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Vili INTRODUCTION.
pient state lie might have cured. From this improvident
care of the teeth, and from this injudicious management,
this procrastinating process which invariably leads to evil,
have arisen, we think, in a great measure the exagerated
ideas relative to the pain of dental operations; and after all
the solicitude and forebodings, and pain submitted to, and
expense incurred,—tiie inutility of the process. But though
much that is complained of, as the evils of dentistry, may
be attributed to this childish, this improvident, this temporis-
ing mode of management of the teeth, dictated not by the
best judgement of the individual, but rather forced upon him
by his ill-founded fears, aided perhaps by his distrust of the
efficacy of the treatment ; yet more, much more to the host
vCsquallers in our profession, who, like sin, "are a reproach
to any people," who disgrace and abuse, nay, murder the
profession ; who first flatter their patient, then wheedle,
fhen torture, then fleece, and then,—what ? why,
;' To ease themselves of divers slanderous loads,
they turn him off,
Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears,
And graze in commons.'
Many persons have embraced the erroneous opinion that
dental sugery is merely a mechanical art, and that its prac-
tice does not require much professional science or knowl-
edge of the animal economy. But this is truly an error
;
and like all error, tends to delude, and exposes to imposi-
tion. It may properly be divided into two branches ; viz.
surgical and mechanical dentistry. To the latter be-
longs the substitution of artificial teeth upon plates, &c.
;
and to the former, the preservation of the natural ones, and
all operations upon them that require an interference with
the living fibre; which in effect, are truly and exclusively
gurgical, inasmuch as we are operating upon living parts
Vili INTRODUCTION.
pient state lie might have cured. From this improvident
care of the teeth, and from this injudicious management,
this procrastinating process which invariably leads to evil,
have arisen, we think, in a great measure the exagerated
ideas relative to the pain of dental operations; and after all
the solicitude and forebodings, and pain submitted to, and
expense incurred,—tiie inutility of the process. But though
much that is complained of, as the evils of dentistry, may
be attributed to this childish, this improvident, this temporis-
ing mode of management of the teeth, dictated not by the
best judgement of the individual, but rather forced upon him
by his ill-founded fears, aided perhaps by his distrust of the
efficacy of the treatment ; yet more, much more to the host
vCsquallers in our profession, who, like sin, "are a reproach
to any people," who disgrace and abuse, nay, murder the
profession ; who first flatter their patient, then wheedle,
fhen torture, then fleece, and then,—what ? why,
;' To ease themselves of divers slanderous loads,
they turn him off,
Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears,
And graze in commons.'
Many persons have embraced the erroneous opinion that
dental sugery is merely a mechanical art, and that its prac-
tice does not require much professional science or knowl-
edge of the animal economy. But this is truly an error
;
and like all error, tends to delude, and exposes to imposi-
tion. It may properly be divided into two branches ; viz.
surgical and mechanical dentistry. To the latter be-
longs the substitution of artificial teeth upon plates, &c.
;
and to the former, the preservation of the natural ones, and
all operations upon them that require an interference with
the living fibre; which in effect, are truly and exclusively
gurgical, inasmuch as we are operating upon living parts
