Dentists!

Beware Of Unknown

SOME cases of very serious illness in the Pacific Islands have been traced to the methods employed by unskilled and careless dentists, who make occa sional tours.

The majority of Europeans require a certain amount of regular dental atten tion. When they live in isolated or sparsely-settled Islands, the problems of procuring dental service becomes a seri ous one. Consequently, an itinerant den tist, making a round trip on an Islands steamer, has no lack of patients—if they know that he is coming.

Unfortunately, this practice has at tracted some undesirable members of the profession. We have heard some shocking stories of delicate dental opera tions being attempted by grossly un skilled men; of cruel sufferings imposed on unlucky “patients”; of monstrous fees charged by the greedy itinerants; and, in one case, of a filthy disease being conveyed to a European by a dentist who had not taken proper precautions after carrying out a job on a native.

Under present conditions, there seems to be no way of officially checking up on the qualifications of visiting dentists.

Residents, therefore, would be wise to deal only with men who are known to be qualified and reliable, and to have nothing whatever to do with unknown professional visitors, unless they can produce convincing evidence of skill and experience.