ERHAPS a description of the nurse's activities in the dental clinic at the New York Hospital will help to explain why we believe that the dental surgery clinic offers the nurse an excellent field in which to practice her technical skills, to teach health maintenance, to assist in early diagnosis of disease, and to help assure continued treatment and follow-up of dental illness. Who could be more receptive to learning good health practices and prevention of further tooth decay than the person who is suffering from the pain of a neglected dental cavity? Who could be a better candidate for positive health teaching than the patient who is losing all of his teeth because of periodontal disease? Up to the age of 34 for men and 39 for women, the greatest cause of dental loss is caries; beyond that age, periodontal disease becomes the first cause. We believe that many patients in the dental surgery clinic are much more in need of what we can teach them about nutrition and the requirements for maintaining good general health than other patients may be. For instance, the patient who has had