Page 223 - My FlipBook

Artificial Teeth. — 203
riously called according to (heir composition, or the fancy of
the manufacturer, mineral teeth, silecious metallic teeth, por-
celain teeth, and incorruptible teeth. Of all animal substances,
the natural teeth are much to be preferred.
Mineral teeth are now manufactured by a very few individ-
uals in this country, in such perfection, that they so closely re-
semble nature in every particular, as to make it impossible for a
common observer to distinguish them from the natural teeth
when properly inserted. There is nothing in nature so difficult
to imitate, especially from the mineral kingdom, as the teeth,
on account of their peculiarities ; and first, their semi-transpar-
ency ; second,jheir peculiar color which is much the strongest

they will, by their firmness, answer every purpose, almost equally well
as the former natural teeth, whose place they occupy." Fuller.
When a front or small double tooth becomes so much decayed that it
cannot be preserved by plugging, the carious crown should be cut off at
once, and an artificial tooth substituted. Tl^ere are great advantages in
this proceedure, for it is of the utmost value that the stump be sound and
healthy in the socket. The vitality of the fang of a tooth does not alto-
gether depend upon the nerve, but rather upon the vascular and vital
connexion existing between the socket and fang ; hence, if an artificial
tooth (a mineral tooth) be properly substituted on a healthy stump, it
will often last a great number of years, even twenty or thirty years, and,
be almost as useful and comfortable as the natural tooth : but if the oper-
ation be delayed till the stump be very much decayed, or diseased in its
socket, the artificial tooth will not last long and cause much trouble, be-
cause the fang has become a dead and foreign body, and gum-biles are
frequently the consequence : the fang is at length removed and a tooth
substituted on a plate, which if not properly fitted, may play the mischief
with the adjoining teeth. We wish to urge the importance of the above
advice, for very many persons put off the operation too long ; if it must
be done, why may it not as well be done first as last ? We often hear
thoughtless persons, (young ladies especially, of a timid disposition, who,
when their teeth begin to decay, will not allow the necessary operations
for the cure of the disease, to be performed,) declare that they would
not have an artificial tooth, should they lose one by decay.
The loss of a front tooth is felt so much, or the chagrin it occasions is so
great, that any person will get its place supplied, even the most menial.
The mosf timid young lady who could not be persuaded to submit to the
trouble of having her teeth preserved, will readily suffer the necessary
pain of having those she has lost, replaced.
Finally, the pain which the substitution of a tooth on the stump occa-
sions, if the nerve lee dead, is trivial, -and not worth minding. The
filing of the stump produces nothing more than an unpleasant sensation ;
even when the nerve is alive, it can be destroyed with very little pain.