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100 Preventive Treatment of Carit3.
ing a practice so contrary to the laws of nature, and so repug-
nant to the feelings, did we not feel that it is a most judicious
one, supported by the strongest facts, and wholly divested of
theory, fancy and hypothesis.
By the early extraction of these teeth, the anterior teeth
will fall back, and the molures will come forward, so that when
the teeth and jaws are fully formed, there will be no vacuity
in the latter, and when the child shall have grown to years of
maturity, the teeth will be beautifully and symmetrically ar-
ranged, standing a very little asunder, especially the bicuspides
and eye teeth, and this great advantage gained, that they are
not apt to decay, to be lost or disfigured by disease, and that
little is to be apprehended comparatively from tooth ache, or
being mulced in the heavy expense of artificial teeth, or the
operation for the cure of decay.
That this treatment is against the laws of nature, has no
weight in argument against it, for civilized man is an artificial
animal, subject to a thousand diseases, from which, in his
natural state he is exempt; consequently, it is necessary to
trespass upon her laws, to obviate the effects of luxury and
refinement. As the anticipation of an incipent disease of the
general system, by appropriate remedies, will often nip it in
the bud, and thus prevent its maturity ami consequences, so,
may we anticipate and prevent the diseases of the teeth ; but
it will ofien require a bold and decided practice.
The cruelty of the treatment or pain of extraction, is no argu-
ment agaiust its practice ; for the fangs of these teeth, at the
time we recommend their removal, are scarcely half formed,
and hence can be pulled out in a few moments with the forceps,
and with very little pain to the child : indeed, the extraction of
these four teeth will scarcely cost more pain, than of one,
when the fangs and jaws are fully formed.
The bicuspides of the upper jaw are among the first to de-
cay, and as they decay on their contiguous sides, the disease
often makes such progress before it is detected, that it is diffl-