“THE VESTIBULE OF LIFE”
To show some of the common mouth conditions that make it almost an ideal medium for bacterial culture, we quote the following paragraph from Dr. Smith, adding the fact that his statement is one with which all up-to-date physicians concur:
“The mouth, with its large extent of dentate surface, becomes quickly infested and infected with all manner of bacterial formations, decomposing particles of food, stagnant, septic matter from saliva, mucous and sputum, not infrequently with pus exudations from irritated and inflamed gum margins, gaseous emanations from decaying teeth and putrescent pulp tissue, salivary calculus (tartar), nicotine, and the chemical toxins, or poisons, of decomposition which result from a mixing of mouth secretions, excretions and food remains in a temperature constantly maintained at the high normal of ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit. While this may seem a formidable array, it fails to prevent any of the sources of infection connected with untreated teeth; and incredible as it may appear, these conditions are found not in the lower classes alone, but in general mouth conditions in high and low born, fastidious and boor, king and peasant.”
“Try to estimate the amount of poisonous products that would be generated if such a surface were smeared over with the various foods from the dining table, and these allowed to decompose,” says Dr. Alfred C. Fones,[2] “and a fair idea may be obtained of the amount of decomposition that is taking place in unsanitary mouths. Nor is this simile forceful enough, for the food in the mouth is in one of the most favorable environments known for the activity and virulency of germ life, so that the products generated would be far more numerous, more poisonous and irritating in every action, than such products from food decomposing in the open air.”
[2] In his essay “Clean Methods, The First Law of Hygiene.”