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97
Respecting the importance of securing treatment, I cannot do
better than quote the following extracts from a circular recently
issued by the British Dental Association:—
"This condition represents a great amount of unnecessary
suffering, inattention to work, and loss of school-time, on the
part of the children. Furthermore, dental caries, although in
itself not an immediately dangerous disease, is the forerunner of
many grave conditions. Diseased teeth in early childhood are
a direct cause of malnutrition, and hence of an arrest of both
mental and physical development at the age when growth is
making the most urgent demands on the organs of digestion ;
the poisons produced in the mouth cause inflamed and enlarged
glands in the neck, and thereby pave the way for tuberculosis ;
and the general health is severely impaired by the constant
swallowing of the products of putrefaction and the germs of
disease which abound in unhealthy mouths.
It has been shown that the serious complications of scarlet
tever are much more common and severe in the case of children
with diseased teeth and unhealthy mouths.
A detailed examination of the children in a large London
County Council School proved that those with unhealthy
mouths were as a rule unhealthy in appearance, under the
average in weight, and below the average for their age in
school-work.
In fact, the serious consequences of dental caries, which is
especially a disease of childhood, are now generally recognised
by medical men and those having the care of large numbers of
children.
Among the practical consequences of neglect are rejection
for the public services, naval, military, and civil; and increase
of unemployment, on account of physical unfitness, in all
vocations of life.
For many years dental surgeons have been employed in a
large number of Poor Law Schools, and the medical officers of
several of these schools have testified to the great benefits which
accrue to the children, and have recognised the improved
general health of the school.
Much might be done to diminish the prevalence of dental
disease by teaching dental hygiene to the children, and enforcing
the daily cleansing of the teeth. These two recommends