The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-14
Blame it on the Teeth
BY FREDERICK }. HAsKIN

NEW YORK CITY. Jan. livery
few years or 50, new theory dawns
Sometimes it is a constructive theory,
such as that which claims that if We
only consume enough vitamines health
is ours, but more often than not it
is a destructive theory which attacks
some obscure and apparently unim-
portant portion of the human anatomy
as being responsible for all the phys
ical ills of the race.
Thus. a hundred years ago, an ex
cess of blood upply was supposed to
be the cause of all complaints, and the
! way to cure anything and everything
was by the bleeding process. In more
recent times, therapeutical fashions
have changed with greater rapidity,
and the role of anatomical arch vii
lain has shifted from the appendix to
the tonsils, and from the tonsils to
the teeth. Now it looks as if it might
be enthusiastically passed on to duct
less glands, but for the present it is
| still securely in the possession OF the
teeth.
1t would be interesting to know how
many million teeth have been sacrl-
feed during the past few years anG
why, but unfortunately no complete
statistics are available. Personally
nearly everyone of our acquaintance
has contributed at least one strong.
| full-grown tooth to the cause of health.
but we have not yet TO hear OF any
swift and miraculous cures. Three
years ago. when the theory OF focal
/ infection was still comparatively ne"
we remember that we were greatly
! impressed by the enthusiasm OF a
woman dentist who had just discover
! ed that her sister had three or maybe
! four infected teeth. The girl had had
a long series of tubercular glands,
| and here. of course, was the cause
| The guilty teeth were quickly pulled,
| the family breathed n sigh OF rellef;
| the girl gradually improved in weight
land strength. Here" thought every
body, is living proof of the new
/ theory" But. not long ago, we learned
! that the young woman was again IN a
| hospital suffering with another tu-
| bercular gland.
| In another case, a suburban resident
| afflicted with an oyer-abundance OF
! leisure and a nervous malady, had MS
| teeth X-rayed, hoping to find an IN
| fected tooth was the cause OF his DIS
ability. The revelations of the A-ray
were most satisfactory. They not
only showed that he had an infected
! tooth. but that it was . tooth Win
wavward tendencies that had grown
inward instead of downward IN It's
extreme youth, and was now lodged
j behind his nose. He remembered, he
hold the dentist, that the tooth mad
never appeared when it was expected
and that after a few years OF patlent
waiting, he had acquired a pivot tooth
as a substitute. He Immediately un'
derwent an operation, and the offend
/ inc organ was removed, after WHICH
! he was assured, his extreme nervous
ness would disappear But it didn't
and now he is suspicious of all medical
theories. When it was suggested thai
he try psychoanalysis, he replied bit
terly that he was through experiment
ing with bunk
The majority of laymen, INCLUDING
probably even this disappointed hypo
chondriac. are able to see the danger
of focal infection, of course, and are
only 100 dIlAlOuS " nave II iCh4o' ON
But they are losing their faith in tooth
pulling as a panacea for all affections
from epilepsy TO tonsilitis.
Among the various ailments attrib
uted to infection in the canals OF
around the roots of the teeth, which
the X-ray alone can reveal, are tuber
culosis. diseases of the kidneys, rhed
matism, partial blindness, partial dea:
ness, neuritis, epilepsy, sciatica, pei
eistent headache. general lassitude, III
anity. some forms of heart disease
such as endO carditis, which is inflar.
| nation of the membrane lining tn
, heart. and blod clots, which may plus
the interior of blood vessels, CAUSING
. paralysis and death.
The connection between defectiv