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124 SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES

anything new. Like Galen, Avicenna admits that the teeth continually
grow, and as a proof he gives the fact of the lengthening of the teeth,
which, owing to the absence of antagonists, are not subject to any
pressure or friction.
He gives much good advice with regard to the preservation and cleanli-
ness of the teeth, to which he attaches very great importance; and on this
point he remarks that the use of very hard tooth powders must be avoided,
as these are liable to injure the dental substance. To this latter are also
harmful, says the author, some narcotic remedies, employed against
odontalgia. Burnt hartshorn is, according to him, a most valuable
dentifrice. To remove tartar from the teeth, he indicates many remedies,
and especially dentifrices of meerschaum, salt, burnt shells of snails and
oysters, sal ammoniac, burnt gypsum (plaster of Paris), verdigris with
honey, etc. Among the substances able to facilitate dentition, he enumer-
ates several oils and fats, besides the brain of the hare and the milk of
the bitch, and he disapproves the custom of giving to children, during
dentition, hard objects to chew, in the erroneous belief that the biting
of such objects is useful in facilitating the cutting of the teeth; he recom-
mends, instead, the gums to be rubbed with the fingers. When the teeth
begin to appear, he drops some oil into the ears of the child and covers
its head, neck, and jaws with a plaster spread on cotton that has been
soaked in oil.
Avicenna minutely examines the various causes of odontalgia, and
among them includes also the little worms by which the dental substance
was supposed to be gnawed away.
When a tooth becomes the seat of intense pain, accompanied by a throb-
bing feeling, Avicenna considers that this is due to an excessive accumu-
lation of humors in the root; he therefore advises, as already Archigenes
had done, the tooth to be drilled, in order to empty it, and afterward
to introduce into it appropriate remedies.
According to Avicenna, he who has a loosened tooth and desires to
make it firm again, must avoid using it in mastication, must not touch it
with the fingers, nor move it with the tongue ; besides this, he must speak
as little as possible, and make use of astringent remedies.
To remove a tooth, Avicenna made use of either the forceps or the
"eradicating remedies," in which he, too, had full confidence. Like
the greater part of his predecessors, Avicenna is of the opinion that
the extraction of a firm tooth must be avoided as much as possible, as
it may give place to an injury of the jaw, or become harmful to the visual
organ, or bring on fever. On this point he remarks that, if an aching
roorh a|)pcars to be sound, it is not always necessary to perform its ex-
traction in order to cause even the most rebellious odontalgia to cease;
in certain cases he obtained a complete cessation of the pain after having