Dr.. Cotton took every precautiOn to
prevent premature or mistake an
lOuncement of results Every scien-
ific test was made to prove his
heories. Cultures of the bacteria
Ound in the stomachs. intestines
Hood and tooth assesses were COM
lared and proved to be identical. At
er the identity was proved and the
emoyal of the bad mouth conditions
Effected complete cures there could
10 longer be any doubt.
After these startling results the
.entist became one Of the most i'm
.ortant practitioners in the New Jer-
ey asylum, and Dr. Cotton urges a
ation-wide campaign on the care of
he teeth.