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Diseases of the Teeth, 79
recommended by the great John Hunter, wa.3 productive of
much mischief.
The theory and practice* of the late Mr. Fay, of snapping
off the crowns of aching teeth, with his cutting forceps, and
thereby preserving a bony surface for mastication, has been
entirely exploded, though it was once countenanced by eminent
medical men, as Sir A. Cooper.
As we believe enough has been said to show, that the causes
of internal and external caries are different, we shall proceed
to analyze these causes.
The causes of caries of the teeth may be divided into,
1st—Predisposing.
2nd—Exciting.
3rd—Proximate.
cases of disease, proving fatal in one or two instances, transplanted with
the teeth, damned it forever.
Throwing aside the moral turpitude of disfiguring one person 5 for the
purpose of beautifying another, and the danger of innoeulatmg disease,
(for none but the most abject and degraded would thus suffer mutilation
for money,) such teeth could never prove of much utility; for the vaseu-
' iar and vital connexion existing between the sockets and the teeth being
destroyed, they would become foreign bodies, and be apt to be produc-
tive of much mischief. Hence the impropriety and failure of Mr. Fox's
plan of curing aching teeth by dislocation or partial extraction.
* " EXCISION OF THE TEETH."
Whenever the teeth are extracted, their sockets are absorbed, and so
great is the absorption, that the loss of the teeth shortens the face an
inch and a half. Mr. Fay supposed that the absorption might be pre-
vented by the excision of the crowns of aching teeth, instead of extracting
them, leaving the fangs in their sockets thereby preserving a bony sur-
face highly useful for mastication. For this purpose he constructed a
pair of cutting forcips, with which he could snap off the crown of an
aching tooth just below the nerve, with very little pain to the patient.
Having obtained some converts to his theory, and some eminent medical
men to recommend its practice, he proceeded some years ago to put it to
the test of experience, and commenced his operations in London, where
the novelty of the practice attracted considerable attention, in conse-
quence of which, he began to reap a "golden harvest;" when, unfor-
tunately for him, but happily for the community in which- he lived, it
was destroyed by a tempest, for the operation was irrational, often un-
successful in its immediate effects, and pernicious in its consequences,
as will be seen under the head of " effects of dead teeth, roots, &c." It,
like all false theory, was doomed to ephemeral fame, and is new entirely
abandoned and forgotten.