WHY WE SHOULD DISINFECT THE MOUTH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 438, 24 September 1908, Page 4

WHY WE SHOULD DISINFECT THE MOUTH.

.The mouth is a very perfect germ incubator, aud as a natural consequence is at all times teeming with myriads of micro-organisms. For our knowledge we are indebted chiefly to Professor Miller, of Berlin, who has shown in the Faucet that very many varieties of organism, both poisonous aud neutral, may be found in the mouth ; he has isolated and cultivated more than a hundred different species, and has established the fact that the mouth is the receptacle, and often the breeding ground, to many kinds of organisms ; aud is the source through which many serious, aud even fatal, diseases may take place. The conditions which obtain within the mouth are extremely favourable for bacterial growth. The temperature —viz., gßdeg. F. —is that at which warm incubators in the laboratory are kept; sufficient access of air is afforded for these germs which require oxygen or are indifferent to its presence. Food materials (culture meiia) are present in abundance ; fragments of food remaining after a meal, cast-off skin cells, saliva, exudations from the gums, exposted pulps of teeth, aud even dentine itself when decayed, all serve as culture grounds, for bacterial growth.