DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 98, 16 July 1927, Page 12

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

TOOTH PICKS (Copyright, 1927.) A DISTINGUISHED dentist of Chicago has come out flat-footed in defence ‘ of the tooth pick. This article of personal use has practically disappeared from the best circles, although they still use them in France. There I have recently seen a number of members of the haut ton deliberately picking their teeth at Ciro’s. It is understood by the best authorities, however, to be not quite the thing. One should perform all acts necessary to his personal adornment in privacy. This of course excepts powdering one’s nose, and using the lipstick, a practice to which flappers are addicted even in public places. But then the nose gets shiny and the lips bloodless when one is out and circulating about ust as much as they do in private. The disuse of the tooth pick has been a great blow to those of us who used to dine at a cafe and go around to the Ritz and pick our teeth. If you can’t pick your teeth at the Ritz, how is anybody going to suspect that you have dined there? Cleansing one’s teeth is a necessary act of sanitation and perhaps the wooden tooth pick is as good a means for removing excess food from the mouth as any. Time was when men carried gold tooth picks. They even used quill tooth picks atain and again, although the quill tooth pick always was an abomination. The Chicago dentist doubtless speaks only from a sanitary point of view and not from the standpoint of social etiquette. It only remains for a few representatives of the four hundred publicly to use the tooth pick for the rest of us humbler mortals to take up the habit. There is not question but that particles of food are apt to lodge in between the teeth at a meal and it is not always convenient to retire and use a tooth brush. In these days, when health is the first consideration, it looks as if the dentist’s recommendation might be timely. Of course the recommendation is to be used with discretion. It is no excuse for chewing the tooth pick, nor for rolling it about from one side to the other between the lips. Some purists cover their mouth with their hand during the tooth-picking debauch. Perhaps somewhere between these lies the golden mean. Who shall tell us just how the tooth pick is to be used?