Polio Door

An unfilled dental cavity is an open door to polio. So conclude Neurologist Hans Reese of the University of Wisconsin and Dentist John G. Frisch of Madison, Wis. in the latest issue of Dental Digest.

Their warning dovetails neatly with the medical belief that tonsillectomies and tooth extractions are dangerous during polio season. Reason: many polio infections enter the body through exposed nerves in the nose or mouth, travel along nerves to the spinal cord, where their ravages begin. "The rich nerve supply of the dental pulp offers a most formidable invasion point for the virus," explain Drs. Reese and Frisch. Some of their evidence:

P: University of Maryland researchers drilled holes in monkeys' teeth, sealed polio virus in the cavities, found that the animals became infected.

P: In a 1944 epidemic in North Carolina, teeth of 272 polio victims had 2.6 times as many cavities as those of a comparable group of uninfected persons.

P: Communities with much fluorine in their water have about 75% less tooth decay than those with little fluorine. Studies of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin show that high-fluorine communities also have from 22 to 34% fewer cases of dreaded polio.

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