Page 221 - My FlipBook

ARTIFICIAL TEETH

I'he loss of the teeth is remedied by the substitution of arti-
ficial ones. For this purpose, dentists employ the natural

* " When a partial deficiency of the teeth is supplied with judgment
and skill, it is the means of preserving the remaining natural teeth, by
becoming a support to them*
"Entire sets of teeth are worn with great ease and satisfaction, when
well made and rightly adapted. The construction and adaption of arti-
ficial teeth is an art in which some professors greatly excel others ; there
must of consequence, be a variety in the value of their Works. Some
teeth are so ill made and unskilfully adapted, that they are troublesome
to the wearer, an impediment to the speech and mastication, and even a
greater blemish to the countenance, than want of teeth those that are
;
well adapted are, on the country, easy, useful and ornamental."'—Joseph
Murphy.
" The greatest improvement on the art of the dentist was a right un-
derstanding of the uses of the back teeth ; and it is still a matter of
astonishment how very few of its professors have emerged from tha
ignorance of the first dentists ; the practice of the latter consisting in
fastening the tooth or teeth to be inserted to the adjacent teeth, by meanB
of ligatures. An improvement on this method was to form the artificial
teeth of the hardest hone, so a3 to resemble nature, sockets of the same
materials being left so as to resemble the gums. As the bone, from the
moisture of the mouth, soon becomes discolored, natural teeth began to
be inserted on sockets of bone so nicely adapted to the parts for which
they were intended, as to answer the purposes of mastication, &c. with-
out inconvenience ; and this method, variously modified, continues still
to be the favorite practice with almost every dentist. The state of the
back teeth ia a matter of the first consideration to the success of the oper-
ation of pivotting teeth on old stumps. If the back teeth are wanting,