Page 19 - My FlipBook

CAUSES AND RELIEF OF DENTAL PAIN. 11

molar, particularly a lower wisdom tooth, trismus may
OCCUT from :

(1) Spasm of the masseter, which symptom will dis-
appear under an anaesthel ic.
2) Inflammatory infiltration of the masseter, in which
case the administration of an anaesthetic will simply
enable the operator to apply the necessary force to open

the jaw with a screw wedge or Mason's gag.
An abscess from a lower wisdom tooth sometimes
points beneath the angle of the jaw, and an abscess
connected with any lower tooth may burst either through

the cheek or beneath the margin of the mandible.
The submaxillary lymphatic glands sometimes be-
come infected, in which case they will be swollen and
tender.

The submaxillary lymphatic glands in children are
sometimes infected with tubercle, probably conveyed to
the glands by carious teeth with exposed pulps.
Treatment of alveolar abscess,—When an alveolar

abscess lias already formed, great relief will usually be
obtained by incising the abscess in the mouth.
[n cases in which the abscess is very large and is
threatening to hurst outside the cheek, it is wise to

apply a piece of gauze with flexible collodion over the
thinned area of skin, and thus to minimise the danger of or
prevent the occurrence of an external opening; at the
-amr time efforts must be made to make the abscess

point in the mouth, and this is best done by the application
of a roasted dried H^- or a dried fig squeezed dry from
boiling water and held in the mouth over the abscess;

it is often necessary to apply ;i succession of these fig
poultices.
Poppy-head fomentation, made by boiling two ounces
of bruised poppy-heads for ten minutes in a pint of

2