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Consumption of fruit and/or uncooked vegetables.—All have considerable
amounts. Apples and oranges common to
majority.
Regular meals.—All.
Consumption of sweets and sugars generally.—All appeared to
have had a moderate amount of them, but not in excessive
quantities.
Consumption of patent foods.—7 had a certain amount; 12 had
none.
Consumption of hard foods.—15 in abundance; 4 mixed consistency
.
Food taken just before sleep.—15 never; 1 occasional sandwiches;
1 cocoa and orange juice, teeth cleaned afterwards; 2 milk
and biscuits, teeth not cleaned afterwards.
Health of mother before birth.—17 good; 2 poor.
Mothers' diet before birth.—All had ordinary, wholesome food.
4 took extra fruit or fruit juices.
"The medical cards of the 22 children classify their nutrition
thus:—
'A'—16; 'B'—5; 'C'—1.
"These results, as one would expect with such a limited number,
are necessarily inconclusive. They nevertheless demonstrate, I
think, that intelligence applied to the rearing of a child, coupled
with a certain financial standard, does have a reasonable chance of
producing teeth that are capable of resisting decay.
"It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the assistance and
co-operation of my colleagues, both in the compilation of this
report and in our routine work together. Thanks are also due to
the medical and nursing staff, and to the teaching profession for
their assistance in combating dental disease."
The Senior Dental Surgeon submits the following report from
Mrs. W. R. Thorne, L.D .S., with regard to an enquiry into normal
dentition at Forest Road Infants' School:—
"At routine inspection the number of children having perfect
dentition has been found to be only 8 per cent. of the total inspected.
"The mothers of these children were invited to the school,
where the histories of the individual children were taken with a
view to ascertaining the reason for their immunity from dental
disease, caries in particular. The cases included children of parents
in varying circumstances; some of the children were strong and
robust, others appeared to be fragile.