[Report 1934] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

  • Shropshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/46 (page 14)
    The relationship of mothers to fathers in this matter appears to be the same as that of sisters to brothers, and is probably a result of the greater attention usually given to .the care of the teeth in the matter of dental hygiene by the female side of the household. Since the above comments were made, the whole of the data obtained as a result of the investigation have been carefully gone into by Dr. Weston, Deputy School Medical Officer in order to ascertain what conclusions might be drawn from the information which had been elicited. Dr. Weston states :— In the Annual Report for 1933 the results of an inquiry made by the Dental Officers were given, and some preliminary observations were made. It has now been possible to examine the findings more closely, in order to extract from them, if possible, some definite indication of the factors which promote immunity from dental caries. '' The information obtained falls into two categories, (1) facts observed by the Dental Officers themselves, (2) information obtained from parents and others in answer to questions. The first group of facts may be regarded as entirely reliable, while the second group is not to be relied on, for the reason that individual parents have very vague ideas about the diet of their children, and the value of their statements has had to be very carefully assessed ; but even so, the final opinion cannot be accepted as scientifically accurate. '‘A more detailed examination of the figures has now been made, with these limitations in mind, and although no new information has been revealed, the investigation has confirmed all that has been taught in this County, and indicates lines on which future inquiries might be made. '' Without going into the figures or arguments, the results may be summed up briefly as follows. The influence of heredity is not a factor in producing immunity from dental caries, but there appears to be some factor as yet undiscovered, that tends to produce good teeth in the majority of children of some families ; this is shown by the fact that brothers and sisters of the children examined have good teeth, though the parents of these families have teeth no better than the average. There is no evidence that the chemical composition of the food plays any great part in producing this result, except in so far as a well balanced diet provides an adequate supply of mineral salts which is not depleted by an excess either of fat or protein. The outstanding fact of the investigation appears to be that 97.8 per cent, of these children have good dental occlusion, that is to say, the teeth are well formed and well arranged in the jaws. It is probable that good dental occlusion renders the teeth almost self-cleansing because it facilities the cleansing action of the tongue and cheeks ; it is thus the first essential in producing immunity to caries. Further investigation might profitably be made into the influences that have produced this good occlusion of the teeth. “ The investigation appears to support in some wa5/s, each of the opposing theories on the production of dental caries, e.g., that which asserts that cleanliness of the teeth is the chief factor, and that which maintains that the structure of the tooth is its real protection. The truth is probably a combination of these theories, in that the diet of the mother, during pregnancy, and of the child in the first year of life, play their part by producing good structure and arrangement of the teeth, and having such teeth they are automatically cleansed by the constant movements of the tongue and cheeks.” Crippling Defects.—The numbers of these defects found at the routine medical inspections were :—rickets 28, spinal curvature 65, other forms 210. School children found to be in need of treatment are admitted to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.