"NATIONAL DECAY

Shannon News, 19 July 1929, Page 2

"NATIONAL DECAY

NEW ZEALANDERS' TEETH,

AMERICAN ASTONISHED

COUNTRY'S CULINARY FAILINGS

"What sitruck me most forcibly in tlu; course of extensive travel throughout the Dominion is the appalling condition of the teeth of the average New Zen lander," states Mr Alexander Marky, in the New Zealand Dental Journal. "Nowhere in the world have''l seen such an astonishing percentage of decayed, dead and artificial teeth. How rare 'a healthy set of- teeth must be in New Zealand was brought home to me vividly by the remark of a New Zealand dentist who has been in practice for more than a score of years. When in {'he course of a professional visit he had occasion to examine nry teeth, he exclaimed in a voice that Moses must have used when he first beihekl the Phomised Land: 'You have tlhe finest set of teeth it has ever been my pleasure to examine.' " Why this national decay of one of the most, vital equipments of the human machine? asks Mr Marky. Are

I there any specific reasons why New Zcalandcrs should top the list of countries affiMcted with dental maladies? I have heard some fantastic arguments in explanation of this peculiar phenomenon, but nowhere have I encountered a rational undcr&tundaug of the problem. Among the weird reason's adduced, the most frequently encountered one attributes the deterioration of the teeth of New Zealanders to some mysterious deficiency in their drinking water. Rubbish! To which I might add in the words of Bob Sherwood, "Nonsense, tosih, and balloon soup!" There is nothing the matter with your drinking water. The ancient Maoris thrived oh it for centuries, and they were blessed with the finest teeth in the world.