Page 33 - An essay on the diseasesof the jaws, and their treatment

DISEASES OF THE JAWS. 11 proved personally gratifying to myself, but leads me to assert, that, having directed my particular attention to such maladies for many years, and enjoyed ample opportunities of minutely observing them in every stage, so far from considering them incurable, I believe them to be as much within the influence of curative treat- ment as any of the disorders of the mouth. I beg to add, that sliould the result of my observations prove beneficial to humanity, I shall consider myself richly rewarded for the exertions I may have made to establish a proper mode of treating this destructive disease. PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL REMARKS ON THE JAWS. The maxillas are subject to accidental injuries as well as to the morbid affections common to all other bones of the human frame. The latter form the proper subject of this essay. They must be regarded, with few exceptions, as the consequences of primary affections, either of the soft or of the osseous structures, connected with, or contiguous to, the maxillary bones. When the primary disease affects the soft parts, the secondary effects upon the maxillae are comparatively slight, and so little dangerous as to be rarely noticed. They will in general be re- moved by the curative powers of nature, or by common medical and surgical treatment, and as they seldom or never produce per- manent diseases in the jaws, their consideration will not receive our further notice in the present essay.* The particular structure, formation, and situation, however, as well as the physiological, physical, and mechanical functions of the jaw-bones, and the relation in which they stand with the con- tiguous osseous parts, not only render them peculiarly liable to be influenced by the various idiopathic diseases of the teeth and sockets, but frequently occasion them to suffer from those affec- • Carcinomatous affections, however, when they attack the soft parts—as the glands and skin—in the neighbourhood of the jaws, sometimes involve secon- darily, the osseous structure of the maxillary bones.