Page 198 - My FlipBook

182 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
It is a wasting of the substance of the Tooth very different
from the former. In all the instances I have seen, it has begun
on the exterior surface of the Tooth, pretty close to the arch of
the gum. The first appearance is a want of enamel, whereby the
bony part is left exposed, but neither the enamel nor the bony
part alter in consistence as in the above described decay. As
this decay spreads, more and more of the bone becomes exposed,
in which respect also it differs from the former decay and
;
hence it may be called a denuding process. The bony substance
of the Teeth also gives way, and the whole wasted surface has
exactly the appearance, as if the Tooth had been filed with a
rounded file, and afterwards had been finely polished. At
these places the bony parts, being exposed, become brown.
I have seen instances, where it appeared as if the outer sur-
face of the bony part, which is in contact with the inner surface
of the enamel, had first been lost, so that the attraction of
cohesion between the two had been destroyed ; and as if the
enamel had been separated for want of support, for it termi-
nated all at once.
In one case, the two first incisors had lost the whole of the
on surfaces, they were hollowed from
enamel ; their anterior
side to side, as if a round file had been applied to them longi-
tudinally, and had the finest polish imaginable. The three
grinders on each side appeared as if a round file had been used
on them, in a contrary direction to that on the incisors, viz.
across their bodies close to the gum, so that there was a groove
running across their bodies, which was smooth in the highest
degree. Some of the other Teeth in the same jaw had begun
to decay in a similar manner ; also the Teeth in the lower jaw
were become diseased.
I saw a case very lately, where the four incisors of the upper
jaw had lost their enamel entirely on their anterior surfaces,
and there was scarcely a Tooth in the mouth, which had not
the appearance of having had a file applied across it close to
the sum.