Page 262 - My FlipBook

246 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

says that, in order to be able to carry out this most important operation,
an exact anatomical knowledge of the alveoli and of the teeth themselves
is required. He insists on a principle of capital importance that has
only had its full application in the nineteenth century, viz., that the
instruments to be used for the extraction of teeth ought to vary according
to the tooth to be extracted. For the removal of the incisors, he says,
the "goat's foot" should have the preference; the canines ought to be
extracted with the common dental forceps, but sometimes, when they
are decayed, they may be extracted with greater security with the pelican;
for the small molars the straight-branched pelican is to be preferred,
for the large molars the curved pelican; as to the extraction of roots
or of splinters of bone, this ought to be carried out with the rostrum
corvinum.
The author counsels never to extract teeth during pregnancy, except
under circumstances of the greatest urgency, and especially to avoid the
extracting of the upper canines (or eye teeth), this being capable of pro-
ducing pernicious effect on the visual organs of the fetus!
The best way of obtaining the cessation of a violent toothache without
having recourse to extraction is, according to the author, cauterization of
the antitragus, an operation which he carried out with a special cauter-
izing instrument, made to pass through a small tube, the better to localize
and to limit the action of the red-hot iron. With regard to this means of
cure already recommended by other authors, we may remark that, although
it seems ridiculous at first sight, and although no one could be so sense-
less as to make use of it in our days, nevertheless, for the times of which
we are writing, when the curing of toothache was in a great measure
effected by indirect means, this remedy might well stand on a level with
many others, and was not perhaps altogether inefficacious. It is a suffi-
ciently well-known physiological fact that the application of a strong
stimulus in one part of the body may diminish or suppress a painful
sensation in another part of the organism. It is an equally well-known
fact that it is in no way a matter of indifference, in producing this phe-
nomenon, to what part the stimulus be applied, especially because of the
great difference existing in the relations of the several parts of the bodv
with the brain—the centre of sensation. It is, therefore, very possible
that the cauterization of the antitragus may really have the effect of
causing strong toothache to cease, at least temporarily.
Nuck used a variety of remedies to arrest dental hemorrhage, such as
tinder, burnt linen, vitriol, sulphuric acid and the cauterizing iron.
As to the use of the file, far from rejecting it entirely, as does Martin,
he holds it necessary in many cases for planing down points and sharp
edges of l)rokcn teeth, as well as for removing, at least in a measure,
the inconvenience and deformed appearance caused by irregular teeth.