Abstract
Occurrence of eye diseases and the well-known syphilis associated tooth deformities were investigated among a total of 121 pupils of a blind school and the serum test was administered to each subject to serve as a reference. Conclusions were reached as follows. 1. It was characteristic of these pupils that they showed very high rates of tooth deformities having Hutchinson's and Fournier's signs and tooth with constricted cusp tips. The rate of occurrence for Hutchinson's teeth was 5.8% which accounted for approximately 11 to 20 folds of occurrence that is usually found in the oral examination of public school pupils. The rate of occurrence of Fournier's teeth amounted to 11.6% and this figure also showed more than 3-fold increase as of normal pupils. Occurrence of cusp-constricted teeth in the blind school pupils was 13.2%, accounting for approximately 9-fold increase as of normal pupils. 2. The rate of positive serum test in subjects with Hutchinson's signs was 71%, that in subjects with Fournier's signs 64% and that in subjects with cusp-constricted tooth was 12.5%, and these figures largely agreed with those obtained previously by Yamagata, although manifestation of tooth deformities in the present subject group was more frequent than was reported by the investigator, suggesting that congenital syphilis was much prevalent in the present group. 3. Occurrence of dwarf teeth was 0.25%, of which 67% was positive in the serum reaction largely in agreement with the result reported by Yamagata. 4. Occurrence of lava-like tooth crown was seen in only one subject. The occurrence of such deformity of tooth was suspected to be associated with congenital syphilis because of the presence of eye disease and positive serum reaction in the subject. 5. A variety of eye symptoms such as keratitis parenchymatosa, iridocyclitis, neuritis optica, nystagmus and many others was observed in the present group appearing in parallel with the above deformities of teeth and these symptoms should be regarded as important signs pointing to the presence of congenital syphilis.
