Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: State hygiene. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
257/268 page 257
![licyond the limits of remedijil ioiiservative dental surgery. 'I'lie eura- hility of dental caries is very great, as Magitot has shown hy statistii s compiled in an open elinie that extraction was only necessary in one j)cr cent, of the teeth attacked, calculated on a total comprising a larg(> number of teeth. AVere the treatment of the disease undertaken early enough, that is to say in its inci[)ient or e^ en in its second stage, extiaction might only be nece.ssary in something like 1 per 1,000. Caries there- fore is aluio.st a preventible di.sea.se, one might .say even Avholly |)revent- ihle, if we regard treatment in the inci2)ient .stage as jjrojdiylaxis, for a large number of teeth are eru[)ted in such a condition that a certain amount of caries is ab.solutely inevitable. The benefits of conservati\-c dentistry have hitherto been eontined almost entirely to the smaller and richer section of the community. As Sir John Tomes has i)ointe<l out, the jjroblem as to how adecpiate medical and dental attendance can be renderetl to the i)oor cannot be solved wholly on the .same lines, for where one person retpiires medical, ten will recpiire dental a.s.si.staixe, and where ten minutes may be spent in efl'ecting medical treatment, seur.d hours must be spent in elfeeting dental treatment. It cannot be doubted that mastication is necessary to health, and “ that sound teeth, natural or artificial, will alone effect i)roper masti- “ cation.” Any scheme for the saving of the natural teeth, or the supi)lv of artificial dentures for the re2)lacenient of the lost teeth for U!HnoneV(*d workers must neees.sarily he one of slow growth and develojiinent. lint it woukl be veiT ea.sy to organise a scheme of })opnlar instruction in pre- ventive denti.stry which, besides achieving immediate and certain results which are far from being despicable, would effectually create a demand for some system of jao\ident dental service. The need for ])opnlar instruction in hygiene and jdiysiology in regard to health, while far from being adequately supplied, is still very largely recognised. Curiously enough the care and treatment of the teeth is, as a rule, cons|)icuons by its absence from those series of health lectures which have been ahead}' established. Hygiene of the mouth should form an important, if not an essential 2>art of any scheme of [loiiular instruction M'hich claims to he complete and thorough. That “ iirevention is bedter than cure” is as true of caries as it is of other diseases. J'he mt^ans of prewention are simple, t he materials cheajj, and thus within the reach of almost all, but the knowledge which should guide the ajqilication of ['rojih} latic measures is possessed by only a relatively small portion of the commnnltv. 'I'lie intelligent understanding of the construction of the human denture and of the causes Avhich lead to its destruction must precede any general and thorough ajiplication of those measures recognised as calculated to lU’oniote its growth and development and to maintain its integritv. Fo^ndar lectures, as 1‘rc‘e from technicalities as jcossiblc, profusely illustrated by mc-ans of the oirtical lantern, are Aaluahle means towards this end. Expei-ience has shown that large audiences of even the i)oorest classes are caiial)le of ajqircciating such lectures in an almost extraordinaiy wac'. I p. 2UU'J. K](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28045476_0259.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
