x weeks lost ground steadily. I
persuaded him to go to a dentist to clean the vestibule to his
digestive system, and to have a set of false teeth. He enjoys his
meals, and has gained twelve pounds in six weeks." Popular magazines
and newspapers mention teeth seldom, because those who best know the
interesting vital things are making money, not writing articles or
otherwise concerning themselves with dental education. It is said that
of forty thousand American dentists not over eleven thousand are
readers of dental journals, and probably not three hundred contribute
to professional literature. One dentist who is working for the
children's clinic described above, when asked by the board of education
to lecture to the people on the care of the teeth and to recommend
simple, readable books, told me that he knew no good books to suggest.

Five obstacles exist to practicing what is here preached:

1. The expensiveness of proper dentistry.

2. The untrustworthiness of cheap dental service and "painless"
dental parlors; the domination of the supply houses wishing to
sell instruments and other supplies.

3. The ethical objection to any kind of advertising or to work by
wholesale.

4. The lack of dispensaries.

5. The profit-making basis of dental education.

Additional reasons these for cleanliness that will make the dentist
serviceable for his knowledge rather than for his time and gold.

Good dentists really "come too high" for both the poor and the
comfortably situated. Families in New York City that have four or five
thousand dollars a year hesitate to go to a dentist whom they
thoroughly trust, because his time is worth more than they feel they
can afford to pay.

The "free-extraction" dental parlors undoubtedly are doing a vast
amount of harm. In every city are dental quacks that injure
wage-earning adults as much as soothing-sirup quacks injure babies.
Instead of teaching people to preserve their teeth, they extract, and
then, by dint of overpersuading by a pretty cashier hired for the
purpose, make a contract for a gold crown or a false set at an
exorbitant price. A reputable dentist has said that a dental parlor can
do more damage to the welfare of the race in a few months than a
well-intentioned man in the profession can repair in a lifetime. Its
question is not, What can I do for this patient? but What is there in
this mouth for me? Many "parlors" never expect to see the same person
twice,