Page 179 - My FlipBook

THE DECAY OF THE TEETH, ETC. 163
decayed or mortified. However, it often happens, that the
remaining part of the Tooth becomes simply dead; in which
state it is capable of taking on a dye. As it is generally on
the external surface one might expect no great mischief would
ensue ; but the tendency to mortification goes deeper and deeper,
till at last it arrives at the cavity of the Tooth, and the morti-
fication follows. Mortification is common to every part of the
body : but in most other parts, this tendency is owing in a great
measure to the constitution, which being corrected, that
disposition ceases but here it is local, and as such it would
;
appear that we have no power of resisting it. When gone
thus far, the decay makes a quicker progress similar to those
cases where the decay begins in the cavity ; for then this dis-
position is given to the whole cavity of the Tooth, which, being
a much larger surface than what the disease had before to
act upon, the increase of the decay seems to be in the same
proportion : at last it scoops out its inner substance, till almost
nothing is left but a thin shell, which generally, being broken
by mastication, a smaller or larger opening is made, and the
whole cavity becomes at length exposed.
The canal in the Fang of the Tooth is more slowly affected
:
the scooping process appears to stop there, for we seldom know a
Fang become very hollow to its point, when in the form of a
stump : and it sometimes appears Sound, even when the body
of the Tooth is almost destroyed; hence I conclude, that the
Fang of the Tooth has greater living powers than the Body, by
which the process of the disease is retarded, and this part
appears at last only to lose its living principle, and not take on the
mortifying process above described ; for which reason it remains
simply a dead Fang ; however it does not remain perfectly at rest.
This is the stage in which it is called a Stump. It begins
now to lose its sensibility, and is seldom afterwards the cause of
pain, (c)
(c) [Stumps which remain in the mouth, and in which decay becomes