Page 393 - My FlipBook

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stroy in a considerable degree, their natural shape and beauty,
and made them resemble some forms of artificial teeth. I
could mention many cases of the injurious effects resulting
from the improper use of the file. I have seen cases when
the individuals, subjects of the operation, assured me, that
their teeth were perfectly sound at the time of being filed,
and in the course of from two to three years, not only
the filed teeth, but almost every tooth, in their mouths, were
diseased, commencing with the filed teeth, and spreading to
all the others in the mouth. I will mention the following
case, with the subject of which I have been acquainted for
some time : Mrs. A M , a lady about 32 years of
age, called on me in the month of April, 1827, with a view
of having me examine her teeth, and to ascertain what could
be done for their preservation, if any thing. The lady in-
formed me, that some years ago, she was then residing in the
town of Erie in this state, an itinerant dentist spent a few
days in that village, and at the solicitation of the dentist and
of some of her friends, in consequence of her teeth being
somewhat crowded upon each other, although perfectly sound,
she suffered the dentist to separate her teeth with the file.
lie divided the incisores of the upper jaw, and the first bicus-
pids and canine teeth of the under jaw. The lady assured
me, that in less that three years she had scarcely a sound
tooth in her mouth. She said, that in a few months caries com-
menced on those surfaces of the teeth which had been filed ;
from these it spread to her molar teeth, nearly all of which
she had lost. At the time she called on me, her upper front
incisores were in a complete state of decay ; one of them
had crumbled away and broken off, until nothing was left but
its fang ; the other was decayed to a mere shell. One of
the lateral incisores had decayed and broken off, so that at
this time everv tooth of her upper jaw that remained was in