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HISTUKY OF DENTAL SUKGERY Sll

the possibility and advisability of not only elianginij the position of malposed
teeth in regulating, but also of applying force in such manner, when necessary,
as to jn-oduce anatomical changes in the liony tissue adjoining the teeth, thus
bringing the parts into harmonious and esthetic relation with the otlier features.
To do this it would he necessary to move the roots of the teeth as well as
the crowns so that any overfidness or deficiency in the root region would be
changed to a condition of normality and harmony.
This root movement, either labially or lingually, he accomplished by devis-
ing a method of applying force well up opposite the roots of the teeth, which
served the same purpose as though the roots themselves were operated upon
directly by the mechanism. This was accomplished by soldering short stilt
bars to the bands uiion the teeth to lie moved and having these bars extend
upward outside of the gum to a point midway of the length of the roots. Force
exerted in a lingual direction by means of an arch wire passing over these
bars near their free ends and operating througli a tube attached to the molar
anchor bands would compel lingual movement of the roots, whereas force
applied in the opposite direction, by having the arch wire press against the
under sides of the rigid bars, would force the roots in a labial direction. In
either case the moving roots would carry with them the surrounding alveolar
lissue producing the anatomical changes desired.
The paper was accompanied by models showing how such movements had
been accomplished in actual cases in practice. A paper of similar purport
had been read by him before the Chicago Dental Society, in Febniary of the
same year, describing a case operated on along these lines during the previous
year.
Besides the root movements in this first case the entire mandible needed
retracting and this was accomplished, or at least aided, by the use of inter-
maxillary elastics operating between buttons attached to the upper and lower
appliances.
It W'ill be noticed that both Dr. Baker and Dr. Case first employed the
intermaxillary elastics at nearly the same time' but there was this slight differ-
ence in the two procedures: Dr. Baker employed the elastics for the sole pur-
pose of protruding the mandible and effecting a normal occlusion, while Dr.
Case employed them to retract the mandible and as an auxiliary to an opera-
tion for the labial movement of the upper incisor teeth tind roots.
In March, 1904, before the New York Institute of Stomatology, a paper '
was read by G. C. Ainswoktu, describing "a new appliance for moving dis-
1 lutei-Latioiial Dental -Tourual, Vol. XXV, p. 481.