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the nerve is most commonly destroyed by a single operation,
because the fang is single, and has the advantage of being
more perpendicular than in a tooth with divaricating fangs.
But it is an erroneous idea, that a diseased tooth, if it has
more than a single fang, may be rendered useful and free
from pain by destroying its nerves. The practice has
only served to expose the emptiness of the theory, since
most of those who have undergone the operation, which can
be termed little less than martyrdom, have barely found
that they have been made to forget the usual pain of tooth-
ache in the unutterable agony of the operation. But this
is not all the objection ; for where the operator is so fortu-
nate as partially to destroy the nerves of double teeth, as
even this is very rarely the case, the membranes are apt to
become diseased by inflammatory action, and the tooth re-
quires to be extracted in a very short time afterwards. It
cannot therefore be too strongly urged, that where a double
tooth is painful, and has become so much decayed as not to be
capable of being saved by the operation of stopping, it should,
in order to prevent all unpleasant consequences, be extract-
ed immediately. In evidence of the fallacy of the attempts
of destroying the nerves of back teeth, I shall adduce a sin-
gle instance, which came under my own observation.
A gentleman possessing highly organised teeth, having
twice suffered very serious lacerations of the bone from ex-
traction, and having even been threatened with lock-jaw,
submitted to have the fangs of the first lower molaris, which
had long been a source of torture drilled, with the hope of thus
eradicating its nerves. The operation, after excruciating
agonies, proved within a few hours, to have been useless ; the
cavity of the tooth was then filled with a compound me-
tallic stopping ; but the pain returned with such violence,
that it was necessary to remove it. The patient continued
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