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have not proper room, considerable advantage always attends
their extraction. Their removal permits the bicuspides to fall
back, and gives way to the regular position of the cuspidati.
The removal of these teeth, when decayed, ought always
to be recommended, although they may not occasion pain,
or there be no irregularity in the front teeth ; diseased teeth
always affect others, and therefore ought never to remain in
the mouths of children.
If they be extracted before the second permanent molares
appear, in a short time they will not be missed, because the
bicuspides will go back, and the second and third molares
will come forward, so that no space will be left.
The front teeth may even derive much benefit from this
gain of room, as there will probably be left a small space
between them, which will tend to their preservation ; for it
is observed when the teeth are situated so close as to press
hard upon each other, they almost always fall into a state of
decay.
Sometimes the upper jaw is too narrow from side to
side, the teeth in the fore part are thrown forwards, and pro-
ject very much over the teeth of the lower jaw, they also
push out the upper lip. In this case the first bicuspis on
each side should be extracted, which will permit the teeth
to fall into a more regular curve.
When the permanent incisores of the upper jaw have
cut the gum behind the temporary teeth, and have been suf-
fered to remain until considerably advanced in growth, they
always stand so much inwards, that when the mouth is shut,
the incisores of the under jaw stand before them, which is
always an obstacle to their acquiring regularity, and occa-
sions a great deformity.
There are four states of this kind of irregularity. The
first, when one central incisor is turned in, and the under teeth