Page 457 - My FlipBook

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Ligatures.

These are made of silk, or fine gold or silver wire, and
are passed through the tooth or teeth which we wish to fasten
in the mouth. When the artificial tooth or teeth are placed
in the situation we wish them, the ligatures are earned around
the two adjoining living teeth and tied so as to be firm in
their places.
The following are the inconveniences which result from
dependence upon this mode of fastening the teeth. In the
first place we cannot always use ligatures ; for very often we
wish to insert six or eight teeth in the front of the mouth,
and perhaps are obliged to fasten them to the posterior grind-
ers, in consequence of there being no other nearer. In this
case, we should have to continue our block of teeth to the
last molar tooth, or not be able to use a ligature, and should
we do so, a ligature would not confine such a large block of
teeth as firmly as they ought to be. In the next place, if
made of silk, &c. they are extremely apt to contract an un-
pleasant taste and smell, become dirty, and the patient is
obliged to change them very often. If made of gold or sil-
ver wire, then the patient will be troubled to untie them, so
as to take out the teeth to clean them, as he will desire to do
occasionally, and he will be troubled to tie them in again. In
the third place, they never give that firmness to the new
teeth which we desire, and the teeth are constantly moved
by the tongue. The fourth and last objection I would men-
tion to ligatures, and one which, if we could pass by all the
others, would for ever, in most cases, forbid their use alto-
gether, is the injurious effects which the ligatures suspending
the teeth have upon those living teeth to which they are tied.
Their first bad effect is to pull those teeth out to which they