Page 290 - My FlipBook

256 HISTOEY OF DENTAL SUEGEEY

wet with a sharp acid, as the solution of tin with hydrochloric acid. Five or
six minutes after put it in an earthen vase, placed upon the fire, and contain-
ing two and one-half drachms of madder of Kermes, seven grains of crushed
cochineal, and a pint of water ; boil it a quarter of an hour, then remove and
it will have a very deep color ; then plunge it in warm soap suds, when it will
assume a rose color.
"Mineral teeth are carved by hand or made in copper matrices as nearly
as possible in the form of the teeth. A groove on the back of the tooth re-
ceives little curved platina cramps which are to form one or more projections
aliove the plane of the teeth, to which are afterwards to be soldered tlie gold
or platina shaft, which serves to mount the tooth. Some put in two or three
or four of these cramps, sometimes placed upon the same line, sometimes dis-
Iributed in equal or unequal numbers on each side of a groove; others curve
them outwards in the form of one or two rings destined to receive a little
metallic shaft, either vertical or horizontal; others fix to these cramps a little
groove, also of metal, which is destined, as the rings described, to give attach-
ment to the metallic shaft upon which the teeth are to be mounted. Some
leave these cramps simply at the bottom of the groove in the paste and after-
wards solder the shaft upon their external face.
"Mineral teeth are often made to resemble, in all points at least of the
crown, the natural teeth ; that is, they are furnished behind or interiorly with
a talon or lieel. This heel is formed in three ways : either by making it con-
tinuous with the crown before luirning: adding it with a substance of the same
nature after it is burnt ; or making it with a metallic substance soldered to the
cramps of those teetli of which we have just spoken, as being most commonly
employed. A tooth with a talon will be found useful in replacing a single
tooth, particularly in the lower jaw, because, when mounted on a j^ivot, they
cover the entire root, and then the tongue finds no unpleasant breach, and
nothing can get between the root and the artificial tooth. ^lolars were attached
as follows: 1. In each of the sides of the tootli, corresponding to the dental
interstices, a depression is made, into which the cramps are fixed. 2. A ver-
tical hole is made which passes nearly up to the surface of the crown; into
this passes a pivot fixed to the plate, and through the upper part of this pivot
a pin is introduced horizontally through a little hole previously made for this
purpose. 3. The tooth is piei-ced with a horizontal hole, near the top, through
which a platina wire is passed and bent down to the plate on each side and
soldered. 4. A vertical hole is made entirely through, larger toward the
crown than the base ; a pivot is fixed to the plate and passed through tlie hole.