Page 715 - My FlipBook

LINGUAL ERUPTION. 713

The earliest cases requiring treatment are of Class 1, and often pre-
sent as early as the age of six or seven years, and before the tooth has
fully erupted. If an upper central has erupted inside the normal line
so as to bite inside of the line of the lower incisors when it is not more
than half erupted, the case demands immediate treatment, because the
farther the tooth erupts the greater will be its malposition, for it
occludes on the inclined plane formed by the lingual surface of the
loAver incisor.
One of the oldest appliances for moving a tooth forAvard or outward
consists of a vulcanite plate with a piece of soft rubber or compressed
wood attached to the edge so that it will press upon the malposed

Fig. 637. Fig. 63:

Plate with box, a ; b, rubber or compressed Rubber tied on a plate.
wood iu box.
tooth. The plate may be ligated firmly to the deciduous molars. The
soft rubber may be held in a box cut in the edge of the plate (Fig.

Fig. 639.

Plate with gutta-percha extension.

637), and increased in thickness as the tooth advances, or a piece about
J^ of an inch thick may be ligated to the edge by silk passing through
holes near by (Fig. 638). As the tooth moves forward the plate may