Imperial Valley press., 1936-11-01

Physician
Cooperate
Prevention Campaign
Is Carried on by
Professions
BY LOGAN CLENDENING, NJ ID.

BY LOGAN CLENDENING, NJ. ID.
IT IS ONE of the cheering signs
of our times that the teeth have
been recognized to be the cause
of systemic disease, and that sys-
temic disease is recognized to be
the cause of dental trouble.
Twenty-Five or thirty years ago,
largely because these were two
separate professions of dentistry
and medicine, these relations were
not recognized. Your dentist may
have been on social speaking terms
with your doctor, but he was not
on professional speaking terms. In
ether words, he went his way, fix
ing up your teeth without asking
the doctor about it, and the doctor
tried to treat diseases without ever
looking at the teeth.
This IS truc no longer. The den
t.st properly regards himself a9 a
kphysic,c:l c9ceieli.ing on the teeth,
ard the physician cal-3 for Genital
consultation quite as often IS he
docs any otter kind Joint meet
ings between medical societies and
dental societies are regular fea-
lures OF any winters ca.cntiic pro-
gram. I have before rne two Pa
per5, one written By physician on
dental problems, and one written
by q dentist on the systemic causes
of dental disease. Eoth of these
were read before joint society of
physicians and dentists.
The physician OF 25 years ago
knew about as much about the
teeth as the average citizen. He
knew that an aching tooth usually
had to be pulled. He pulled the
temporary teeth of his own chill
dren at the proper moment, taking
care to place a quarter of a dollar
under the pillow at night in order
to cooperate with the fairies. He
obtained the best and latest tooth
brushes and dentifrices and used
them. Nowadays he cndeevors to
see that his children get protec-
tive diet in order to make their
teeth tough. The physician was a
little ahead Of the average citizen,
because lie learned the date of
eruption of the temporary as well
as the permanent teeth.
| r-,o,,,. nao,o
Nowadays he knows all this and
more, and is striving to cooperate
with the dentist in a campaign of
prevention rather than simply of
restorative and replacement pro-
cedures. In this field l believe
American dentistry and medicine
are far ahead of the rest of the
world, as American dentistry al
ways has been. Our cousins of
the British Isles are still far be-
hind us in everything that has to
do with the teeth. AS one soldier
said to another during the World
war after his day of leave, 81 just
kissed the prcttiest girl in Scot
ielii'i, Gnu Jilt ii1S' cb Niil oSI III lN1Il
one above and one below"
A physician who is looking at
teeth must think of yitamin def
ciencies, such as scurvy, which
might cause spongy gums and dem
tai carries. He must also think of
certain diseases OF the ductless
glands, such as overproduction of
tho growth hormone, and of these
deficiencies of the pituitary gland
which result in under er-development
of the organs Of mastication, and
of diseases or infections which
lower the general vitality. He must
think of heavy metal poisoning by
mercury, lead, bismuth, copper, ra-
dunn and radioactive substances,
which have been taken for pur-
poses of treatment or by accidental
poisoning in other ways. He must
think of various blood diseases.
And in certain regions of the coun-
try he must think of water which
might possibly contain excessive
nuorine, which has the power of
depositing collars of bone around
the teeth and causing a peculiar
nothing of the enamel.