The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., October 03, 1919, Page 11, Image 11

About The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924

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THE TIMES: OCTOBER 3, 1919
. 1
Hartford
New Britain
Bridgeport
CONNORS CLOTHING CO.
1152-54-56-58 Main St.
1370 State St.
By ALFRED C FONES, D.D.S.
Director cf Dental Department, Bridgeport Board of
Health
Head Before the Convention of Connecticut Dental
Kygienists' Association
Tn presenting a report of the finite
of a five-rear demonstration of
ar. educational and preventive dental
i :mic in the first five Braces of the
publie school of Bridgeport, Conn.,
i; is interesting to review the reason
ing and deductions by which the
p!an was perfected. Previous to the
-MabIishment of the clinic in M14,
a paper entitled "A Plan that Solves
the Fundamental Problem in School
Hygiene" was read by Dr. Alfred C.
Fone, of Bridgeport Conn,, before
the Fourth International Congress on
School Hygiene in Buffalo-, August
26th, 1913, In it the author .sum
med up in a short article the physi
cal etatus of the average school child
and the problem of the insanitary
condition of his mouth and evolved
a plan for its solution-. At that per
iod little Was known of focal infco
inns, which have proven to bo a
pr-eater evil than anything .yet re-
onlzed as traceable to decayed
--slk. The paper makes a logical
in-reduction to this report and is
j -.-sented in full as follows;
r Fones's Plan Vrnnoscd In 1914
'To analyze the tiKject of hyeiene
f.v th-e uplift and betterment of the
cMldrea in our public school:., we
i;-i:st det?erm4ne what are the main
f..c"ors existing at present that act
ar- a detriment to proper development
o- 1 also as the chief cause of illness
in child life.
"'The large number of papers pre
ynied -at this congress, covering so
n. ' ny phases of the subject, morrly
-s ibmt we must reach a con--cl-ston,
first as to where w-e should
c-.ncejntra.te our energy., and then
c.e step at a. tim-e eliminate the most
C"--,spl-c'uous evils that heset the J
sj.tool children of our country..
"If our large steel plants ami rolN
ir.g mills were obliged to reroll from
v.venty to thirty-five per cent of
;h?ir stock, it would hot take them
ery long to find out what was the
flatter-. Xo business now--a-iiays
could stand such a. high percentage
of loss in doing its work over again.
"In our public schools throughout
the country it is -a fair estimate to
saoc- that -the .percentage of grammar
school children who are reviewing
their gra-d- will rang between tweti'
ty and thirty-five per cent.. In a
majority of the cities the average
would be nearer the latter figure
What is the matter? Is it our sys
tem -of teaching., crowded schools,
poorly "togiited or in-vcntilatici build
ings, or is the chief cause to be f oun-d
in the material Itself the. child ?
""Let us exa.mine the average "boy
of ten Tears of age and sea what we
find Face, ears and nose ttn-dloaru
hair Tmltempt. hands grimy and fin
ger rwUls dirty. Shoes slashed with
dry or wet Jnad, clothes soiled, and
an 'odor percolating- through the at
mosphere to :ciK5 suspicion that his
little "body has not been washed for
pome time. IG3 eyesight naay be
good and yet it may he defective. If
his fate is trashed iit may disclose a
color that is lacking in the "bloom
that a boy of ten should have.
If otherwise his body appears nor
mal we ask lilm to open his month.
j? his external appearance troubles
cj, his internal appearancs would
shock us. Here "we find teeth cover
e with green stain; temporary and
I'-rmanent teeth "badly decamped, pos
sibly fistulas on the gum surface
showing an outlet for pus "from
.abscessed tooth, or teeth, and de
composing food around and between
teeth, "Wliy examine the child
sir.y further? Her at the gateway
of the system is a. source of infec
tion and poison that would contami-x-ate
ereiy mouthful of food taken
fc.io his Dody- "With decomposition
instead of digestion taking place in
the aiimentary tract, it is no wonder
that the child suffers from an auto
is roxJcalion which produces eye
strain, anaemia, malaise, constipation
headaches, fevers, and many other
ailments.
"Such a month is an ideal breeding
ground for germ life, and a child
with such a mouth is far more sus
ceptible to Infectious diseases than
one wfc oso teeth are sound and kept
free from food debris. Suppose at
the entrance, of cities such a rank
condition existed. How long "would
it be before disease and sickness
would he swept in. among the inhabi
tants? This boy described is but du
plicated in the girl of ten. Decayed
teeth constitute the most prevalent
disease known. It is difficult to find
two children out of one hundred with
perfectly sound sets of teeth. In a
thorough dental examination of five
hundred and fifty school children in
the town of Stratford, Connecticut,
but one child was found to have a
set of teeth free from decay.
