Page 191 - My FlipBook
P. 191
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suddenly been found to be decaying rapidly ; they are break-
ing down into a chalky detritus ; large areas of teeth can
be broken away readily; the part is soft, and the interpre-
tation has been that the teeth have lost lime salts, that
from some, change in the system lime salts have been with-
drawn from the teeth and that they have become soft.
Now, in all of these the statement of facts as to the progress
of caries at one time and the immunity from caries at an-
other time has been correct. These observations of facts
have been correct and correctly reported, but the interpre-
tation has been wrong. I wish to bring this strongly to
your attention because you will meet it if you run over the
past literature—which you should do, every one of you
and you will meet it among the dentists with whom you
associate ; you will meet it among the patients for whom
you operate, continually after you go out to practice. And I
want to warn you especially not to be misled by these asser-
tions that you will hear among dentists, that you will hear
among your patients and that you will find in the literature,
uhis matter has been a matter of long and careful personal
study with myself; indeed, the study of caries and the, condi-
tions surrounding it, the conditions under which it occurs, if I
can say that any one thing has been the study of my life,
this one has. It is the condition which I have dealt with
most and with which I have spent the most hours in study
and experimental work ; not continuously, for one controlling
factor in my studies has been this, that when I have arrived
at a point at which I ckn apparently make no further sub-
stantial progress in a particular direction, I drop that for
the time and take up something else. Then, when I have
carried that as far as I can, for the time I drop that and
take up something else, and so on, and then return to these
at any time when I can see an opportunity to progress a
little farther. So it is that I have taken up caries of the
teeth time after time, and I hope still to make farther studies
of it in the future, because there is more yet to learn, very
much more that we do not know about.
^\A.fter years of fruitless work on the reasons why some
teeth decay and some do not, and finding all the conditions,
apparently, in the mouths of those immune to decay, that
should produce caries upon the theory that had been ad-
179
suddenly been found to be decaying rapidly ; they are break-
ing down into a chalky detritus ; large areas of teeth can
be broken away readily; the part is soft, and the interpre-
tation has been that the teeth have lost lime salts, that
from some, change in the system lime salts have been with-
drawn from the teeth and that they have become soft.
Now, in all of these the statement of facts as to the progress
of caries at one time and the immunity from caries at an-
other time has been correct. These observations of facts
have been correct and correctly reported, but the interpre-
tation has been wrong. I wish to bring this strongly to
your attention because you will meet it if you run over the
past literature—which you should do, every one of you
and you will meet it among the dentists with whom you
associate ; you will meet it among the patients for whom
you operate, continually after you go out to practice. And I
want to warn you especially not to be misled by these asser-
tions that you will hear among dentists, that you will hear
among your patients and that you will find in the literature,
uhis matter has been a matter of long and careful personal
study with myself; indeed, the study of caries and the, condi-
tions surrounding it, the conditions under which it occurs, if I
can say that any one thing has been the study of my life,
this one has. It is the condition which I have dealt with
most and with which I have spent the most hours in study
and experimental work ; not continuously, for one controlling
factor in my studies has been this, that when I have arrived
at a point at which I ckn apparently make no further sub-
stantial progress in a particular direction, I drop that for
the time and take up something else. Then, when I have
carried that as far as I can, for the time I drop that and
take up something else, and so on, and then return to these
at any time when I can see an opportunity to progress a
little farther. So it is that I have taken up caries of the
teeth time after time, and I hope still to make farther studies
of it in the future, because there is more yet to learn, very
much more that we do not know about.
^\A.fter years of fruitless work on the reasons why some
teeth decay and some do not, and finding all the conditions,
apparently, in the mouths of those immune to decay, that
should produce caries upon the theory that had been ad-
179
