CARE OF YOUR TEETH.
"What a fine face!" I exclaimed; "What a very beautiful girl!" By and bye I whispered to my wife, to ask who that young lady was?— pointing to the left. While she was looking, I remarked, "What a very plain face she has!" My better two-thirds replied, with the slightest possible sneer:
"It seems to me that you men haven't five grains of common sense about women. Now you don't pretend that you have forgotten that very beautiful girl!"
"But you don't mean to say that that is the same one I was admiring?"
"The same," quietly observed my better three-quarters. In a moment a bit of humor came from the platform; the large mouth flew open, and thirty magnificent pearls darted into view.
"Oh, yes, to be sure; why of course, who couldn't tell that?" I remarked, as brave as a sheep.
"My better seven-eighths quietly suggested, from behind her fan, "Now, suppose you attend to the lecture, and stop looking at the girls; how would you like it if you were lecturing, and one of your auditors should be looking all over the house?"
From that moment I kept my eyes on the speaker, but the points in the lecture were very few, and between them I had time to think "what a magic there is in fine teeth!" If a young woman has a mouthful of beautiful teeth, I don't care how long her nose is, nor what the color of her eyes; she looks sweet, wholesome, handsome!
On the other hand, no matter how exquisitely moulded the face, if, when the mouth is opened, decayed, blackened teeth appear; you cease to admire, and exclaim, "poor thing! poor thing!"
Besides this, if you lose your teeth, you can no longer speak plainly.
But more than both of these considerations put together and multiplied by a hundred, if you lose your teeth, you can no longer grind your food well; and then comes indigestion with its train of horrors.
How may the teeth be preserved?
Simply, by keeping them clean! A clean tooth cannot decay. You may eat sweet things, acids, take hot drinks, ice creams,—you may abuse your teeth in a hundred ways,—if you will keep them clean, they will not decay. I will show you as many white blackbirds, as you will show me clean white teeth beginning to decay.
How shall they be kept clean? I answer with a tooth-pick, used thoroughly after eating, and followed by rinsing the mouth, and the morning and evening use of a tooth-brush with a powder composed of pulverized soap and prepared chalk.
In addition to this, cultivate the habit of sleeping with your mouth shut. That dryness and bad taste in the mouth which come of sleeping with it open, is always injurious to everything within the mouth, including the teeth.
And, perhaps, this is the best place to speak of the error or misfortune of sleeping with the mouth open, in its influence upon the respiratory apparatus.
I cannot agree with the famous Catlin, who attributes so much to this bad habit. But really it is difficult to read his remarkable little work, without being convinced that sleeping with the mouth open is a most unfortunate habit. The most obvious mischief is the introduction through the open mouth and wind-pipe of dust and other minute objects, which the nose would strain out. The opening in the nose through which the air must pass, is only a narrow fissure, and its sides are armed with numerous hairs, which reach over and intertwine with those of the opposite wall, thus making it very difficult for particles of dust to pass through into the lungs. This point in Mr. Catlin's argument is too obviously true to need any special proofs; and perhaps another point of less moment is sufficiently obvious; viz., if the air be allowed to pass directly through the wide-open mouth into the lungs, its temperature when permeating the lung tissue is too low, and thus injury to that delicate tissue results; but if the air passes through the tortuous and contracted nasal passages, it is brought into such immediate contact with the blood in the lining membrane of those passages, that it is modified, and the lungs themselves are saved from the rude shock of a raw cold breath.
I have now given the more patent of the reasons for keeping the mouth shut while sleeping, and will only add that the habit of sleeping with the mouth shut, may be formed by a careful clearing of the nasal passages on lying down, and by going to sleep with a determination to keep the lips closed. Observing these rules, and being careful not to sleep with the head too low, you will soon awaken in the morning with the lips closed, and with the mouth moist and sweet.