Page 32 - An essay on the diseasesof the jaws, and their treatment

10 AN ESSAY ON THE truth of it In a paper read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, Oct. 16, 1827. Sec the " Lancet," vol. i., p. 492, 1827—8. Indeed, it is the intricacy of the maxillary diseases which has so frequently baffled the surgeon, and driven him from the golden middle course, to the pernicious extreme of either the most neg- lectful, or the most active treatment. Thus in former times, the surgeon having neglected to notice the causes of both the primary and secondary affections of the maxilla, either declined active treat- ment, or found himself disappointed, after repeated extirpations of spongy, sarcomatous, osteo-sarcomatous, and other excrescences, by a return of the disease ; while the modern surgeon considers it a favourite chef-cCceuvre of his art to remove, at one operation, both the secondary and primary disease, as well as all their local causes, by the amputation of a part or the whole of the alveoli or the jaw. The maladies of the maxillary bones, if not more common in England than on the continent of Europe and America, are, at all events, not unfrequently met with in this metropolis. As a proof of this, I must be permitted to observe, that I have seen many instances of this terrible disease, in almost all its different stages, during my short residence in London, not only in my own immediate practice, but in cases which have been placed under my care by medical friends. In November, 1826, Mr. Lawrence was consulted by two indivi- duals ; one affected with the disease in its fistulous state in the right side of the upper, and the other in the left side of the under maxillary bone. They were cases of some years' standing, origi- nally produced by dead stumps of teeth, and particularly aggra- vated at that time by other carious teeth, and a general diseased state of the mouth. Both were placed under my care by that gen- tleman, and cured by a complete removal of the causes of the disease. Were it necessary, I might here relate many other cases of dis- ease of the upper and under jaw, which entirely arose from dis- eases of the teeth, gums, and sockets, and were perfectly cured by dental treatfnent. The successful result of such cases in my liands has not only