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34 PATHOLOGY OF THE HAKD TISSUES OF THE TEETH.
MOTTLED TEETH.*
In the years 1906 and 1907 several dentists resident in the
Rocky Mountain region told me of a peculiar condition of the
teeth in certain areas in their neighborhood, which they said was
not found elsewhere, and which had not been described in the
literature. This condition they called mottled enamel, or mot-
tled teeth, I requested that some of the teeth be sent to me for
examination, and after a time (1908) I received the crowns of
a number of incisors with the astonishing report that the teeth
of a very large proportion of the children in the areas mentioned
were of the same character.
All of the crowns I received were of incisors that had been
cut away for the purpose of putting on artificial crowns to
improve the appearance of the persons. Each of these was of
normal tooth form. The lingual surfaces of these teeth were
generally an opaque paper-white, but mottled with normal spots
and clouded areas. The labial surfaces were in part of an abnor-
mal white color, resembling white unglazed paper, but a consid-
erable portion of the surface was mottled with dark brown. Some
had black bands running across the labial surfaces; some had
dark brown bands bordered with yellow which faded away into a
paper-white, with normal enamel toward the gingival portion
some of them had enamel of normal color over the immediate
incisal edge, but this did not extend to the labial surface. All
of the paper-white and discolored portions were opaque, having
none of the translucency of normal enamel.
In all of these teeth the usual glaze of the surface of the
enamel was complete. That is, Naysmith's membrane, which
covers the outer ends of the enamel rods, was normal. An
exploring tine, the point of which was very hard and sharp,
would glide over the surface without catching, the same as it
would do over normal enamel.
It was apparent that this was a type of dystrophy of the
enamel of which nothing had appeared in dental literature. Not
only this, but if the statements were correct, it was endemic in
type. Heretofore no endemic conditions of the teeth have been
known. Further, if the reports that from 70 to 100 per cent of
the children reared in the various areas were afflicted with this
condition, the cases were numbered by thousands, and the indi-
vidual deformities were of a very grave character.
* The description of mottled teeth is taken from an article written by G. V. Black,
in collaboration with Dr. Frederick S. McKay, published in the Dental Cosmos, VoL
LVIII, 1916, p. 129.
34 PATHOLOGY OF THE HAKD TISSUES OF THE TEETH.
MOTTLED TEETH.*
In the years 1906 and 1907 several dentists resident in the
Rocky Mountain region told me of a peculiar condition of the
teeth in certain areas in their neighborhood, which they said was
not found elsewhere, and which had not been described in the
literature. This condition they called mottled enamel, or mot-
tled teeth, I requested that some of the teeth be sent to me for
examination, and after a time (1908) I received the crowns of
a number of incisors with the astonishing report that the teeth
of a very large proportion of the children in the areas mentioned
were of the same character.
All of the crowns I received were of incisors that had been
cut away for the purpose of putting on artificial crowns to
improve the appearance of the persons. Each of these was of
normal tooth form. The lingual surfaces of these teeth were
generally an opaque paper-white, but mottled with normal spots
and clouded areas. The labial surfaces were in part of an abnor-
mal white color, resembling white unglazed paper, but a consid-
erable portion of the surface was mottled with dark brown. Some
had black bands running across the labial surfaces; some had
dark brown bands bordered with yellow which faded away into a
paper-white, with normal enamel toward the gingival portion
some of them had enamel of normal color over the immediate
incisal edge, but this did not extend to the labial surface. All
of the paper-white and discolored portions were opaque, having
none of the translucency of normal enamel.
In all of these teeth the usual glaze of the surface of the
enamel was complete. That is, Naysmith's membrane, which
covers the outer ends of the enamel rods, was normal. An
exploring tine, the point of which was very hard and sharp,
would glide over the surface without catching, the same as it
would do over normal enamel.
It was apparent that this was a type of dystrophy of the
enamel of which nothing had appeared in dental literature. Not
only this, but if the statements were correct, it was endemic in
type. Heretofore no endemic conditions of the teeth have been
known. Further, if the reports that from 70 to 100 per cent of
the children reared in the various areas were afflicted with this
condition, the cases were numbered by thousands, and the indi-
vidual deformities were of a very grave character.
* The description of mottled teeth is taken from an article written by G. V. Black,
in collaboration with Dr. Frederick S. McKay, published in the Dental Cosmos, VoL
LVIII, 1916, p. 129.
