Sta,—It is most gratifying to note that The Spectator has
taken up the cause of the wage-earner's teeth, and I heartily agree with all the main points that have been raised by your Medical Correspondent and Mr. G. Wray, but there is a most important aspect of the problem to which I should like to draw attention.
While dental treatment in the State- and rate-aided schools may be subjected to criticism, it cannot be denied that a great deal of good work is done at a cost to the nation of some hundreds of thousands of pounds annually, but the results are largely nullified because the treatment is not followed up in adolescence. The average working-class boy or girl leaves school at fourteen and goes to work, earning a small wage to begin with and gradually improving his position as he grows older and more profi- cient, but up to the age of 18 practically his whole earnings are required to pay for his maintenance at home. It is just at this critical time of adolescence that dental treatment is most needed, when dental decay is most prevalent, and yet no benefit whatever is normally available to the youth from N.H.I. and the Friendly Societies, and he receives no encouragement to have his teeth looked after. The tragic result is that unless he suffers severe toothache from a tooth already decayed beyond all hope of saving, he never visits a dentist at all, so that practically all the work done for his teeth at school is set at naught by subsequent neglect. When eventually he can obtain dental benefit from his Society, and if he visits a dentist then, it is usually too late to save many of his teeth and he resigns himself to extractions, and dentures for practically the whole of his adult life.
As an employer, I have been appalled by the deplorable state of the workers' teeth, and in an endeavour to improve matters among our staff I have introduced a system of dental supervision and treatment the costs of which are borne out of the funds of our contributory Staff Provident Fund, augmented from time to time by sums allotted out of the profits of our business. This works extremely well and all permanent employees who are members of our Fund have their teeth inspected by the local dentist twice a year and all necessary work is carried out with a view to saving natural teeth where possible.
Under present war conditions we employ more boys and girls than formerly, and it is truly tragic to discover that young girls of 17 or I have such deplorably neglected teeth that the dentist can recommend 'no alternative to extracting the majority and supplying dentures to fill the yawning gaps.
That the whole system of dental benefit as provided through the Friendly Societies needs overhauling goes without saying, but the provi- sion of dental benefit, supervision, education and treatment for young persons, to follow up the school treatment, is the most crying need of all. The wage-earners' teeth have been ruined and largely lost through neglect, but reform now could spare the next generation much pain and disease and the cost would yield a rich dividend in health, happiness, better looks and greater efficiency for the workers of Britain.—Yours
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