The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-02-12
DENTISTRY VERSUS DYSPEPSIA

Last time the conductor of this
column harped on the theme that
"for every tooth lost and not imme-
diately replaced by a functionally
efficient denture"-that is, bridge,
plate or other artificial restora-
tion-"one must deduct from one to
two years from ones life expectancy
reader retorted that his grand
pappy had lost all of his teeth be-
fore he was thirty yet attained a
hale and hearty old age.
Make what you wish of that.
still say and firmly believe that
when it comes to building and main
tanning and restoring good health
the dentist, if he gets the chance,
renders service which is as impor-
tant and as indispensable as the
service rendered by any physician,
surgeon or specialist.
If he gets the chance. The great
trouble is that the general laity and
large portion of the medical pro-
fession fail to comprehend this fun
damental fact and literally millions
of people who are of fair average
intelligence are content to limp
along minus one or more teeth, and
the Gripping effect this has on
mastication and salivary digestion
is bound to be felt sooner or later.
1t seems absurd that these people
with sadly neglected teeth-neg-
lected simply because they know no
better and because their physicians
know no better-in their vain search
for help or relief for stomach
trouble" dyspepsia" indigestion"
"acid stomach" and the like, often
spend many times what good mas
ticating apparatus would cost, yet
still have indigestion.
Unfortunately most of these mil
lions of intelligent American, peo-
pie with crippled mastication and
crippled salivary digestion have been
brought up on the teaching of old
time quacks and nostrum vendors
that "pepsin" and othre medicines
aid digestion or promote good diges-
ton. This notion is groundless
Elementary physiology and plain
common sense should tell them that
the only way to correct deficient
salivary digestion due to crippled
mastication is to restore the func-
ton of mastication to as nearly
normal as may be possible. This is
where the dentist comes in. If the
dentnst gets the chance. So few
victims of chronic dyspepsia" are
wise enough to give the dentist the
chance to help them.
Reader, thrust your tongue into
the vacant space where one or more
teeth are missing, and consider this
fact: About r-fifths of the ener-
gy, the calories, in the daily diet
should come from the carbohydrates
vegetables, cereals and cereal
products, fruits and nuts, COM
monty called the starchy foods-and
about half of the starch in these
foods should be digested by the
saliva during mastication and for
half an hour to an hour in the
upper part of the stomach after the
food has been swallowed. Now, if
by reason of missing teeth the mas
tication of such food is incomplete
and the digestive engine (ptyalin)
in the saliva is therefore not well
mixed with it and does not reach
each granule and cell of the starch,
the burden of handling the poorly
digested food is inevitably passed
along to the stomach and the
pancreas. These organs have enough
to do without the additional work
of finishing what should be done
in the mouth and the fundus Or
upper part of the stomach. No
wonder there is SO much stomach
trouble" and dyspepsia"