Page 176 - My FlipBook

156 — Dead Teeth and Roots.
scurf is contained. This state of the teeth is exceedingly in-
jurious to their health and beauty, and should not be neglect-
ed. The foreign matter cannot be brushed away, but instru-
ments will be required for its removal. The teeth should
then be polished in the nicest manner.
Many persons believe, or rather are very apprehensive, that
scaling the teeth may prove injurious to them, thinking that
a portion of the enamel is removed by the operation. Scaling
the teeth, when improperly performed, (as when the foreign
matter is carelessly or imperfectly removed, or acids used to
effect this purpose, or to " whiten the teeth,") is certainly in-
jurious to them ; but he who puts himself under the care of a
scientific dentist has nothing to fear; he will not remove a
particle of the enamel which is not disorganized or destroyed.
"All acids, gritty powders, and injudicious methods of
scaling the teeth, are prejudicial : but simply scaling the teeth,
that is, cleaning them of stony concretions which frequently
collect about their necks, while nothing is scraped off but that
adventitious substance, is proper and useful." — Hunter,
page 192.
"Scaling the teeth is one of the most useful operations in
dental surgery." Filch on the Teeth, page 373.

DEAD TEETH AND ROOTS.
These foreign bodies are extremely productive of the dis-
eases of the teeth, gums, and sockets, by the irritation which
they occasion : they are the cause of gum-biles, and are pro-
ductive of malignant diseases of the jaw-bones: they are also
apt to render the breath offensive. Dead teeth and roots exert
such a noxious tendency, that we would urge every individual
possessing them, who values his remaining teeth, his comfort
and health, to have them extracted : they can generally b8