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C2 Inaugural Dissertation.
incorrect, as to the judicious treatment cf the diseases of the
teeth must depend upon the structure aud pathology of these
organs.
A great variety of opinions have been and are still entertained,
whith respect to the origin of decay of the teeth. Some of
these opinions have arisen from the views of their authors, on
the subject we have been discussing ; others from no views at
all, but rather from hypothesis.
The treatment of the diseases of the teeth is equally various,
and for the same reasons ; for, as before observed, one practi-
tioner pulls out his paiient's stumps of teeth, and substitutes
the crowns of other teeth on plates
; another files off these
stumps even with the gum, and splices on to them the crowns
of other teeth ; the one saves all the teeth he can, the other
extracts indiscriminately all that are painful. One dentist
files asunder those teeth that are crowded together and begin
to exhibit symptoms of decay, another condemns the practice as
injurious. One man plugs a tooth without half removing the
decay, another knows that if he does not perfectly extirpate it,
he does not cure the disease; in a word, the whole treatment
of dental decay, both preventive and curative, and indeed, of
all the diseases incidental to the teeth, must be founded on the
subject we have been discussing, if much utility can be deriv-
ed or expected.