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DENTAL PERIOSTITIS. 293

the teeth, passing either in a fluid or gaseous state,
through the foramen at the point of the root, and
there coming in contact with the periosteum, and in
various deposits, calcarious and others, insinuated
beneath the margin of the gum, encroaching upon

and irritating the periosteum.
It is also sometimes occasioned by an extension of
disease from some other point. As an illustration of
this, in susceptible cases, the periosteum of one tooth
may become affected, by the action of some local
irritant, and two or more of its neighbors become
affected by extension of the inflammation.
Some medicinal agents act specifically upon the
dental periosteum, inducing a very painful condition,

thickening of the tissue, and elongation of the teeth.
Mercurials present an illustration of this class of
agents. The precise condition produced in the dental
periosteum in mercurial ptyalism is perhaps not clearly
comprehended. It is more than simple inflammation.
It is not modified or controlled by the same remedial
treatment. It attacks the periosteum of living teeth,

as readily and with quite as much violence as of those
which are devitalized. Alveolar abscess is not a
common result of this affection of the periosteum.
Treatment.—The treatment of dental periostitis, in
its details, will be governed by the attendant con-
ditions, such as systemic predispositions, the vital
force, and the local causes, and their peculiarities.