"Look over the reports of the med
ical inspectors in the public schools
who have made but -a glancing ex-
amination of the mouths, and you 1
will find that decayed teeth outrank
all other physical defects combined.
"Therefore we must deduce from
our analysis of school hygiene that
the most conspicuous defect of the
child is the unsanitary condition of
his mouth. Like a pig pen or gar
bage drain, slowly seeping its poi
son into the brook, which, flowing
Into the reservoir, contaminates the
water supply to a city, so do the
products of abscessed and decayed
teeth with decomposing food slowly
but surely poison the human system.
Such mouths and teeth breed dis
ease. Such children cough and
sneeze millions of germs made viru
lent and active in an ideal feeding
ground. And then again the teeth
as a crushing and masticating ma
' chine are frequently ruined by the
time the child has reached twelve or
fourteen years of age. It is true
hot thir nan limp through life with
this dreadful handicap, the same aa
amobile. can climb a steep hlu.
on three cylinders, but you can rest
assured that the child with a wreck
ed mouth at fourteen Is traveling on
his second speed until he reaches
thirty-five and from there he drops
into his low gear to finish the Jour
ney in a slow and uncertain state. It
is true that many have lived to a ripe
old age with unclean mouths and
wrecked teeth not on account of such
conditions, but in spite of them-.
"If it be conceded that the most
unhygienic feature of child life is lt3
mouth we then come to the prob
lent how can we establish clean
mouths, sound teeth and tooth-brush
habit? To try end rill the teeth of
the children in our public schools is
a noble charttj but an endless chain-.
Ijike an immense flood decayed teeth
Iiai spread over the civilised world
to such an extent that hardly one-U-nih
of the population of a country
such as ours could find a sufficient
number of denlints to fill its teeth.
I believe it to be a conservative esti
mate to say that the children found
in the fir:--t five graces in our pub
lie schools would average not less
than six go.l -sized cavities in their
teeTh, If you will but figure out how
many children there are in your city
in the first five grades you can
rouehly estimate. the immense
amount of work there be for a
corps of dentists to cope with such
a task as filling their teeth. This
would not mean merely plugging a
hole in a piece of ivory; it means the
painstaking work of a dental opera
tion on live tissue,
"But let s ssume that It Is possi
ble to fill these teeth and save them
for the Ufev b!n?. haw e wo to
prevent a rx--occus'r-nce of decay as
well as to eiieclt the flood with the
children coming into the schools in
the primary grades each year? Sure
ly every dentist knows that the tooth
brush alone will not stop it, and ev
ery dentist also knows, as well as the
parent, how difficult it is to induce
children to properly brush their teeth
and take care of their mouths as they
should, "Would it not be better to
evolve a system for the prevention
of dental dec.-sy, VA$ establish
ment of clean mouths than try to
cope with the hopeless task of filling
the thousands of decayed teeth? I
am heartily in sympathy with the
scheme that every city should have a
dental clinic for the school children
for the relief of pains and 1 believe
it is inhuman in this twentieth cen
tury to allow the poorer class of chil
dren to suffer a.s they do from tooth
ache. But let us draw a. l'na on the
conditions as they "exist today, ruic: I
would presen: tbis plan, partly sug
gested by Dr. Oao-'onswi. Xew
Tork, for yorsr consideration.
""It is a ciini-ct fact th?ir fully
elghiy per cent, of dental decay can
he .pr-evente.-l. IX K-;6?a;chiy or even bi
monthly surfifes jiolishlng ot the
teeth with ora.e: wood yti-s and
fine pnmics can be systematically fol
lowed. These treatments, of course,
to be augmented by the faithful and
correct us of the tooth brush, floss
silk and lima water as a mouth wash.
"Suppose it were possible to start
a year frona this September and place
rn our schools trained women w7ho
would confine their efforts the first
year to the children in the first
gra-d-e- These women to he trained
and educated as hygienics who
would be competent to give each
child a surface treatment of the teeaJh
once a month; each woman to have
the supervision, to start with, of two
hundred children; these children in
the first grade to be taught the prop
er use of the tooth brush, mouths
inspected daily for cleanliness, and no
child permitted to enter the class
room who had not brushed his teeth.
Hands and face to he clean and hair
combed. Bodily cleanliness also in
sisted upon and efforts made to se
cure the co-operation of the par
ents. Talks in the class room as
well as the us-a of the stereopticon
in the assembly room would greatly
aid in securing the desired results.
These hygienists could also be of
great aid to the medical inspectors.
At the end of the year they would
follow the children into the second
grade and a new corps of hygienists
w-ould enter the firsts grade with the
new pupils; this to be repeated for
five years, until the first corps of
women were caring for their children
in the fifth grade. It is doubtful if it
would be necessary to carry this work
beyond the fifth grade, as the child
would -he cared for through the most
susceptible period for dental decay.
