RECRUITS' TEETH

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2743, 11 April 1916, Page 6

RECRUITS' TEETH

TWO SETS SOUND IN 700 MEN

TOWN HALL EVIDENCE

Among the gentlemen who have offered their services voluntarily for duty at the Town Hall (central) recruiting office is Mr. Alfred Atkinson, who, being a dentist by profession, consented) to act as dental examiner to the men who enlisted there. In the course of a ciiat, Mr. Atkinson gave tho writer a glimpse into the work lie was doing. When examining a man's teeth for service he has beside him a form on which appears little square subdivisions—three for each tooth in a man's head when he is dontally perfect, and other divisions show at a glance whether each tooth is in tho lower or upper jaw or on the right or loft side. _ As ho examines a man's dental equipment he makes notes in each of the squares. The figure 1, for example, represents the beginning of trouble; No. 2, the hole a little more developed; No. 3, pretty bad, but able to bo filled; and No. 4, altogether bad, and ready for extraction. And so each man, on leaving tho Town Hall, Knows exactly -how far his teeth have gone, and what necessary repairs are essential to put him in a fit enough da-tal condition. to fight for lu's King and country. If the man is able to pay fcr the dental work set out,in tho report, ho has to do so; but 90 per cent, of those now offering state that they are not in a position to get the work done at their own expense, so they arc there and then given the name of a dentist to whom, they have to present their report and make arrangements for the work to be done —at the Government's expense.

"The trouble is," says Mr. Atkinson, "that the Government will only pay for extractions, fillings, and plates, and- on that account a man unable to pay for his own work ..has sometimes to have really serviceable stumps extracted, which if properly treated and crowned would last many years. In that way many men are being forced into having oxtraeted teeth .that could l be made %ery serviceable—if tho regulations 'permitted. But they don't include crowning and root work, so sacrifices that the world does not know of are being made by men getting made dentally fit:"

"It is a remarkable thing," said Mr. Atkinson, "that of all tho men I havo examined during the last three months here —over 700 —only two men havo been found to bo dentally sound, that is, possessed of a full sound set. Indeed, I might say only one, for one of the two had had one of his lower molars knocked out. He was an Englishman. The one man with a perfect set was a Hindustani. His teeth were filthy, and he told mo that he had never cleaned them in his life. What do you think of that? It serves to show how little we really know about the preservation of our teeth.: This Hindustani said that he smoked, ate anything, and drank tea and beer, without a thought of his teeth." . '

Mr. Atkinson further remarked that of the men whose teeth he has examined 95 per cent, require dental treatment of somo kind to fit them for service. This fact, he stated, would give the public an idea of the work that was being'done by the dentists of Wellington, to whom the Government only pays a maximum of £5 per man, and who really are doing the work for the bare cost of material used.

, Captain Barclay, who was listening to Mr. Atkinson, remarked that the cleansing of the teeth among the peoples of India was governed largely hy caste. The bhistis (water-carriers) never troubled much about .their teeth, hut the caste from which the butlers and higher servants wero selected were most careful in that regard. He Lad seen them repeatedly go to the stream or pump, and breaking a twig of willow, smash cne end of it to soften it, then dip into some ashes, and. with such a p p in:itive brush, scrub, away for an hour at their teeth until they glistened again.''