Page 286 - My FlipBook

264 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES
wherein the author speaks of the great perfection reached by dental
surgery in Paris:
"The teeth and the other parts of the mouth being subject, as we
have seen in the course of this work, to so many important diseases,
requiring the aid of the most able dentists, it is strange that the sovereigns
of foreign countries, the heads of repubhcs, and also the administrators
of our own provinces do not provide for the expense of sending young
surgeons to Paris, to be instructed in a part of surgery so essential, and,
notwithstanding, so ignored and neglected everywhere excepting in this
great city, where it has reached its highest perfection, both as regards
the embellishment of the mouth and the cure of diseases, often of a
most serious nature. These scholars would, thereafter, form others and
would render great services to their nation and to their fellow citizens."
In the first chapter of his work, Fauchard speaks "of the structure,
position, and connection of the teeth; of their origin and of their growth."
He distinguishes in each tooth a body, a root, and a neck, making the
remark, however, that this last is to be considered as forming part of the
body. According to the author, the name of "crown" can only be applied
suitably to the body of the molar teeth, but not to that of the incisors or
of the canines, which has no resemblance with a crown. Although in
the adult the number of the teeth is normally thirty-two, it may be that
some persons have, nevertheless, thirty-one, thirty, twenty-nine, or even
only twenty-eight teeth, and this independently of any eventual loss, but
for the simple reason that the wisdom teeth are often cut very late in life
(even after fifty years of age), or do not all come forth, or sometimes are
never cut at all. The author refers to some cases of a supernumerary
tooth situated in general between the two superior central incisors and
similar in form to the lateral incisors. He also observed two individuals
who had each thirty-four teeth, sixteen in the lower and eighteen in
the upper jaw, and in these cases the two supernumeraries were situated
behind the incisors. Fauchard declares the popular opinion expressed
also by some ancient authors, of the milk teeth having no roots, to be false.
The roots of these teeth, he says, are gradually worn away before the
latter are shed, when the permanent teeth are just on the point of coming
through; however, if it so happens that one or more of the milk teeth be
extracted some time before the period in which they are usually shed,
their roots are found to be as long and as strong in proportion to the body
as those of the permanent teeth. In children one finds, besides the
twenty deciduous teeth, the germs of the thirty-two permanent ones,
for which reason it may be said that children have in all thirty-two teeth
without counting the germs that may sometimes be found at the extrem-
ities of the roots of the large molars. As, however, the existence of such
germs is an exceptional fact, the twelve large molars, if extracted, are