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DIAGNOSIS OF MOUTH AFFECTIONS. 183

silk, at least three times a day, assisted by a proper dentifrice and
antacid antiseptic mouth-wash.
Calcic Inflammation of the gums or peridental membrane, or of
both, is caused by deposits of either salivary or serumal calculi.
The tissue in contact with the calculus becomes hyperemic, then
(Edematous, and is kept in a constant state of irritation; and
then inflammation follows with absorption of the pericementum
and alveolar process, and looseness and loss of the tooth follows.
Treatment.—The calculus should be removed by scalers, and
the surfaces which it covers should be smoothed and polished ;
astringent and antiseptic mouth-washes will complete the cure.
Opening Jbscesses.—Abscesses moderate in size, will not re-
quire but one incision. In deep-seated abscess, the method is to
first incise skin and fascia, and then with hemostatic forceps enter
the tissue until the abscess is reached, when the handles are un-
locked, and the blades separated, so that on withdrawing the for-
ceps an opening will be made large enough to admit a drainage-
tube of the proper diameter. By such a method danger of
injuring important vessels and nerves is avoided. Alveolar
abscesses may be opened by trephining the outer wall of the
alveolar cavity at the point of suppuration, and the pulp-canals
rendered aseptic to prevent a recurrence of the abscess, the
proper filling of the canals completing the treatment. The spray
of liquid air is very beneficial before and after incision. (See
Liquid Air.)
Septicemia is a form of blood-poisoning resulting from the
absorption of poisonous (septic) products. According to Bill-
roth, septicemia bears the same relationship to surgical or trau-
matic fever that pyemia does to suppurative fever, each being a
malignant type of the corresponding milder affection,—in other
words a malignant form of putrid infection. It frequently
occurs as a complication of wounds, compound fractures, gan-
grenous conditions, and especially in wounds with abundant dis-
charges, where micro-organisms have had free access and a
process of putrefaction established.
It is characterized by such constitutional symptoms as high
temperature, excessive prostration, disorders of the nervous sys-