more decayed teeth. There is a backlog of 285 mil lion cavities in the teeth of chil dren six to 12 years of age. and new cavities are developing at the rate of 33 million a year. At age 18, the average person has 14 decay sites involving seven teeth. Faced with these figures, dental authorities agree a losing battle is being waged against the ravag ing menace of tooth decay What, then, is the answer? The big chance for victory, authorities believe, lies in preven tion. Tomorrow's dental health, they say. lies in the hands of to day's parents. If parents will as sume the responsibility of seeing that children begin dental train ing at an early age, a large part of the problem will be solved. By an "early age," dental auth orities mean somewhere between the ages of two and three when the 20 primary or "baby" teeth have all erupted. The popular belief that pri mary teeth are unimportant "be cause they fall out anyway" is a costly misconception on the part of parents.

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