Salt as a Destroyer of the Teeth.

Evening Star, Issue 6726, 7 October 1885, Page 4

Salt as a Destroyer of the Teeth.

At a recent meeting of the New York Odontological Society, Dr E. Parmly Brown said: " I will venture the assertion that the excessive use of common salt is one of the main factors in the destruction of human teeth to-day. lam now engaged in collecting some-statistics on this point, from which I hope in time to demonstrate, what seems to me to be the fact, that common salt excessively used is a great solvent of the human teeth. If it will injure the human teeth through the chemistry of our systems in some way or other that I will not try to explain to-night, why might it not also have the effect of preventing a good development of the teeth when taken into excess 1 I have lately procured some statistics from the Sandwich Islands, from a gentleman who has been there, covering a period of over forty years, that are very suggestive and interesting. Within that period the teeth of the Sandwich Islanders have decayed rapidly, and, since they have begun to decay, it has been noticed that the Natives are in the habit of biting off great chunks of salt and eating it with their food. According to all accounts, the teeth of the Sandwich Islanders were formerly the most free from decay of any people on the face of the earth, if I remember rightly. You will find that people who eat a great deal of salt and a great deal of sugar are often entirely toothless. I know several instances of candy storekeepers where three generations are entirely toothless. People who eat an excessive amount of salt are tempted to eat large quantities of candy, pickles, and vinegar. There seems to be a craving for those substances after the excessive use of salt,"