Page 276 - My FlipBook

248 THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.

performed, wliicli consists in making an artificial alveolus at any
point of the dental arch, which may have been toothless for an
indefinite length of time, and consequently contains no 'alveolus,
and often but little alveolar process, and then implanting the
proper tooth in this artificial alveolus.
For this purpose teeth are often used concerning whose
origin, whether from healthy or diseased individuals, nothing is
known ; and it becomes a question of great importance, for the
patient as well as for the operator, whether or not infectious dis-
eases may not be communicated in this way.
John Hunter ^^^ (1786), in whose time the operation of trans-
plantation seems to have been extensively performed, describes
seven cases in which it was followed by serious disturbances of
an infectious nature. Hunter, who combatted the tendency then
existing to ascribe all such disturbances to syphilitic inoculation,
was forced to admit the transmission of syphilis in two out of the
seven cases. He also readily admits the possibility of such inoc-
ulations through dental operations.
J. C. Lettsom^^^ (1786) reports a number of cases which came
under his notice, some of which he pronounced undoubted syph-
ilis. He gives the following description of one case resembling
syphilis : Eight weeks after the transplantation of two teeth the
patient has a painful sensation between the roots, followed by
ulceration through the gums and by soreness of the glands of
the neck and throat. Within three or four days efilorescence of
the skin appears, advancing to an eruption resembling syphilis.
Inflammation and ulceration of the tonsils also occur, together
with fever in the evening and profuse sweats in the morning. The
teeth gradually loosen and almost fall out. Exophthalmiain one
eye. Eight weeks later a similar attack came on. Both attacks
were successfully treated with mercurials.
Of all cases of transplanting one in twenty have this disease, and
one-fourth of these die.
In my judgment, the dentist who undertakes the above opera-
tion without having previously convinced himself that the tooth
to be implanted is in a perfectly aseptic condition, or most cer-
tainly contains no specific germs, commits a serious wrong.
But how can we thoroughly sterilize a tooth ? We must, in