EDITORIAL
HUGH MCCULLOCH
THE following statement was received in the form of a "letter to the Editor' from Dr. Edna Miller of New York City, who commented, "What better way is there to reach pediatricians than through the medium of their new publication Pediatrics?"
"Dentists are constantly informing parents and others in charge of young children as to the need for an early 'first visit with the dentist.'
"Much of the irremedial damage, dentally and psychologically, is due to the pain and traumatic experience that necessarily follow the discovery of decayed teeth by the dentists, or the uncomfortable sensation of an acute dental abscess felt by a child.
"When children are first seen by the dentists at the age of two and one-half or three years, and thereafter at frequent, regular intervals, the procedures are usually painless; or, if pain is unavoidable, the dentist has already impressed the child with his sincerity. He is then no longer a stranger, visited only at a moment of emergency, who does unfamiliar, unpleasant things with elaborate equipment.
