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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 19, 24 October 1944, Page 7

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FILLINGS IN YOUR TEETH (By the Department of Health). Some parents have been concerned and a l'ittle puzzled what they regard as the unnecessary fillings in newly-erupted teeth made at the dental clinics. There is a very good reason: for this treatment. The first permanent molar appears about the sixth year. If the nutrition is good following years of adequate, milk and a- balanced diet, the biting surface of that sixth year molar is rounded with shallow grooves. But to find the first molar in th'is condition is rare in New Zealand—a fact which is a striking commentary on our indifferent. dietary practice. Indeed a very high proportion of these first permanent molars, have, at the time of their eruption deep fissures on the.ir biting surfaces. These deep fissures are causcd by a failure of calcification—due to shortages of lime and vitamin D in the diet. These deep, narrow clefts provide ideal harbourage, for starchy foo:1 ! I end fermentable carbohydrates, and the toothbrush can't get into them. Decay of these fii\st therefore is. inevitable and parents. e.xpress astonishment that the tooth should go so soon. The clinics arc merely getting in first when there, are dee.p clefts within six months of eruption. The narrow fissure is cut out and filled until the tooth is a nice rounded and proper shape. This is known as a prophylactic filling, and it forestalls. certain decay in the, tooth.