The Teeth and Civilisation

Abstract

IT may be mentioned, in reply to a letter on the “Teeth and Civilisation,” that this agent probably affects the health of the human teeth by the injurious nature of the food and diet she introduces in her wake. The worn-down crowns of the molar teeth of the native will correspond with the use of grain food and vegetable diet, mostly cold, when the silex in their constituents triturates the teeth down by degrees. But the use of meat diets by the civilised peoples will not affect the crown of the teeth, but tend to induce rheumatic or gouty disorders and affections of their periosteum. The most likely medium of teeth caries, however, being induced is the use of hot drinks, soups, tea and coffee, which primarily may cause a fissure in the enamel by unequal contraction and expansion of the structures of the teeth. Into this fissure, on it cooling down, will be kneaded by mastication articles of irritating food and drink, which will lead to caries round it. The progress of this may erode a segment of the tooth, or at last penetrate into the cavity and the pulp, and lead to inflammation and abscess; and none is a more virulent agent in doing this than hot tea. The simmering kettle may be seen on the hobs of the kitchen fires in the houses of the working classes in Yorkshire and Lancashire, who are much subject to caries of the teeth and dyspepsia, in consequence of the frequent imbibition of its hot contents all day.