Medicine: Carry a Brush

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People are losing their teeth twice as fast as they need to, said a dentistry dean last week, and the big reason is that they rely on "confectionery" pastes and powders. "Advertisements scare people into buying many preparations that merely alleviate symptoms," Dean Harry Lyons* of the Medical College of Virginia told New York dentists. "So the real trouble often becomes serious before it is treated or prescribed for."

Dean Lyons' prescription: brush the teeth (salt and soda will do for a dentifrice) within "split minutes" after every meal, because sugar left in the mouth changes into acids within half an hour at most. "Carrying toothbrushes around ought to be just as acceptable as carrying combs, lipstick and powder."

Other Lyons iconoclasms:

¶ Massaging the gums, with or without toothpaste, does no good so far as he can discover, and may cause harm.

¶ The value of ammoniated pastes and powders, and of those containing chlorophyll and penicillin, has yet to be proved —beyond the fact that they promote mouth sanitation.