Advertising Dentists

The American Dental Association, convening at Memphis last week, agreed with Dr. John T. Hanks of Manhattan that "if the dentists do not educate the American people along proper diet and care of the teeth, who will?" Thereupon the Association decided that they ought to hire an advertising agency, and instructed the board of trustees to figure the cost (probably $500,000) of advertising dental health in national magazines and on the radio. Newspapers will get advertising from local dental societies. There are, Dr. John F. Hawks of Manhattan estimated, 36,000,000 people in the U. S. who take no care of their teeth at all, need immediate dental persuasion. President Hoover sent a telegram approving the idea. Manufacturers of tooth pastes and dentists' supplies are expected to foot most of the bills. The Association's budget for normal expenses next year is $250,000.

To Professor Percy Rogers Howe of Harvard went U. S. dentistry's prime award, the Fauchard Medal, for demonstrating how poor nutrition causes teeth to decay. He saluted the medal with a speech:

"This tooth brush business is not the game, brushing teeth is to remove bacteria deposits. I began my experiments with bacteria. Didn't prove a thing.

"We've been brushing our teeth for 50 years and we still have cavities. The dentist says brush your teeth every day but be sure to come back in a month. Why? Because he knows you'll have more cavities. Tooth brushes aren't the answer. Diet.

"I can definitely state from experiments that cereals and meats in the diet should be kept low, not eliminated, but rigidly restrained. The diet elements that should be stressed are fruit, milk and vegetables. Raw vegetables, celery and lettuce, are also essential. That is what we know as 'bulk' or 'roughage.' Those elements provide the lime, eliminate the acid, that is the final solution, not only to dental health, but physical fitness."

This preoccupation with nutrition promises to be a shibboleth with dentists. Dr. Boyd S. Gardner of the Mayo Clinic also touched on it in going to other topics. Said he:

"Both physicians and dentists are becoming more nutritionally-minded, which will result in better service to patients. Dental students must be more carefully selected and dental colleges must exert a greater effort to create a medical background for dental students. Dental colleges must inaugurate more post-graduate courses.

"Larger use of the X-ray by dentistry and more definite study of dental decay and pyorrhea as manifestations of something going wrong elsewhere in the body are necessary to real progress in the profession. Dental decay and pyorrhea are both preventable diseases and successful treatment of them is dependent on the dentist's assuming a medical as well as a dental attitude in treating his patient."

New president of the A. D. A., succeeding Dr. Robert Todd Oliver of Philadelphia, is Dr. Martin Dewey of Manhattan, first New Yorker to have the honor. His successor next year will be Dr. G. Walter Dittmar of Chicago.

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