NEW ZEALANDERS' TEETH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 52, 19 July 1912, Page 6

NEW ZEALANDERS' TEETH

IN A DEPLORABLE STATE. Wellington, July 1(5. The annual general meeting of the New Zealand Dental Association was begun to-day at Victoria College. Mr. J. N. Rishworth (president) occupied the chair. There were between seventy and eighty delegates present from all parts of the Dominion.

In his opening address, the president said there was no doubt that caries of the teeth was now so universal and until lately the treatment had been so unsatisfactory, and in many instances the dentist himself was very 'half-hearted in his efforts to save them that it was small wonder that the public became careless and felt that the loss of their teeth was unavoidable. It was for the dental practitioners to prove that it was now no longer necessary to lose a single tooth if due and proper care were exercised. The actual loss of a tooth was not in itself so important, but it was the gradual decay continuing, with all its attendant evils, until the tooth was finally lost, which had such a detrimental effect upon the constitution of t!>"

1 tient. That was the positio .. ..idi I parents altogether failed to appreciate. I Last month the stipendiary dentist atj tached to the Dental Hospital in AuckI land, together with a member of the honorary dental staff, made an inspection of the teeth of the children at a public school in Auckland. They found that out of 190 children examined 98.5 had one or more decayed teeth. Only 13 had ever visited a dentist, and only 10 ever cleaned their teeth, and the condition of some of the mouths was appalling in the extreme. A large number of these children already had their constitutions permanently undermined by the conditions due to the neglect of their teeth. What was true of that school was unfortunatev more or less characteristic of every school in New Zealand. In dental matters New Zealand was very far behind older countries. Dental hospitals were so easily equipped and man- | aged that it should be possible to estab- | lisb one in every centre of 5000 inhabit- | ants. The cost of maintaining it would be trilling compared to the good results that would accrue. A dental inspection of school children would be of little use (except that it would focus public attention on the deplorable condition of the teeth) unless we had some practical means of helping those people who were unable to pay. There was plenty of scope for a 'bequest for the establishment < of dental hospitals, wliich institutions would be of untold value to the community, and no more deserving object could be selected for generosity. The president said 'lie was glad to note that the executive was taking steps to publish a treatise upon the care and diet necessary for the better conservation of the teeth. Roughly speaking, there was £500,000 spent annually in New Zealand by people who in some measure attended to their teeth. About half that amount would be saved if people only heeded the advice of their dentists and attended at regular intervals, say every three or six months, for an examination. The conference will continue until Friday.