[Behind the Smile] [Music] [Produced by the Dairy Council of St. Louis] [with the advice and supervision of its Dental Advisory Board] [approved by the Council of the St. Louis Dental Society] [Directed by Marie C. Harrington] [Narrator:] Smile and the world smiles with you. How early in life do we learn this age-old truth? Experts tell us that the smile, a baby's first smile, is his first conscious act in trying to adjust to a brand new world. As the months speed by and we reach the ripe old age of two, we find that smiles continue to pay dividends. It is an effective way to win friends and influence people. Glorious, carefree days of growing up, exciting new experiences, smiles and happiness, which should be the inheritance of every child everywhere. When boy meets girl and knows it [?] first time, it is usually a smile that bridges the gulf of self-consciousness and youthful timidity. [Music] And so on into college, going places and doing things is a matter of health and energy, and the best bids usually go to those with healthy, charming smiles. The smile is an asset in business too. In these days of stiff competition, with hustle and bustle and jangled nerves, very often a smile wins, opens doors, creates important friendships. Down through the years, smiles should continue, winning confidence, gaining loyalties, creating happiness, natural smiles springing from buoyant health. And even on into the sunset of life, there are smiling recollections of old friends, old memories, happy things which have gone before, and the quiet happiness that comes from sharing joys with people of the future. Yes, it can truly be said that a healthful, charming smile is important to us day after day, all through our lives. And so let us examine this smile to see what it is that makes a smile effective. Often one doesn't realize it, but good teeth are really the backbone of almost every attractive smile. If the teeth are strong and regularly spaced and clean, then the smile is right. But if they are not, then somehow the smile is wrong and your whole personality is changed. Medical and dental history show that the beginning of this perfect smile was started during the first month of pregnancy, and lucky indeed is the child who picks a mother who visits her physician and her dentist during these early months. By paying these early visits and by following advice given then, the expectant mother can build strong bones and teeth for her child. She can protect herself too from the old adage now disproved: For every child, a tooth. [Music] ["Food and Care for Good Dental Health"] [Music] What a happy event it is when baby's first tooth arrives, and it usually does when the baby is between four and seven months old. Another important event is your child's first trip [?]. This occasion should be when he's about two years old. And here in your dentist's office, you will find a very different situation than existed 20 or 30 years ago. Dentists today treat the child with a much keener knowledge of child psychology than was possible in the past. Very often, these early visits are a matter of cleaning and inspection, but should important defects be found, they can be corrected more easily now than if they are allowed to wait. Caring for these deciduous or baby or so-called temporary teeth is important because they are not entirely replaced until the child is 12 years old, which is about one fifth of his normal lifespan. Moreover, these first teeth lay the foundation for his permanent teeth, which should last for the rest of his life. As the result of these early visits, the child soon accepts the idea of good dental health and forms the pattern of regular visits which will be invaluable to him. Under the friendly guidance of his dentist, he learns the how and why of mouth cleanliness, which when started early enough, becomes as automatic as do many other essential health habits. Periodic inspection by the dentist and daily attention at home to these so-called temporary or baby teeth lay a firm groundwork for good dental health throughout his life. When your child is about six, we come to another milestone. This is about the time when the first permanent tooth erupts. While this tooth is called the six-year molar or the first permanent molar, start looking for it when your child is about five, even before he starts losing his temporary teeth. If you want to find it, six is your cue. Start from the front and count the teeth around to either side. The sixth is the six-year molar or first permanent molar on either side, and this first permanent tooth acts as the keystone for the whole dental arch. This then is another time when it is important to have your child under the periodic inspection and care of your dentist. Good dental health is usually the result of a three-way partnership in which Mother plays a daily role of specialist. Here, under the guise of preparing something good to eat, mother and little Sue are really collecting the vitamins and mineral elements necessary to build growing bodies strong and straight, supplying fuel for energetic expanding muscles, supplying calcium for strong bones and for sturdy, sparkling teeth. So far-seeing is the alchemy of nature that out of a regular supply of nature's simplest foods, like fruits, vegetables, and milk, can be found the necessary elements to help bodies grow and to protect those already grown. Here is a refrigerator brimful of health-giving foods. Notice they are natural, simple foods, obtainable almost anywhere, and they are not expensive. Good dental health usually goes with all-round good health. And a simple, protective diet will do much to ensure both for your whole family. This protective diet calls for a quart of milk, two fresh vegetables, one preferably raw and leafy, two fresh fruits, an egg and a serving of whole-grain cereal as the skeleton for every day's meals. These common foods, if eaten regularly, together with a milk fortified with vitamin D or cod liver oil if recommended, will furnish the vital necessities for sound teeth and buoyant health. Special attention to food and regular eating habits is the general rule for very young children and babies. Yet, growth is something that continues long after Bill puts on long pants, a symbol to him that he has grown up. Mary, too, may be sure she's a young lady when she's grown-up enough to wear a long party dress. But actually, during these adjusting periods of adolescence, the vitamins and mineral elements of the protective diet are just as necessary for them as when they were babies. All through life, a good working plan is to choose first those foods which you need most and then to eat whatever else you may like. But look at this dinner which is getting ready to go on the table. Nature's simplest foods can be prepared so attractively and the menus can be varied so greatly that you and your whole family will enjoy them, not for just their vitamins, not for their minerals nor for their calcium, nor for any of their health-building properties, but because they are really and truly good to eat. Milk plays its part in this enjoyable eating. The day's quota of a quart of milk adds appetite appeal to vegetables in creamy sauces and savory soups, in custards and dozens of other tempting foods Mother will be proud to serve. Fresh sweet cream or milk is the perfect topping for fresh juicy berries or [?] of whole grain. A glass of pasteurized milk is a simple, enjoyable way for each member of the family to get his quota of this natural healthful food [?] every day. American manhood stems back to American childhood. The children of today are the men and women of the future. May they go far and may they go smiling because of the sound bodies, alert minds, and courageous energy which their parents have helped them build behind the smile. [Music] [Voiced by Frank Eschen, Recorded By Technisonic Laboratories] [A Hardcastle Film Production] [Copyright Dairy Council of St. Louis]