Mycology of the mouth : a text-book of oral bacteria.

  • Goadby, Kenneth (Kenneth Weldon), Sir, 1873-
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mycology of the mouth : a text-book of oral bacteria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    154/282 (page 134)
    lime salts—said to be associated with insufficient calcium salts in the water of a country—diet, civilisation, alteration of physiological relationship in position of the teeth in the jaw from evolutionary causes, &c. Many, if not all, of these factors may have their place in predisposing causes, but the ultimate liberating cause is often overlooked in the multiplication of predisposing ones. Read? has lately advanced the proposition that caries may be due to the alteration in the sort of flour used in bread-making. Thus the finer roller-ground flour has to a large extent replaced the old stone-milled article; and Read states that the amount of acidity in terms of lactic acid produced by chewing bread made from either sample is much greater in the case of the finer roller flour. Samples of bread made from the two flours were chewed for equal lengths of time and the acidity determined ; in every case the _ acidity of the roller flour was in excess of the stone-milled. That such an acidity might predispose to caries is by no means im- probable, but the subject is not yet sufficiently investigated to draw definite conclusions. Sim Wallace*® considers that ‘‘the cause of the prevalence of dental caries is that the natural food-stuffs are to a large extent ridded of their accompanying fibrous parts,’’ and that due to the same cause ‘‘ the micro-organisms of the mouth lodge and multiply, and augment the rapidity and intensity of the acid fermentation.” That such a factor does occur is certain, but it hardly explains the fact that animals, dogs, cats, monkeys, rabbits, &c., which exhibit no dental caries, are yet found to have food particles frequently lodged between their teeth after a meal, the fibrous matters themselves remaining impacted. Interstitial caries is rare in animals and yet commonly occurs in man. The researches of Miller, Mummery, and more recently Leon Williams, have shown that the enamel surface in sheltered positions is often covered with a film-like layer of bacteria, and that under such a layer definite disintegration of the enamel is taking place. Moreover many of the bacteria found in this film may be seen in the spaces hollowed out between the enamel prisms; the spaces evidently have been formed by the action of the acids produced by the bacteria; moreover spreading from these points of attack 1 Journ. Brit. Dent. Assoc., 1900. 2 «Cause of Decay in Teeth.”