NEGLECT OF TEETH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 141, 15 May 1940, Page 9

NEGLECT OF TEETH.

STARTLING REVELATION. . TROOPS’ REQUIREMENTS. Per Press Association. AVELLINGTON, May 14. Eighty to ninety per cent, of the recruits in the Army in New Zealand required dental treatment and half required artificial dentures, said Colonel T. A. Hunter, former Director of the Division of Dental Hygiene of the Department of Health, at the opening of the AYellington Dental Clinic and Dominion Training School for dental nurses this afternoon. Colonel Hunter organised the school of dental service twenty years ago, and was the first director of the division. Colonel Hunter said he had watched the expansion of the service with feelings mixed with regret at the necessity for it. Tile food of New Zealanders was at fault, and dental disease was largely preventable. Much could be done by the use of plain and proper food, and the avoiding of refined and concentrated foods. If lie had his way lie would abolish the tuckshops that flourished near schools. It was obviously absurd to have a tuckshop and a clinic side' by side.

The figures showing the dental condition of men enlisting in New Zealand were startling. They were worse than in 1914. It was an appalling state of affairs and meant that these young men had suffered from septic conditions that might have permanently damaged their stamina. He found it hard to understand the apathy of the public. The prevalence of dental disease was a reproach to the country. Dr. M. H. Watt (Director of General Health), an earlier speaker at the ceremony, said the evidence that dental decay was due to faulty diet was convincing. Officers of the department were .seriously handicapped by the damage having been done before the children came of school age. There must be close supervision of the diet of the expectant mother, the pre-school child, and the school child. A.ny improvement in the national diet could be expected to reduce dental, disease and make more efficient the school of dental service. .

Referring to the fact that the school dental service was inaugurated when it was discovered during the, Great War that the conditions of the New Zealand soldiers’ teeth was so bad, the Prime Minister ,(Mr Fraser) said it was a reflection on our civilisation that a catastrophe' such as war was needed to shock neople out of their ignorance and complacency.