A REVOLUTION IN DENTISTRY 55 



A little patient of my own (see photograph) was told by her dentist 

 that her upper front teeth would have to be extracted, as they protruded 

 so that she could not close her mouth. On hearing this, I was simply 

 horrified. I induced the parents to consult a competent orthodontist, 

 with the result that on meeting the child on the street about three 

 months afterwards (see photograph), I didn't recognize her. Here are 

 two pictures of a dentist's son " before and after taking " a course of 

 treatment. His father regulated his teeth. 



In orthodontia an inconceivably great advance has been made in 

 preserving human beauty, health and efficiency. And the people who 

 have been bewailing nature's inadequacy and asserting that our race is 

 gradually deteriorating so that the coming man will be " edentulous " 

 (toothless) are asked to take a back seat. They belong in the same 

 category with the people in Philadelphia, who objected to opening some 

 playgrounds to children, because the latter shouted when they played. 

 Just as if play without shouting could be any good for young children ; 

 even in Philadelphia. 



A great and beautiful truth has been taught us by these ortho- 

 dontists. Every good man, every religious man, and every one who 

 rejoices in beauty, in symmetry, in efficiency and in the comforting 

 reflection that nature does not make mistakes — man makes the mis- 

 takes, and is sometimes blasphemous enough to lay the blame upon 

 God — ought to rejoice at the clear proof that there was no mistake 

 made in allotting thirty-two teeth to an adult human being. That the 

 properly shaped jaw can hold all of these teeth, and that modern ideas 

 of the fitness of things demand a full complement of teeth in a properly 

 shaped jaw. That the firm well-rounded chin, the resolute jaw and 

 symmetrical cheeks, and the appearance of decision, vigor and alertness 

 so necessary for either male or female beauty of expression, belong by 

 right to every American man and woman ; not to mention the fact that 

 the " laughing pearls " of perfect teeth can be possessed by any one, 

 and some one has sinned, either the man or his parents, if the denture 

 is defective and the jaws ill-developed. 



