THE TEETH Good Teeth.—Modern dentistry has greatly assisted in causing the pub lic to realize the value of a set of good teeth, but much still remains to be done in this direction. Medical inspectors in the public schools of large cities report that a very large percentage of school children have poor teeth due to the ignorance or neglect of parents. Good teeth are necessary to health, speech, and beauty.
From the standpoint of health, it must be remembered that the process of digestion begins in the mouth. This fact is the basis of the system of hygiene known as Fletcherism. The originator of this system, after having become a chronic dyspeptic, cured himself at an advanced age by attention to two principles: never eating when not hungry, and chewing food until all the taste is chewed out of it and it disappears without con scious effort of swallowing. The im portance of this last is due to the fact that the saliva of the mouth has the property of converting starchy foods into sugar, thus aiding diges tion. And the further fact that food finely divided by proper chewing is more readily acted upon by the gas tric juice of the stomach. Good teeth are, of course, necessary to good chewing. If any of the teeth are lost; part of the food is likely to be swal lowed without being properly chewed, and the ill effects are no less certain because they are not always immedi ately noticed or attributed to the true source.
The teeth play an important part in pronunciation, and their loss often causes a difficulty in speech which, in the case of children, at the age when they • are learning to pronounce their words, may have the effect of retard ing the child's mental development.
Apertures caused by the loss of teeth, or irregularities due to the permanent teeth coming in unevenly, are life-long disfigurements. For all of these reasons, intelligent and painstaking attention to the teeth is perhaps the most important single subject in connection with the toilet.
Bad Teeth.—Decayed teeth show ing cavities in the crown, or having decayed roots, are not only painful, offensive in appearance and in con taminating the breath, but frequently are the direct causes of serious dis turbances of digestion. The tem
perature of the mouth is about 96° F. or considerably above that of ordi nary summer weather. The humidity of the mouth is, of course, high. Under these conditions, experience teaches that fresh meat and other organic matter will decay very rap idly. Hence, particles of food lodged in cavities or between the teeth, if not removed, decay and afford breed ing places for the bacteria of filth diseases. These are swallowed with food and upon occasion of any irrita tion of the digestive tract, find lodg ment and give rise to indigestion and other troubles. These substances also contaminate the breath and become highly offensive to others. So that absolute cleanliness is an imperative duty that everyone owes to himself and also to his neighbor.
Moreover, if any of the teeth are unsound and painful the adjacent teeth are not likely to be used in the process of chewing, and the conse quence is imperfect digestion. The remedy for these conditions is two fold: personal cleanliness and other hygienic measures, and prompt treat ment by a good dentist as soon as the first symptoms of decay appear.
Structure of the Teeth.—The outer structure of the tooth consists of three parts: the root, which is con tained in the bony substance of the jaw; the neck, which is contained in the gum, and the crown, which is the exposed portion. In the interior of each tooth is a cavity which contains the pulp, a pale-red soft substance composed of nerves and blood vessels. The surface of the root of the tooth is covered by a thin membrane called the perioateum, which, when the teeth decay, frequently becomes inflamed and is one of the causes of toothache.
Infant's Teeth.—Fasten a bit of absorbent cotton on the point of an orange stick or a piece of soft pine wood. Dip it in a 5 per cent solu tion of boric acid, and with this cleanse the milk teeth of children as soon as they appear.