Page 64 - My FlipBook

to have any great degree of sensibility ; for though we of-
ten wound it in eating, and in picking our teeth, yet we do
not feel much pain upon these occasions ; and both in in-
fants and old people, where there are no teeth, the gums
bear a very considerable pressure, without pain.
The advantage arising from this degree of insensibility in
the gums, is obvious ; for till the child cuts its teeth, the
gums are to do the business of teeth, and are therefore
formed for this purpose, having a hard ridge running through
their whole length. Old people, who have lost their teeth,
have not this ridge. When in a sound state, the gums are
not easily irritated by being wounded, and therefore are not
so liable to inflammation as other parts, and soon heal.
The teeth being united to the jaw by the periosteum and
gum, have some degree of a yielding motion in the living
body. This circumstance renders them more secure ; it
breaks the jar of bony contact, and prevents fractures both
of the sockets and of the teeth themselves."
These remarks of Mr. Hunter, considering the gums in a
healthy state, are strictly true,—but inflamed and diseased,
they become very sensible.
* " The principal use of the gums, is to make the teeth
more firm and more permanent in the alveolus, which con-
tains their roots. The gums are the preservers of the teeth ;
they also contribute to the ornament of the mouth, when
they are well figured and shaped in the form of a half cres-
cent, which manifests itself particularly in laughing. They
show a vermillion red, which relieves the lustre of the white-
ness of the teeth, and which is reciprocally relieved by this
same whiteness. This apposition of colour with the order
and regularity of the teeth, and edges of the gums, offers to
the sight a most gracious object."

* Fauchard, page 219.