Page 102 - My FlipBook
P. 102
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82 — Diseases of the Teeth. —
inflammation of the bony structure of the crowns of the teeth,
terminating in gangrene or death of such parts.
" The proximate cause of caries, appears to be an inflamma-
tion of the bone of the crowns of the teeth, which, on account
of its peculiar structure, terminates in mortification." Fox,
Part II, page 12.
" Caries, in fact, is that state of the tooth, in which mortifi-
cation has taken place in one part, and inflammation in the
part contiguous to it; the former, originally produced by the
latter, and the latter kept up by a continued contact with the
former." Koccker's Dental Surgery, page 21 J.
"When a portion of any of the other bones loses its vitality, it
acts as an extraneous body, producing irritation in the sur-
rounding parts, and a process of absorption is set up in a line of
living bone in contact with it, in order to effect its separation.
A similar effort appears to me to be made in a gangrene
of the teeth, but with a very different result, in accordance
with the difference of the structure of the two seats of the dis-
ease. When a portion of a tooth is killed by inflammation, it
excites, as in the other case, an increased action in the vessels
of the surrounding portion of bone ; but that very action,
which, in such bones as possess greater vital power, becomes
remedial by promoting the removal of the cause of irritation,
produced in the present case, the continued extension of the
disease: for the irritation thus excited, instead of effecting the
removal of the part by absorption, as in other necrosed bones,
at once destroys its vitality, and renders it only an additional
portion of dead matter to that which had already existed.
This, in its turn, becomes an extraneous and irritating body to
the surrounding bone, in which the same action is set up, and
the same mortification produced, and thus portion after portion
is successively irritated and killed, until the whole crown of
the tooth is destroyed." Thomas Bell on the Teeth, page 126.
Our opinions with respect to the causes of the continued ex-
tension of caries differ somewhat from those expressed in the
above quotations. After the disease has attacked a tooth, its
82 — Diseases of the Teeth. —
inflammation of the bony structure of the crowns of the teeth,
terminating in gangrene or death of such parts.
" The proximate cause of caries, appears to be an inflamma-
tion of the bone of the crowns of the teeth, which, on account
of its peculiar structure, terminates in mortification." Fox,
Part II, page 12.
" Caries, in fact, is that state of the tooth, in which mortifi-
cation has taken place in one part, and inflammation in the
part contiguous to it; the former, originally produced by the
latter, and the latter kept up by a continued contact with the
former." Koccker's Dental Surgery, page 21 J.
"When a portion of any of the other bones loses its vitality, it
acts as an extraneous body, producing irritation in the sur-
rounding parts, and a process of absorption is set up in a line of
living bone in contact with it, in order to effect its separation.
A similar effort appears to me to be made in a gangrene
of the teeth, but with a very different result, in accordance
with the difference of the structure of the two seats of the dis-
ease. When a portion of a tooth is killed by inflammation, it
excites, as in the other case, an increased action in the vessels
of the surrounding portion of bone ; but that very action,
which, in such bones as possess greater vital power, becomes
remedial by promoting the removal of the cause of irritation,
produced in the present case, the continued extension of the
disease: for the irritation thus excited, instead of effecting the
removal of the part by absorption, as in other necrosed bones,
at once destroys its vitality, and renders it only an additional
portion of dead matter to that which had already existed.
This, in its turn, becomes an extraneous and irritating body to
the surrounding bone, in which the same action is set up, and
the same mortification produced, and thus portion after portion
is successively irritated and killed, until the whole crown of
the tooth is destroyed." Thomas Bell on the Teeth, page 126.
Our opinions with respect to the causes of the continued ex-
tension of caries differ somewhat from those expressed in the
above quotations. After the disease has attacked a tooth, its
