Page 192 - My FlipBook

176 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
becomes also impracticable, when the disease is still allowed to
go on, and the cavity becomes exposed, so that the patient is now
liable to all the consequences already described, and the Tooth
is making haste towards a total decay ; in such a case, if the
decay be not too far advanced, that is, if it be not rendered
useless simply as a Tooth, I would advise that it be extracted,
then immediately boiled, with a view to make it perfectly clean,
and also destroy any life there may be in the Tooth ; and then
that it be restored to the socket : this will prevent any farther
decay of the Tooth, as it is now dead, and not to be acted upon
by any disease, but can only suffer chyin ically or mechanically, (i)
This practice, however I would only recommend in grinders,
where we have no other resource on account of the number of
fangs, as will be more fully explained hereafter. This practice
has sometimes been followed with success : and when it does
succeed, it answers the same end as the burning the nerve, but
with much greater certainty.
If the patient will not submit to have the Tooth drawn, the
that this ma} have the desired effect, it
nerve may be burned :
must be done to the very point of the fang, which is not always
possible. Either of the concentrated acids, such as those of
vitriol, nitre, or sea salt, introduced as far into the fang of the
Tooth as possible, is capable of destroying its. soft parts, which
most probably are the seat of pain : a little caustic alkali will
produce the same effect. But it is a difficult operation to introduce
any of these substances into the root of the fang, till the decay
has gone a considerable length, especially, if it be a Tooth of the
upper jaw ; for it is hardly possible to make fluids pass against
their own gravity : in these cases, the common caustic is the
best application as it is a solid. The caustic should be intro-

(t) [It is needless to dwell upon this suggestion further than to
remark that such au operation caunot be countenanced in the present
day. In the majority of cases it would give rise to severe inflammation
and might be followed by serious results.]