"WHITE PATCH."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 85, 30 September 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

"WHITE PATCH."

MEDICAL INDICTMENT AC A IN',ST TOBACCO. In the course of an address delivered at the opening session of the Congress of the International Dental Federation, at the Royal College of Surgeons, Sir H. T. Butiin, president of the College, referred to cancer of the tongue, and to conditions of the mouth which are often mistaken for that disease. He remarked that cancer was frequently associated with leukoplakia {white patch on the lower lip, tongue, gum, or inside the cheek), but that it seldom occurred 011 a tongue which was free from that malady.

There was considerable argument, lie continued, as to the cause of the condition known as leukoplakia, and also as tn its dangers. Dentists were agreed that predisposing causes of leukoplakia were rheumatism and gout, and that the exciting was tobacco. A question which lie had never been able to properly solve was (hat, of the relation of various conditions of the teeth and stoppings to the condition of white patch. People whom he had known to smoke cigars and cigarettes from morning to night often had the healthiest mouths. On the other hand, he had seen persons enter his consulting room with one patch 011 that part of the tongue where (he smoke impinged; vet they were moderate smokers. It was a question of the susceptibility of the individual.

Protessor Jassen (Xtrasburg) stated that in Cernniny there were 7S school dental clinics, 38 of which were municipal. Their cost for 11)11) amounted to

•C lo.flOO. which paid for 1(5-2 dentist s. Over 1 .(IDiI.OOO elementary school children were under dental care at the present time in (icrmany. Mr. Norman (J. Bennett, after welcoming the delegates 011 behalf of the British Dental Association, remarked that the dentists of this country were only too delighted to welcome dentists ' from abroad, receive their criticisms, rub shoulders with them, and knock off some of the angles.