after the schools open this volunteer examination takes place in the six white. grammar schools. A regular schedule is made out, and a dentist goes with the supervisor of physical education to a school, carrying his disinfectants, alcohol lamp, mirror and any other instruments of a non-operative character. The school furnishes a table, a chair, a basin of water, two glasses, all placed near a window. The grade teacher brings her grade out in single file; the name of each pupil is on a sheet of theme paper in the same order in which he stands. This paper is divided into six columns: Cleaning, Extraction, Filling, Gums, O. K., Remarks. As the dentist calls a defect, it is marked with a cross (x), and when the examination is completed one can see at a glance all the work required in that grade. The examination takes about a half-minute or a minute for each child, depending on the condition of the mouth and the examiner, and each dentist gives about two hours of his time. The examination of six grammar schools, 1,674 pupils, took one week. Each child who had no defects showing at the time of the inspection received a half-holiday. Thirty per cent of the children did not need attention, ranging from 13 per cent in one school to 50 per cent in another. Our first examination four years ago showed only two good mouths in our largest school. The two hundred high-school girls examined showed an increase of 300 per cent over last year's condition. With the first monthly report a notice was sent to the parents as follows: "The mouth of your child has been examined. This notice is to inform you that certain dental work is necessary in order to preserve his teeth and health. You are advised to consult your dentist promptly. The school will appreciate a report of the action taken in this matter." On my next visit to the school that was 50 per cent, I told the boys and girls that if they would get 100 per cent they could have a celebration; we would have a parade with a brass band, and we would have our picture taken and have banners and things! The principal said: "Now, boys and girls, of course you know that Miss Eyrich is going to every other school and say the same thing, so if you want to be the first 100 per cent school you will have to work!" As a matter of fact, I did not tell any of the other pupils this because no others had so high a percentage and at that time it had not occurred to me that they could be 100 per cent. But the largest school, Poindexter, nothing daunted that their average was only twenty-five, decided that they would race with Power School; each week on my visits the boys and girls would ask about the other school's rating. As the children had their teeth put in good condition, they brought certificates from the dentists; the teachers kept these on file for they established the daily average for the room. As each room attained 100 per cent it had a holiday. Finally, on November 11, seven weeks after the campaign started, Power School had 100 per cent, and we had our parade. We had sixtyfour automobiles filled with children, banners flying, horns blowing; we had our picture taken (p. 4); we went to the picture show. On January 31, Poindexter School received its last certificate and we turned out for another parade, on foot this time, nearly five hundred strong. The banners bore significant slogans. One had "Acres of teeth but not an acher"; another, the smallest folks, "Little but not last," because they finished among the first; and the room that was last, the one that delayed the finish until January, had as its slogan: "We put Poindexter over the top!" Of course, each school that reached Dental chart of the seventh grade, Davis School, Miss Varnado, teacher. Examination September 29, 1921, showed that thirteen pupils needed work as indicated by crosses (x). Work completed October 15, 1921. quietly all the time, attained its 100 per cent. About this time, the Mississippi Dental Association invited me to be a speaker at the banquet on April 19. I told the schools which had not had all their mouths mended to make an extra effort so that the town could be 100 per cent by the time all these doctors arrived. Galloway School finished on April 14, Lee This room Dental chart of the first grade, Power School, Miss Emma Green, teacher. had the highest average in Jackson at the examination, September 30, 1921, showing that eight pupils out of the thirty-five needed work, which was completed four days later. whom at some time since September had held a dental certificate. One of the defects which we hope to remedy next year is to see that clean 100 per cent in 1919 had very little work necessary in the fall of 1920. In other words, the work done in children's mouths carries over in a more permanent way than I had dared hope. If we can add effective toothbrush drills, our boys and girls here will have clean teeth all the year. An improvement which will save time for the dentists is a printed certificate, leaving blanks for the child's name, date, and dentist's signature. We will have the city furnish a number of them to each dentist. There is another fault in our plan. We have had no way to equalize the charity work done by our eleven men. This year we will have printed slips which the principal will fill out with a child's name and the date. These cases will be sent to the dentists in rotation. The work described is in the white grammar schools, the pupils are AngloSaxons and there is a very small amount of charity practice, perhaps less than 10 per cent. This year we expect to operate this plan in the negro schools thru the negro dentists. Having no desire to burden the people with charity, the dentists do only the examining gratis, each family paying the dentist of their own choice for his work. town in any state to do similar work, which is unique in the fact that no funds were behind it. Any town where there are several dentists and several teachers should make a start in this phase of health work, which can be so accurately followed up, which shows such quick results and which is of such tremendous importance to this and coming genera tions. The force of the National Dental Association or certainly the state organizations should further work of this character, stimulating and directing the scattered local workers. May each town in the country, each teacher, pupil and dentist receive the following words as a challenge! This work can be done in any community where these three invincible powers are united: a loyal corps of teachers who have a positive genius for follow-up work, hundreds of enthusiastic and responsive boys and girls, and the co-operation and encouragement of the local dentists. That the Jackson schools have reached this goal in four years is due to the hard work of these teachers and children, and to the unremitting toil, selfsacrifice and vision of the Jackson (Mis We believe it entirely possible for any sissippi) Dental Society. THE RELATIVE MERITS OF OUR PRINCIPAL FILLING MATERIALS AS KNOWN AND USED TODAY By JAMES MARK PRIME, D.D.S., Omaha, Nebraska MY (Read before the Chicago Dental Society, November 15, 1921) Y STORY shall be concerned in a comparison of our filling materials. My conclusions shall not be confined to results of one office, as I have tabulations of twenty-eight thousand filling operations from other operators. For obvious reasons and brevity only the principal materials will be discussed. The porcelain inlay has proved itself a valuable restoration, but for reason of its very limited use we have purposely left it out. Oxyphosphate and copper cements, gutta-percha and copper amalgam having a very limited use for special purposes, are omitted. We wrote to fifty operators from widely separated locations in the United States and received 28,729 tabulations. We asked reports on four materialsgold foil, cast gold inlay, amalgam, and silicious cements. These tabulations do These tabulations do not include inlays used in abutments for bridges, pit cavities in buccal surfaces of molars, large compound cavities involving so many surfaces as to amount to a large portion of the crown restoration. Were we to attempt the history of gold foil and amalgam it would carry us back to the early days of filling teeth. These two materials have stood well the test of time and, according to our data received, are still holding a place in the operative procedures of many good den tists. The cast gold inlay and silicious cements are new advents. We find them claiming important places. The cast gold inlay especially is crowding out the other materials in many of our good offices. Its advent marked a very important epoch in operative dentistry. The dental profession and all humanity owe to Dr. William Taggart the undisputed honor and a never dying gratitude for this benefaction. His great discovery is not confined to operative procedures but has proved a great boon to prosthetic dentistry. The other newcomer, silicious cements, were we to judge by our personal opinion and the data gathered in preparation of this essay, is losing, to some degree, the coveted place its sponsors hoped for it. After years in application of these materials by conscientious operators, employing them in their regular practice and by intensive study club work, it is well to pause and check up results. Who can do it in all fairness? Who will do it without showing a preference or perhaps a prejudice ere he finish? Can the personal equation be laid aside and the facts alone allowed to speak? Dentists seem to be strongly akin to other folks in that they are given to extremesare prone to fads and hobbies-carrying a thing (which in moderation is good) to such extreme that it becomes faulty. |