CHILDREN’S TEETH

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1922, Page 6

CHILDREN’S TEETH

STATEMENT BY HEALTH DEPARTMENT. Af there appears to be a diversity of opinion among a section of practising dentists, and apparently an appalling amount of ignorance on the part of parents on the above subject, the Health Department has issued the following circular to its officers. The circular has been endorsed by the executive of the New Zealand Dental Association: The following principles should guide all medical and dental officers in advising parents with regard to the treatment of deciduous or first teeth:— (a) It is highly important that every effort. should be made to prevent these teeth from decaying for the following reasons: — (1) When the body is growing it is necessary that the masticatory apparatus should be in its most efficient state. (2) The presence of decaying and suppurating teeth in the mouth at the period of a child's life must have its maximum evil effects.

(b) It is highly important that, in the event of decay having 'begun in these teeth, an effort should be made by immediate treatment to check it in its earliest stages, as neglect of the first signs of decay leads to infection and death of the pulp, and the necessity for extraction.

(■c) It is highly important, for the health of the child, that all temporary teeth in which the pulps have been infected or are dead, and cannot with some degree of certainty be rendertd healthy, should be extracted, despite the' fact that extraction of such teeth may reduce to some extent the masticatory efficiency, and may lead to overcrowding of ’ the permanent teeth. Officers cannot impress too strongly upon parents, in spite of any opinions expressed to the contrary, that the deciduous teeth arc relatively more important to be kept in a state of efficiency and free from disease than the permanent teeth, the necessity for care of whicn is never/ denied. Officers should use every means at their command to dispel the baneful idea held by many parents. a*nd fostered by some dentists, that the premature extraction of badly-decayed deciduous teeth is not in the'best interests of the child, and also the fallacy that it is necessary and natural that the first teeth should decay, in order to give place to their successors. It must oe made clear that the replacement of the deciduous teeth is a physiological process, and not a pathological one.