Tooth Talk

A dental hygienist from Michigan read a paper on the history of the toothbrush. Lithe Dr. Julius Hughes of Atlanta scored 76 and 73 in the golf tournament to walk away with the low gross in Class A. There was a plantation dance in the Municipal Auditorium. A resolution was passed disapproving compulsory health insurance, another thanking President Roosevelt for his letter of greeting. Convivial caretakers of the nation's teeth roamed the French quarter, munched pralines, had Sazerac cocktails and crepes suzette for dinner. There was not much public oratory and reporters looking for details on such matters as "Technic for Drawing Malposed Cuspid into Proper Occlusion" were frequently stopped at the doors with the explanation that scientific secrecy must be preserved. But as some 4,000 members of the American Dental Association met in New Orleans last week it was no secret that a low opinion was prevalent of the past, present and future of human dentition. Dr. Nye W. Goodman of Los Angeles declared that a great many people were "dental cripples." Dr. Samuel Rabkin of Cincinnati, who believes that wars and economic struggle are factors in tooth decline, showed photographs of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skulls proving that even those oldtimers had pyorrhea. On exhibit from Northwestern University was a ponderous Stone Age flint hammer, presumably an early instrument for curing dental hurts since it was found with a little heap of broken teeth. In making and fitting false teeth, dentists have found it harder to make lower plates stay put than uppers. Drs. Charles Shepard Tuller and Sydney C. Fournet of New Orleans disclosed a "Revolutionary mechanical principle utilized to produce full lower dentures surpassing in stability the best modern upper dentures." Presidents. Each year A. D. A. elects a president to take office the following year. Retiring president last week was slight, sparse-haired Dr. Frank Casto of Cleveland, who wears jaunty clothes and carries a silver cigaret case, believes in old-fashioned all-around dentists, grows sarcastic on the subject of single-track specialists. Elected president for 1936 last week was Dr. Leroy Matthew Simpson Miner, dean of Harvard's Dental School, president of the New England Dental Society. Bespectacled Dr. Miner, who looks almost as studious as he is, is that rara avis, a doctor both of Dentistry (Harvard) and of Medicine (Boston University). Incoming president, elected last year, is Dr. George B. Winter, author of a book on wisdom teeth, famed authority on extracting. He has a research laboratory on the farm near St. Louis where he raises sheep, turkeys, dogs, ducks. A man of broad humors and skillful hands, he is a proficient amateur magician, a rabid wrestling addict who calls most topflight wrestlers by their first names. He likes to be photographed wearing chaps, boots, spurs, cowboy hat and holster pistol, .although he cannot ride a horse.

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