Page 300 - My FlipBook

278 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

carious cavity, and to impede the teeth on the same side from becoming
covered with tartar, as inevitably happens when by reason of painfulness
in eating they are forced to be inactive; fourth and lastly, because the
dental caries, not infrequently gives rise to other diseases, which ordinarily
cannot be cured unless the cause from which it arises be recognized
and suppressed.
"Sometimes," continues Fauchard, "such violent and obstinate pain
arises in a tooth that we are obliged to extract it, although not decayed
nor presenting deformity."
The author combats the old prejudice, that it is not right to draw
teeth in cases of pregnant women or of nursing mothers, lest the operation
should prove dangerous to the patient or to the fetus, or produce alteration
or arrest of the milk secretion. Only the fear arising from this preju-
dice can, according to the author, cause any of the dreaded contingencies.
The dentist ought, therefore, to seek to dissipate the fears of these patients,
by persuading them of the innocuous nature of the operation as well as
of its short duration, and should represent to them, on the other hand
(it the operation be really necessary), the advantages of promptly deciding
on it, to avoid the harm and the peril that prolonged suffering and the
tortures of sleeplessness might occasion to themselves as well as to the
unborn child or to the suckling infant, such as abortion, premature
confinement, alteration of the milk, etc.
According to Fauchard, "one should always take the precaution of
hiding the instruments from the patient's sight, especially in the case of
extracting a tooth, so as not to terrify him."
The author then speaks of cases where it is necessary to open the jaws
by force;^ of the instruments to be used; of the mode of employing them;
of all the precautions to be observed under such circumstances; of the
necessity that may eventually arise of sacrificing some one tooth when
the enforced opening of the jaws has been impracticable; of the advisa-
bility of sacrificing preferably in such cases one of the premolars in
order to damage as little as possible the masticatory function and the
appearance of the face; of the instruments best adapted for carrying out
this operation; of the danger it presents and of the best mode of avoid-
ing it; finally, of what it is necessary to do in given cases to keep the
mouth open, in order to not be obliged to repeat the operation a second
time.
Fhe six following chapters of the first volume treat very extensively of
the anatomy and physiology of the gums," of gingival diseases and their
treatment.' The subject is treated in a masterly manner, although these
chapters do not offer anything of original importance.

' Ch:ip. XV, p. 205. 2 Chap. xvi. * Chap, xvii to xxi.