Page 197 - My FlipBook

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Tooth Ache:
riights are far from mitigating that febrile state of the system,
always the concomitant of irritation.
Frequently, sympathetic pain is felt in the face, temples^
eyes, and in the ears ; a reference to the nerves of the face
will explain the cause. (See page 171.)
When tile wisdom tooth is affected, ear ache is a common
fconsequence, and the reflected branch, called the chorda
tympani, which joins the seventh pair or auditory nerve
explains this fact;
Sympathetic head ache is also an occasional consequence
of bad teeth. All these facts are explained by the intimate con-
nexion, that subsists between the nerves distributed to these
parts*
It often happens that a patient cannot tell which tooth is
painful, and points out a tooth in the upper jaw as the one he
thinks diseased, while the real cause of the pain is situated in
the lower jaw, and vice versa. The removal of the affected
tooth gives relief. Not unfrequently, a patient will point out
a sound tooth as the one painful, and it may be hard to con-
vince him of his error. We have known sound teeth to be
extracted to gratify the whims of patients, or for the benefit of
the operator's punse. A person who has the hardihood to ex-
tract a sound tooth under such cireumstancesj ought to be
hanged*
It is very extraordinary that the pain of tooth ache should
be so much under the influence of the passions of hope and
fear : an individual about to have a tooth extracted very often
declares that the pain has left him, though it was before jump-
ing. Empirics have taken advantage of this circumstance,
and pretended to cure tooth ache with charms and various nos-
trums, and succeed at the time, but the patient is no sooner
Out of the influence of the secret agent, imagination, than he
suffers penance for his credulity. The burniug of the anlihe-
lex of the ear, for the cure of tooth ache owed its popularity to
the effect of the passions.