Page 218 - My FlipBook

202 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
becomes a cause of the dissolution of those parts. This is
most remarkable in the scurvy at sea.
When the disease arises from these two last causes, the
Gums are either affected with the same disease together with
the Alveolar Processes, or they sympathize with them. They
swell, become soft and tender ; and upon the least pressure
or friction, bleed very freely.
How far these diseases can be prevented and cured, is, I
believe, not known.
The practice hath been principally to scarify the Gums
freely ; and this with a view to fasten the Teeth made
loose by the disease, which has therefore generally made
a considerable progress before even an attempt towards a
cure has been made. This scarification has certainly a
good effect in some cases, the Teeth thereby becoming
much faster ; but how far the Alveolar Processes have been
destroyed in such instances cannot be determined. Perhaps
only a general fullness of the attaching membrane between
the Tooth and the Process had taken place, as in a slight
salivation, so as to push the Tooth a little way out of the
bony socket ; which having subsided by the plentiful
bleeding, the Tooth of course becomes fast. Or perhaps,
by producing an inflammation of another kind, the first
inflammation or disposition to inflame is destroyed ; which
evidently appeared in the case of the young lady above
mentioned.
If the above practice is unsuccessful, and the Tooth
continues to protrude, it will either become very troublesome,
or a great deformity. A fore Tooth may not, indeed, be at
first so troublesome as a Grinder; because these Teeth
frequently overtop ; but it will be extremely disagreeable to
the eye.
If the cause cannot be removed, the effect must be the
object of our attention. To file down the projecting part is
the only thing that can be done ; but care must be taken not
to file into the cavity, otherwise pain, inflammation, and other