Page 279 - My FlipBook

THE EIGUTKKNTH CEXTLR)' 2.")!)

tion, or for some other reason, ir nia\ he hlled hy an "mutation" in soft
wood.'
It one takes into consideration the by no means slight inconvenience
to which fixed artificial teeth gave rise, one cannot but admit the aversion
to them, expressed by Goritz and others, to have been justified.
Ernst Ferdinand Gebauer, in 1726, made known a case in which,
a tooth having been badlv extracted b\' an incapable surgeon, the upper
jaw was so serioush" m]ured that a difiusne carious process ensued,
-'
which after man\- \ears' suffering brought the patient to the grave.
JOHANN Bernhardt Fischer (1685 to 1772), a very famous doctor,
born in Liibeck, who had the honor of becoming archiater of the Russian
Empire, related, in 1 726, a case of replantation, similar to those by Pomaret
and Carmeline; but Heinrich Bass (1690 to 1754), of Bremen, professor
of anatomy and surger\- in Halle, endeavored to demonstrate that in these
cases the tooth did not realh' take root, but was rather mamtamed m
position by the contracting of the surroundmg gum. One perceives
from this that there were still, at that time, discordant opinions on the
subject of replantation, and that this operation was far from occupying,
in dental surger\", the accredited position it has acquired todaw
Heinrich Bass also combats the abuse of extracting teeth mconsider-
atelv, without absolute necessity, and expresses the opinion that this
is especially blamable in the case of teeth of the upper jaw, principally
because the extraction of either the canine or of the first or second large
upper molars might easily produce the opening of Highmore's antrum,
and thus give rise to regrettable accidents. He is not, however, averse,
like Goritz, to the use of artificial teeth; indeed, he advises the application
of whole dental sets, even in the upper jaw, so long as there be two natural
teeth existing to fix the prosthetic piece to.''
Pierre Fauchard, the founder of modern scientific dentistry, was born
in Brittany about the year 1690, and died at Paris in the year 1761. His
celebrated work, Le Chirurgien Dentiste, was already written in the year
1723, but not published until 1728. It marks a new^ epoch in the history
of dental art. The most renowned ph\sicians, surgeons, and anatomists
of the time testified their admiration for Fauchard's work, which was
translated into German in 1733, and afterward went through two French
editions in the years 1746 and 1786.^ We have been able to obtain the

' Sprengel, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 309. - Sprengel, !oc. cit.
^ Sprengel, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 310.
* Le Chirurgien Dentiste ou Traite des Dents, ou Ton enseigne les moyens de les entretenir
propres & saines, de les embellir, d'en reparer la perte & de remedier a leurs maladies, a
celles des Gencives & aux accidens qui peuvent survenir aux autres parties voisines des
Dents. Avecdes Observations & des Reflexions surplusieurs cas singuliers. Ouvrage enrichi
dequarante-deux Planchesen taille douce. Par Pierre Fauchard, Chirurgien Dentiste a Paris.