PLUCKING TEETH
SIR,—Miles Howard, in his reply to my letter, raises—ingeniously, in a greatly compressed space—so many dental problems a select committee would be required to conclude them. Even then, like the work of most committees, and of much dental research, the results would be far from convincing.
I would, however, ask space to enlarge upon one of Miles Howard's opinions which he holds in common with numbers of persons less enlightened. 'There seems to be,' he writes, `—correct me if I am wrong—a "culture difference" between Continental and British dental surgeons; the former tend to try to save teeth, the latter to pluck them.' This distressing belief is both right and wrong.
At its highest level dentistry, like most professions, is informed by a universal philosophy, derived from a free exchange of advanced theory and practice. In all countries where progressive theories are available the aim is to preserve the natural dentition as far as this is compatible with health and proper function. Each case is judged on its merits and is not susceptible to vogues or general tendencies. Below that level there may be a 'culture difference', (a kindly euphemism) which encourages a small majority of dental surgeons to `save' or 'pluck' teeth. It must be noted here that such undiscriminating dentistry, following only a tendency, often causes as much harm by always attempting to save teeth, at all costs and perhaps in extremis, as by removing them prematurely; often more harm by virtue of the sepsis induced or perpetuated.
Neither should one forget that Conti- nental peoples (especially the Latins) mostly possess superior teeth which even the most inveterate plucker could not, in honesty, pluck.
The fact that more than 20,000,000 fillings are annually put into permanent teeth, and well over 1,200,000 in first teeth through the National Health Service alone suggests that the tendency to pluck is not endemic here. If too many people lose too many teeth it is more just to blame a nation which, despite its reputation for cleanliness, shamefully neglects its teeth.—Yours faithfully, EDWARD SAMSON
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