The Teeth of Our Children
By D. H. Kress
“The teeth of the rising generation was the concern of a deputation from the educational committee of the Dental Association, which recently interviewed the New South Wales minister for public instruction. The deputation was introduced by Mr. Broughton, M. L. A., and was comprised of Dr. Arthur, M. L. A., Dr. Lever, Dr. Henry Peach, and Mr. Martin, the general secretary of the A. N. A. The deputation made three requests: First, that competent dentists should be permitted to make an examination of the teeth of the school children, and make a report on the matter for the information of the department, and also with a view to having those children whose teeth were defective treated at the Dental Hospital. They were also asked that a song which they produced, and which has teeth for its romantic theme, might be sung in the schools, this being, they contended, a very effective way of impressing certain desirable precepts about the care of the teeth on the juvenile mind. In addition they asked that an essay which they had prepared should be embodied in the reading books.” At Strassburg, in Germany, from July, 1900, to Jan. 31, 1901, a systematic examination was made of the mouths of all children attending the communal schools, the ages being from six to fourteen years. Ten thousand and five children were examined, among whom only 430 had completely healthy mouths (4.29 per cent), 9,575 possessed among them 102,456 bad teeth, 51,219 being missing, most having already been extracted because of decay. The causes of dental decay are many, but there is no doubt that the use of flesh foods, both directly and indirectly, is responsible for a large percentage. Small particles of meat get between the teeth, and encourage the growth of destructive germs. It is well known that the same germs that cause decay of flesh also cause decay of bone, and, therefore, destroy the teeth. It is necessary that the mouth should be kept entirely clean, and free from fragments of flesh foods, and this can be most easily accomplished by putting nothing of the kind into the mouth. The sound teeth of our ancestors may be attributed to the fact that their habits and food were of such a nature as to build up healthy bones and sound teeth. The Japanese and Chinese, who live largely upon rice and other grains and fruits, give us a remarkable example of constitutional preservation of sound teeth. The absurdity of the theory held by a thoughtless few, that flesh food is necessary to supply the system with bone-making material, is shown by Thoreau in referring to the farmer, who says: “You can not live on vegetable food only, for it furnishes nothing to make bone with, walking all the while he talks behind the oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstruction.” Seldom do we see or hear of swollen cheeks, or the formation of abscesses due to decay of teeth, among the animals that are left free to select and eat the foods furnished by the vegetable kingdom. Dental decay is also uncommon in countries where people live upon the products of the earth. This is conclusive proof that all the elements needed by the human system are stored up in these simple foods. It is a peculiar fact in highly civilized countries that where meat eating is common, dental decay prevails. This is not wholly due to the lodgment of flesh between the teeth, forming culture beds for the bone-destroying germs, but it is due principally to the fact that the flesh foods themselves are deficient in bone-forming elements. A little thought will convince the most skeptical of this. After the vegetarian animal has eaten the food containing both muscle and bone-forming elements, the food is digested and absorbed; the bone-forming elements are then stored up as bone in the creature, while the muscle-forming elements are stored up as muscle tissue, or beefsteak. Beefsteak contains, therefore, only the muscle-forming elements, and must be deficient in bone-forming elements.13 But, says one, are not the bones of the flesh eaters as large as the bones of vegetarians?—Yes; but they lack something. The one who lives largely upon meat may have normal-sized teeth or bones, but they are of an inferior quality, and readily decay. In countries where dental decay is common, hip-bone diseases and other bone diseases are also common. It is the quality of the dental structure that is at fault. Teeth decay for the same reason that fruits decay. The decay does not depend upon the size of the fruit, but the quality. When fruit decays, we recognize that it is of little value merely to fill the decayed cavities of the fruit; we conclude that the tree is poorly nourished, or some needed element is lacking in the soil. The intelligent gardener recognizes this, and begins to dig around the tree, and adds to the soil the elements that are lacking to properly nourish the tree. This is the only way to improve the fruit. When dental decay is present, it is because the bone-forming elements are deficient in the food. To remedy this evil it is necessary to go about it just as intelligently as does the gardener. We must put into the food that which is lacking. Until this is done, dental decay will continue in spite of the multiplication of dentists, and vigorous use of tooth brushes, pastes, and powders. “One of the most unfortunate evil consequences of an early and liberal meat diet is the loss of relish it creates for the physiological foods of childhood—milk, cereals, and vegetables. Meat, by its stimulating effect, produces a habit as surely as does alcohol, tea, or coffee, and a distaste for less satisfying foods. The foods which the meat-eating child eschews contain in large proportions certain mineral constituents which are essential to bodily nutrition and health, and without which the processes of fresh growth and development are stunted. These mineral constituents can not be introduced into the system in an assimilable form except in organic combination with an albuminous molecule; and in such combination they are found in sufficient proportion to meet the child’s needs only in certain vegetables, fruits, and cereals.”