Accidental Poisoning of Children

Abstract

MMICBRSJOURNALor absence of dentures has much effect, except when the level is still very high.This may seem surprising, but a little consideration of the mechanism involved shows that it can be expected.The alcohol concentration of even a weak drink such as beer is several hundred times as high as that of the tissue fluids of even a very drunk man, so it is not surprising that traces in the mouth, pharynx, tonsils, and probably even the sinuses lead to very high breath readings immediately after drink- ing.This high figure falls exponentially so that the time taken to fall to a negligible level is not much affected by the nature of the drink, and is in fact 15 to 30 minutes.Two mechanisms are involved in this fall, evaporation into the breath and diffusion through the mucous membranes.If alcohol is trapped under a dental plate it can still be absorbed, and if it cannot escape into the breath it cannot affect the breath alcohol level, so that dentures make very little difference.Alcohol on the surface of the dentures them- selves will quickly evaporate, as they are nonabsorbent.Similarly, washing the mouth with water will not remove alcohol from the mucous membranes of the mouth much faster than the breath does, and will not affect the pharynx and sinuses at all.If the breath contains alcohol, mouth washing may give a spuriously low reading by cooling the breath,' so from a legal point of view it is a practice to be deprecated.-Iam, etc.,