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know I always blamed my teeth as the cause of all my suf-
; but I am now convinced that the disease is in my
ferings
gums, and remains of the alveolar processes ; and as I was
told that was a part of his profession Mr. Koecker was sup-
posed to be very skilful in, it makes me very anxious to have
his opinion. You will remember how long (many months)
the sockets of my molar teeth stood open, and even when
they did heal up, the gums were full of morbid sensibility.
When I last saw you, I had only about five front teeth re-
maining, and eight below ; about 1818, they began to ache a
little, and as usual to irritate and inflame my cheeks ; the
five upper ones began to spoil, but I fought on with them to
the winter 1819, when the inflammation and the various sen-
sations I have mentioned before as now suffering, increasing,
and the teeth themselves aching, I had them pulled ; the
gums swelled and inflamed most dreadfully, the horrid sen-
sations in the roof of my mouth increased, and my face was
as bad as ever. In about a month the wounds healed, but
the gums remained swelled, and became a hard white gristle.
After suffering many months I had the gums opened, they
were so hard and thick the dentist said they were like bone,
the sockets were not the least absorbed, of course rough, and
in some parts exfoliated. The gums were kept open near
a month, and caustic applied to excite absorption. In the
course of this process, the point of a tooth was discovered
it was a full grown eye-
in one of the sockets and extracted ;
tooth, which for want of room had never made its way down ;
I was easier as long as the gums-were open ; but just where
I was when they healed up and resumed their state. Some
months after, my under jaw became affected, the teeth there
were not spoiled, but became so painful to the touch, that I
could bear nothing in my mouth to touch them. My lips be-
came very tremulous, and my hands trembled so, that I could
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