BAD TEETH AND CANCER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1230, 7 April 1914, Page 4

BAD TEETH AND CANCER.

That defective teeth are sometimes connected with cancer was recently brought lotward at the International Congress of Medicine, by a dental surgeon whose experience is gained in several hospitals His researches have just been published in full, and appear to support his belief that the poison swallowed daily by possessors of bad teeth must have a serious effect on the stomach ai d intestines. In a large proportion ol cancer cases it is the alimentary tract which is the seat of the disease. It is well-known that the constant swallowing of pus often brings on chronic gastritis, and that chronic inflammation of certain parts of the body will pred:spose to the development of cancer. Most patients who suffer from cancer of the stomach are found to have bad chronic gastritis for many years before the malignant disease declared itself. The result of Dr Steadman’s investigations has • to. v.'c >'•: that the majority of persons suffering from cancer in the alimentary canal have periodontal disease in an advanced st ge, and that this inflammab >u oi the ” bone is not nearly so common when cancer is nut present. He thus concludes that the connection between cancer and a Uective condition of the teeth that leads to a constant passage ot pus directly into tbs stomach, is dearly established.