SUGAR AND DENTAL DISEASE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 July 1920, Page 4

SUGAR AND DENTAL DISEASE

(Article published under tho authority of the Education Department.)

Examination has proved that over 91) per cent of school ehildren in the Dominion are suffering from dental disease. Experienoe has proved that this disease is primarily responsible for many others. It is the one disease above all other on which the public should concentrate its attention. "It affects almost every member of the community. It begins in childhood. It lowers the health and resisting power of tho child, and consequently predisposes to tuberculosis and disease generally. It is impossible to exaggerate the suffering anil economic loss caused to tho community by this apparently trivial but really terrible disease.

Research goes to prove that the use of free sugar is one of the most predominant causes of dental disease. By free sugar is meant that not included in the natural composition of fruit and other foods. Dental disease will progress in proportion to the consumption of free sugar. It is the duty of parents guardians and all who have the interest of the health and economic welfare' of the Dominion at heart to realise this fundamental truth. They should realise that in allowing and encouraging their children to consume large quantities of sugar in the form of chocolate and sweets generally they are laying in store for them suffering and ill-health, and endangering their future welfare. It must he made clear that the common craving for sugar is an acquired one, that ehildren in the past did not get simar, and that to allow them to de r volop the craving is a positive cruelty. Not only should sugar and distinctly sugary foods be kept down to a minimum, but'also the eating of sweet biscuits, chocolate and confectionery should he discouraged. These foods consist almost altogether of highly rc- , fined starch and sugar which is an ideal combination for lodging about the teeth. At the same time it does not stimulate but weakens the flow of saliva. Hence it is not readily washed out of the crevices, but remains there to undergo acid fermentation and destroy the onam_ el of the teeth. It is not necessarily intended to condemn these refined foods absolutely and banish them entirely from our diet, but rather that their us? should be restricted instead of their occupying a prominent place in our diet, and being taken at such very frequent intervals.

Sugar causes harm in more ways than by its direct action in the month and upon the teeth and flow of saliva. When taken in any quantity it causes congestion of the mucous lining of tho stomach and leads to catarrh, disturbed nutrition and much vague ill-health. It gives rise in children to that very common and vague ailment mucous disease—which has been aptly termed by an eminent medical authority ‘‘ the dyspepsia of sweet-eating children.” Replacing the excess of sugar and refined starchy foods by more coarsegrained and albuminous foods tends with little other treatment to restore health.

SUGAR UNNECESSARY AND HARM-

FUL

Free sugar is not necessary to human health and nutrition. It has only become a common article of diet during comparatively modern times, and only during the last 50 or 100 years has its consumption increased to the present enormous extent. 300 years ago sugar was a very rare luxury, and was unobtainable except in an apothecary’s shop. During the 17 years preceding 1000 the quantity of sugar consumed in America- rose from nearly lOlbs p6r head to more than five times that amount. Sinse that it has increased enormously. A similar rapid increase has taken place iri England. Tho consumption of sugar per head in New Zealand for the year 1873 was 04jibs; in 1913 it was 122jlbs, nearly twice the amount. This means an average consumption for each individual of about jib per day. Dental disease in its present magnitude is also comparatively modern, and its increase li*s been parallel to that of sugar consumption find other modern dietetic errors.

In the medical inspection of schools, a noticeably smaller amount of decay of the teeth has been found to prevail at the smaller out of the way schools. The factor deciding this difference appears to he the absence of sweet, or confectioners” shops. Where no such shops are within reach of the school the teeth are on the average in better condition. The difference is evident between schools only a few miles apart, where one has and the other has not a sweet shop in the neighbourhood. Such shops are frequently situated only a few doors from schools and trade busily with the children at lunch hour. Apart from their destructive effect upon the teeth, these shops interfere with the children eating proper lunches. So long as these temptations are there to act upon their childish tastes the inculcation in children of healthy dietetic habits appears a forlorn hope.

When Europeans first came to New Zealand, the Maoris ate eoarser and more natural food, and had perfect teeth. Now the .Maori has adopted our dietetic habits and his teeth have been reduced to almost the same deplorable state as our own.

The Government has inaugurated a scheme to treat dental disease in school children. This can only be regarded as palliative. No real progress can bo made unless fundamental causes are dealt with. For this reason parents aro urged to give their serious consideration to the suggestions given in this and other articles of the series. In the nest article it is intended to deal further with the subject of diet in relation to the teeth.