Page 26 - My FlipBook

VI. liNTRODUCTIOrt.
necessary an object, ought to be promulgated for the benefit
of all.
The views of most persons with respect to the proper
management of the teeth, unfortunately for themselves, ar,e
viz. want of
extremely erroneous, and for obvious reasons ;
correct information relative to the full subject. And these
views must needs be corrected, and this deficiency supplied,
before the necessity of the practice of dental surgery, and
its utility, as practiced on principles of science and integrity,
(for such practice only we shall attempt to defend,) can
become generally known and appreciated.
However useful may be the profession of dental surgery ;
however true may be the doctrine, that the teeth may be
preserved to the end of the life of the individual ; all will
be of no avail to the citizen, unless he be seasonably ap-
prised of the fact, in order that the means may be applied
before they become inefficient by too long a delay in their
application. For instance, many of the diseases of the
teeth are best met by a preventive treatment ; and such
treatment should commence with earliest dentition,
and should be directed subsequently according to the ex-
istence, progress and proneness to disease of each individual
case. Children's teeth should be carefully inspected from
time to time, and every obstacle to regularity promptly
removed ; early and habitual attention should be paid to
cleanliness, and this accomplished too, by such agents as
will have no injurious effects upon the teeth themselves,
their sockets, the gums, or upon the healthy secretions of the
mouth ; to remove or rather prevent all incipient causes of
caries, or of any other disease to which they or their ap-
pendages are liable. And no one, surely, can need argu-
ment to convince him, though he may need the suggestion to
remind him, that it is infinitely better, on the score of utility.