Page 14 - My FlipBook

2 MECHANICAL DENTISTRY AND METALLURGY. ;
less numbers are sacrificed through the incompetency and
dishonesty of ignorant and unscrupulous persons, who, in
one guise or another, infest and prey upon communities."
Though the intelligent practitioner finds it necessary to
extract many teeth, it is in a large majority of cases due
to neglig'ence on the part of the patients or their parents,
the teeth having been permitted to remain in a diseased
condition until such procedure is necessary; it is fair to
assume too, that the time will never come when thousands
of teeth will not be sacrificed. We cannot transgress Na-
ture's laws without paying the penalty. This field, then,
will ever be a growing one, not in the number of artificial
dentures required, perhaps, but in fulfilment of the possi-
bilities of the prosthetic and esthetic in art.
While it is the distinctive office of prosthetic dentistry to
devise and perfect means and appliances for correcting the
deformities caused by the loss of the natural teeth, the
first step in all cases is to make a careful and thorough
examination of the mouth; more intelligent advice may then
be given as to the form and class of denture to be inserted.

EXAMINATION OF THE MOUTH.

In examining the mouth the following conditions should
be considered : first, where only a few teeth are lost, whether
a removable denture in the form of a plate, or a removable
or immovable bridge should be advised ; and where all the
teeth are lost, or where an impression is required for a
plate of any kind, w-e should consider the shape of the jaws,
wdiether long or short, deep or shallow, hard or soft
whether the alveolar ridge is firm or in a soft and flexible
condition; whether the relative position of the jaws are
correct, or the upper or lower protrude; and then if there
are any remaining teeth, whether or not they can be made