Page 56 - My FlipBook

DO* Teething.
possibility of their recurrence, from the cicatization of the gum
over them again. In a word lancing the gums in difficult
dentition is practiced by all well informed physicians, and
should be had recourse to early, in order to prevent the un-
pleasant and ofteu fatal symptoms that follow.
Almost all infantile diseases are often induced by the irrita-
tion of teething, as those of the head, bowels, and chest, the
disease settling on the weakest part, or the part most predispos-
ed to disease. We will not be surprised at this, when we con-
sider the effects of similar irritation upon the adult—how little
will derange his system, when predisposed to disease—the
lender age of the infant—the irritability and mobility of its
system.
We would offer a few ohservations on the common practice
of giving a child during the first dentition something hard to
bite upon, as coral, ivory, or a bit of wood. This custom was
recommended by the old physicians, and is still by many on the
supposition that sucli a substance is indicated by the constant
desire of the child to put things into its mouth, and that it
would facilitate the passage of the teeth through the gum, by
the pressure the child exerts upon it, and thus obviate danger-
ous symptoms. These opinions are founded in error : a hard
substance cannot facilitate the passage of the teeth through the
gum, unless it hastens its absorption, because, the crown of a
tooth is formed first, and as the formation of the fang goes on,
the tooth rises in its socket, and no pressure can hasten its pro-
gress nature must have its course. On the contrary, the
;
pressuie has a tendency to make the gum callous, or harden
it, and thus acturally to impede the protrusion of the teeth,
and make dentition more difficult : besides, the child is fre-
quently brusing the gum between the coral and teeth beneath,
by accident, causing iuflamation. A child during dentition
has its finger constantly in its mouth, therefore the finger of
the nurse is indicated, or any elastic substance, as a bit of india-
rubber.