Page 257 - My FlipBook

PROPHYLAXIS OF DENTAL DECAY. 229

Control experiments were naturally made at the same time.
A number of tests which I made with a coccus found in a case
of mycosis tonsillaris benigna led to the same result.
It appears from the above experiments that only few of these
substances are serviceable for the pur]30se of cleansing the
mouth. The bichloride of mercury is the most active, not only
because it has the highest antiseptic power, but because its action
continues for a longer time. Even after the solution has been
removed fi-om the mouth, traces remaining retain their anti-
septic action, even when they have been diluted from one to two
hundred times by the fluids of the mouth. Xone of the other
materials possess this property in so high a degree. Further-
more, sublimate appears to penetrate particles of food, deposits,
etc., more rapidly than the other materials given. I have satis-
fied myself by many experiments that it is possible, after a com-
plete mechanical cleansing of the mouth, to obtain by means of
sublimate (1-2500) an almost perfect sterilization of the mouth.
Unfortunately, the application of the bichloride of mercury is
limited, on account of its very poisonous properties.
As for salicylic acid, many are of the opinion that it attacks
the teeth (decalcifies them), and that it consequently should
never be used in the mouth. On the other hand, others deny
this action. I myself have seen it used for years without any
evil consequences, and do not fear to use it now and then in the
strength of 1-200 or 1-300.
In all diseases of the human mouth in which antiseptics are
indicated, particularly in acute infectious diseases, salicylic acid
may be used for a short time without any danger to the teeth.
For continual use perhaps the milder, though somewhat weaker,
benzoic acid in the concentration of 1-200 is preferable, unless
it should turn out that this also may have an injurious effect
upon the teeth.
Listerine has proved to be a very usefiil and active antiseptic.
This is a preparation of Lambert & Co., in St. Louis, consisting
of oil of eucalyptus, borobenzoic acid, wintergreen oil, etc. ; it
owes its antiseptic property probably more to the borobenzoic
acid than to the oil of eucalyptus. It is to be applied on the
brush in cleansing the teeth, or slightly diluted as a mouth-wasli.