Page 242 - My FlipBook

to come, where that happens. The absorption occurs in ac-
cord with a process of nature, and this process is varied some-
what as I have stated. In the case where a permanent tooth
fails to develop, wihich occurs quite often with the lateral
incisors, the absorptive process will gienerally go on and the
little tooth drop away, notwithstanding- the fact that there is
no permanent tooth to take its place. The cuspid teeth, on
the other hand, generally remain if there is no permanent
teeth coming forward to take their place. If the cuspid hap-
pens to be deflected from its position, or impacted in bone,
taking a wrong direction, the deciduous cuspid pretty often
remains in its place, the absorption only partially removing

the root, and may be found in its place on up to middle life,
and in a few cases I have seen it continuing in its position
until old age doing service.
Now these teeth require somevv^hat careful handling. It
is often difBcult for us to know whether the permanent tooth
is likely to coime forward later or not, I have seen these
cuspid teeth come forward as late as twenty and in one case
aibout twenty-five years of age, but generally if they do not
co'me forward somewhere near their normal time we need
not expect them. For this reason it is often important that
we retain these deciduous cuspids, not only for the appear-
ance, but for the real service that they will do and as they are
liable to decay, the same as other teeth, they require filling.
I have noted particularly in handling these teeth that any
considerable disturbance is likely to hasten the absorptive
process and cause the tooth to loosen and fall away, or at
least I have observed a number of cases where these decidu-
ous cuspids that seemed quite firm in their position have
fallen away soon after a filling was made. Tliis observation
ha® occurred to me so often that I have come to feel that a
consideraible disturbance of the peridental membrane by much
malleting is very liable to start up this absorptive process
afresh and cause the loss of the tooth. I have therefore
come to handle these teeth very cautiously where it is neces-
sary to make fillings in them. One I just heard of the other
day. A patient of mine who has grown up with me from a
little girl had a deciduous cuspid remaining. She is now
about thirty-five years old, and she sent me word that her
baby cuspid had dropped out and she has no tooth in the

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