Page 356 - My FlipBook
P. 356
: ;
352
the experience of the practitioner, and every case will call
for the exertion of a correct judgment, to direct the proper
course of treatment. Dental Surgery differs in some re-
spects from every other kind of surgery.
In the first place,
our operations are mostly confined to organs that are liable to
a loss of their substance, but in no instance, except perhaps
in the very slightest degree, are they able to repair this loss
unlike the condition of many organs of the human body,
which when by disease have
lost some of their substance,
are able by their own organic powers to restore
it. In the
second place, such is the small vitality of the teeth, that
when a part of their substance is lost, they will allow it to be
supplied by the presence of some foreign body, which I be-
lieve is not the case with any other bone of the body.
In
another respect the dental organs are
distinct, they are du-
plicate, having one set which are deciduous, and when lost,
are succeeded by another set. In this respect they differ
from all the other organs of- the animal system. is on
It
these principles, and one or two more I might mention, that
dental operations are founded. Dental operations as far as
regards the removal of useless, pernicious, or diseased teeth
or stumps, and the preservation of the health of those which
are or might be useful, may be reduced to the following
First, Extraction.
Second, Removal of foreign matter from the teeth.
Third, Removal of carious portions from the teeth.
Fourth, Separation of crowded teeth.
Fifth, Supplying the loss of substance in a tooth, by a me-
tallic substance ; and,
Sixth, Excision of the crowns of the teeth, when we wish
to preserve their stumps.
Each of these will receive a separate consideration.
352
the experience of the practitioner, and every case will call
for the exertion of a correct judgment, to direct the proper
course of treatment. Dental Surgery differs in some re-
spects from every other kind of surgery.
In the first place,
our operations are mostly confined to organs that are liable to
a loss of their substance, but in no instance, except perhaps
in the very slightest degree, are they able to repair this loss
unlike the condition of many organs of the human body,
which when by disease have
lost some of their substance,
are able by their own organic powers to restore
it. In the
second place, such is the small vitality of the teeth, that
when a part of their substance is lost, they will allow it to be
supplied by the presence of some foreign body, which I be-
lieve is not the case with any other bone of the body.
In
another respect the dental organs are
distinct, they are du-
plicate, having one set which are deciduous, and when lost,
are succeeded by another set. In this respect they differ
from all the other organs of- the animal system. is on
It
these principles, and one or two more I might mention, that
dental operations are founded. Dental operations as far as
regards the removal of useless, pernicious, or diseased teeth
or stumps, and the preservation of the health of those which
are or might be useful, may be reduced to the following
First, Extraction.
Second, Removal of foreign matter from the teeth.
Third, Removal of carious portions from the teeth.
Fourth, Separation of crowded teeth.
Fifth, Supplying the loss of substance in a tooth, by a me-
tallic substance ; and,
Sixth, Excision of the crowns of the teeth, when we wish
to preserve their stumps.
Each of these will receive a separate consideration.