"Now what would such a system
mean to the children? It Would
mean that from the first day that the
child entered school it would be
taught cleanliness. That when the
first permanent tooth entered the
mouth it would be under the supervi
sion of the hygienist, who would
teach the child how to keep it clean
and who would also aid with the
monthly polishing. It would mean
that during the first five years of
school life habits of cleanliness would
be established that would mold these
boys and girls into new types of men
and women. Fully three-quarters of
the diseases incident to child life
would be eliminated. With an addi
tional knowledge of food values and
how to properly masticate their food
instead of bolting it, the main fac
tors for hygiene would be covered.
"Booker Washington once said: 'If
I can teach the colored man the gos
pel of the tooth brush, I feel that I
can make a man of him.' Those of
ybu who see but little of children
can hardly realize what an uplift and
different point of view there comes
with a clean mouth and polished
teeth. It is interesting to see a child
whose teeth have been polished and a
washbowl instruction given in the use
cleanliness. I have known them in a
few weeks to choose a new set ef
companions because the old friends
no longer looked attractive to them.
No one ever saw a rowdy with a clean
mouthi for cleanliness breeds refine
ment; The proper food supply to the
body and cleanliness are the two
main foundation pillars far health
and these must be taught and prac
ticed before we can hope to obtain
satisfying results in the betterment
f child life. There is much in life
worth while besides teeth( but 1 know
of no one factor that is more condu
sive to health than sound teeh and
a clean mouth.
"The question may be asked: How
are we to educate these women to be
dental hygienists? In every large
city there are men in both the medi
cal and dental professions who are
competent to establish a lecture
course for this purpose, The neces
sary training in the prophylactic
treatment of the teeth would. of
course, be given by dentists, Both
of these professions are anxious to
aid In any cause so worthy, and I be- '
lieve they would willtnirlv e-H-e ihntr !
time and knowledge to start such a
movement. It is impossible in this
paper to give the details concerning
tile education of these women and
their full duties in the schools, but
enoaen lias been stated to permit
those in charge of our public school
system to consider the proposition In
a. general way and determine If this
plan is a solution of the main prob
lem regarding school hygiene,"
Incxqrtlon of the Jlrtdjronort
Kxioriincnt
For four year previous to 1913
strenuous etrorts had been made to
interest the city officials of Bridge
port to provide funds for an educa
tional and preventive dental clinic in
the public schools. At last five
thousand dollars was apportioned to
the Board of Health In order that a
demonstration might be made, to
prove the value of a mouth hygiene
campaign conducted on an educa
tional and preventive plan.
With th3 possibility of this move
ment being a powerful aid in the pre
vention of dental decay, Infectious
and communicable diseases, eighteen
prominent educators in the East
agreed to come to Bridgeport and
give their services gratis to educate
a corps of women to be known as
dental hyg.enis'.s. The course was
started in the lata fall of 1913, and in
June, 1914, the first class of dental
hygienists was graduated.
The Board of Health appointed a
committee of four dentists and one
member of the Health Board, a phy
sician, to establish the system In the
schools. Eight dental hygienists
and two supervisors were chosen, and
in September, 1914, the work was he
gun for the first and second grade
children.
First Hyaienists at Work in Public
Schools
There were four distinct parts to
the system. First, the prophylactic
treatment or the actual cleaning and
polishing of the children's teeth and
chart, examination of the mouths.
Second, tooth brush drills and class
room talks. Third, stereopticon lec
tures for children in the higher
grades; and fourth, educational work
in the homes by means of special lit
erature for parents. The prophylac
tic treatment consisted mainly In the
thorough cleaning, by means of
orar.ga wood sticks in hand polishers,
of every surface of every tooth. This
mnt that the dental hygienist
wTould remove all stains and accre
tions from the surfaces of the teeth,
and especially the mucilagenous
films known as bacterial placques,
which are the initial step of dental
aecay. -t ne treatments were given
in the schools, the equipment being
portable and adapted to almost any
location. Every child received the
same treatment, regardless of the fi
nancial status of the parent; in short,
this preventive system was incorpor
ated as part of the school curriculum.
Some parents objected, thinking the
work was a charity, hut with a bet
ter understanding of it the objections
were soon withdrawn.
