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for the causes of cancer but, clearly, prevention is the only sure
method of control and this, ultimately, depends upon such knowledge
becoming available. Cancer registration and the establishment
of oncological centres are moves in the right direction,
meanwhile, the personal approach such as cessation of cigarette
smoking could make a significant impact in reducing the incidence
of malignancy.
Dental Caries
Dental ill-health is the country's most widespread disease,
amounting to epidemic proportions.
For some years now, the Greenwich Council has been supporting
a campaign for the fluoridation of water supplies in the
firm belief that this is the most effective way to combat dental
caries and the only efficient method to strengthen children's teeth
and confer life-long benefits on them. (In areas, where free
fluoride drops have been introduced as an alternative, thereby
involving "personal responsibility", the uptake has been minimal
and the schemes have proved to be failures.)
During this time, in pressing the case for preventive measures,
these Annual Reports have outlined, often at great length, the
reasons for dental decay and methods most likely to produce a
practical solution. It is alleged by users of mass media that
repetition is a successful way of impressing a point of view on the
public, an observation which provides sufficient grounds for a
reiteration of some of the important aspects concerning dental
decay.
Dental caries, which is almost entirely preventable, is the
name given to the process of decalcification of the mineral elements
of teeth and the decomposition of the organic matrix which
take place in an acid medium (pH 5.2 or lower) such as is
created when soluble carbohydrates are available to acidogenic
bacteria. This decalcifying solution is kept in constant contact
with tooth surfaces by residual food particles in the mouth
thereby giving rise to dental plaque. Refined carbohydrates like
sucrose produce more plaque than other foods and far worse
teeth are developed in those babies who are fed on sugared comforters
such as sweet milk and syrup than those who are not.
(Recent studies have revealed not only that fluoride inhibits falls
in pH values between the plaque and tooth surfaces which are so
conducive to the production of caries, but that a re-mineralisation
of enamel by calcifying fluids, now considered possible, is
greatly enhanced by its presence.)
It would seem that we care too little about dental hygiene and
that we tend to accept the incidence of bad teeth as inevitable.