Tea and Teeth.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 280, 11 July 1888, Page 3

Tea and Teeth.

A cojiKthroNDENx of the ' British Medical Journal" (Surgeon \V. T. Black) makes the following inteiefeting remarks on the injurious efleet of '.ea on the teeth : — Some year^ since, Avhen on duty at recruiting 1 statioiib in the North of England, I took observation on the great amount of disease and lobs ol the teeth existing amongst the class of men offering themselves. It became a cause of rejection of itself in great numbers. As iar as my inquiries went I was led to trace io to the excessive tea-drinking indulged in by the working class in the manufacturing towns, and this went on all through the day, whether with food or nob. In fact, instead of fix c o'clock tea being the invention of the upper classes, ifc was found to e\is>l to an injurious extent in the woi king clasb?eo long before that time. Tea seems to have a peculiar tendency to eau.^c hyper.omia in the toooh sac&, leading to inflammation and. eventually, abscess of the fang, with, of com fie, dentralgia at every stage. Whether this special tendency wa& due to theiuc or tannin having an elective affinity for dentine it is not possible for me to say. It wouHl be curious to know if medical men, practising in such manufacturing districts, had observed the deterioration of teeth to be coincident with toa-drinking.