The tooth brush drills were given
by the supervisors, and a method of
mouth brushing was taught for use
in the home. Xo attempt was made
to use water and a dentifrice in the
class room, as this would prove -to be
too mussy. Class room talks con
cerning foods, cleanliness, etc., were
part of the drill. The total number
of children examined and treated in
the first and second grades the first
year was 6,768. On the first exam
ination less than ten per cent, were
brushing- their teeth dally. About
thirty per cent, claimed that they
brushed thir teeth occasionally,
while sixty per cent. were frank
enough to state that they did not use
a tooth brush. Ten per cent, of the
children were found to have fistulas
on the gums, showing the outlets of
abscesses from the roots of decayed
teeth, and they averaged over seven
cavities per child. It was shocking
to find the mouths of these children
ranging from five to seven years in
this deplorable condition, and it was
(Continued on Page Fourteen)
I WHEN MEALS
I HIT BACK
"Pape's Diapepsin" instantly
Ends Indigestion, Sourness,
Stomach Acidity
I
i..
Are lumps of undigested food caus
ing you pain? Is your stomach acid,
gassy, sour, or have you flatulence,
heartburn? Then take Pape's Dia
pepsin. Just as soon as you eat a tablet or
two of Pape's Diapepsin all that dys
pepsia, indigestion and stomach dis
tress caused by acidity ends. These
pleasant, harmless tablets of Pape's
Diaipepsin never fail to make sick-up
set stomachs reel nne
once, anu
of the tooth brush, gradually change j they cost very little at drug stores.
in general appearance regarding Adv.
... A
fiiipri S
WW ijl fm 1 W w fcj? i tt rirTTt
Fall business is rushing at the two
Connors' stores Main St. and State St,
You Hear a Lot of Talk
These Days About Style,
Value and Low Prices.
You hear of stores giving the earth
and moon thrown in for good measure.
We want every man, woman and child in this
city to know that we're not giving anything away
we can't. We must eat to live and in order to eat we
must sell things at a profit.
That you understand, but you don't understand how
we overvalue and underpriee every store in town,
through our cash buying and cash selling methods, un
til you come in and see what we've got to show.
SUITS &
OVERCOA TS
SOCIETY BRAND
M f I M I
STEIN BLOCH
ELK BRAND
30
Styled, stitched, draped and mannered, not like the usual
ready made clothes, but like the smartest 5th Ave. custor
tailoring. Come in and see them.
The Live Store "With a Conscience.
ALWAYS RELIABLE
1152-54-56-58 Main St.
1370 State St.
THE BEST BOY'S
SUIT IN THE WORLD
The famous ELK JR. 2S pt all-'
wool, double seat, double knee,
double elbow, guaranteed boy's
suit, as advertised in the Ladies'
Home Journal. Sold here exclu
sively. Pretty brown, green and
grey mixtures. Without a doubt
the biggest value in town
$B95 $495 $Jf95
Other suits at $7.50, 8.75 and up.
DREgs MANTLER'S I
POULT! Y
l 61
, THE
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL
8S6 FAIRFIELD AVEN'UE
i8th Year Begins Sept. 24th
Elementary and advanced subjects
covering high-school and earlier
graces, in preparation for college,
technical and prof -ssional schools,
business, and the large preparatory
schools.
Every student given individual in
struction by experienced teachers.
Thorough work; no red tape; shorter
courses. Outdoor and indoor athietica.
VINCENT C. PECK, Head Master.
I2aJ
M ONTJMENTS
HUGHES & CHAPMAN
ARTISTIC IASTTNQ
Plant Operated by Pneumatic Cuttlna
and Polishing Tools
100 STRATFORD AVBNTTB
Phone Connection
J. H. KELLY
Billiard Parlors
Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes
1269 Main St., Cor. Chapei
So much of the cold storage va
riety on ,tho market just now
that we know you'll appreciate
our fresh killed fowv even
though the price Is a bit Kigner.
F.W. BEHRENS, JR.
MARKET
162 FAIRFIELD AVE.
Telephone 6820
BABY SHOP
9 P. 0. ARCADE
" ISNT THAT BEAUTIFUL ! ! ! "
Everyone seema to have the same opinion about our yarns for
sweaters. And we think so too! Why ? Because we have
gone out of our way to assemble the best assortment of yarn
possible to gret together. Every conceivable color and hue.
And moderately priced too! By the skein $1.20 by the ball
65c! Come in and see them and knit yourself a sweater.
MANTLER'S
A Distant Affair. Brown! Why do
you use such a long cigarette holder?
Black: The Doctor told me to keep
away as far as I could from to
Dacco. -
Poor Old Dad. Ethel: The bride
nearly fainted during the ceremony
and had to be supported by her fath
er until it "was over.
Edith: Ves; and now I hear that
liar n In pnTr,plTf ttftt$ thorn
a -t a Trr-k rn" vtvti a t nnY nTrnT nr a miii".
.111-' IV llliXlUl XX X ILJiVAJ tilXUX
A healthful drink wliich is absolutely
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rs o. xo.
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TKI.KPHOjrjB 3802-IS
W. M. LAHJ3( Distributor of
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No Matter What You Want Ttx Ike Times Want Columns