Page 25 - My FlipBook

INTRODUCTION. V
is the province of the dentist to afford, when called for
which method of treatment, will be founded on such princi
pies and practice, as is now sanctioned by all scientific and
well instructed dentists. We shall endeavor to discriminate
and to make the point appear obvious to all interested, be
tween care of, and neglect of the teeth ; between judicious
and injudicious treatment of them, by the individual posses'
sor ; between the advantage of a knowledge of their forma
tion, structure, individual characters and diseases ; and the
disadvantages of an ignorance of them, in those, who
attempt to treat them surgically ; in fine, between the
application of judicious and approved means, for the pre-
vention and cure of their diseases ; and the application of
injudicious and incorrect ones—such a work, if successfully
executed, is believed to be a dissideratum and as such,
;
cannot fail to be of great and general utility to commu-
nity.
It is the opinion of scientific dentists of the present day,
that the teeth of most persons may, by proper manage-
ment, be preserved to the end of their lives. That this
opinion is correct in t le main, we u i< quivocally profess to
believe ; and shall use our best endeavors to prove point-
;
ing out with as mu !) precision as possible, the appropriate
means to be employed, by which so desirable an object may
be attained.
If the opinion be correct, it must appear obvious to any
person who will reflect on the importance of the teeth as
organs of mastication and of articulation ; their influence
upon our personal appearance and comfort ; their extreme
liability to disease, in our country ; and on the injurious
effects of that disease, operating upon the general system,
through the pain and its consequent irritation induced, that
the appropriate means for attaining so desirable and so