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66 CARIES OF THE TEETH.
the jaw is occasionally thus produced. Disease of
the antrum, too, is very generally induced or greatly
aggravated by the same cause. Tumors, sometimes of
a malignant character, connected either with the bony
or with the soft parts, not unfrequently spring from
this source, particularly in constitutions of a cancerous
diathesis. Great nervous derangement may result,
either in whole or in part, from decayed teeth, as does
very frequently facial neuralgia, which is sometimes
confined to a single nerve-branch in the immediate
vicinity of the irritating cause, sometimes ramified
over the whole side of the face and head,, and occa-
sionally spread much farther, so as even to implicate
the shoulder and the arm. Neuralgia of these, ex-
tending down to the hand, is often found to be in-
stantly relieved by extraction of a diseased tooth
and any operator of much observation can call to
mind numerous instances in which facial neuralgia
has been thus relieved or wholly cured. This affec-
tion of the face, however, does not always originate
in diseased teeth ; though there is little doubt that,
in a majority of cases, it rises wholly or partially from
this cause.
Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the mouth,
is a common result of diseased teeth ; and it is liable
to extend to distant parts of this membrane, and
occasion greater difficulty than in the mouth, as
66 CARIES OF THE TEETH.
the jaw is occasionally thus produced. Disease of
the antrum, too, is very generally induced or greatly
aggravated by the same cause. Tumors, sometimes of
a malignant character, connected either with the bony
or with the soft parts, not unfrequently spring from
this source, particularly in constitutions of a cancerous
diathesis. Great nervous derangement may result,
either in whole or in part, from decayed teeth, as does
very frequently facial neuralgia, which is sometimes
confined to a single nerve-branch in the immediate
vicinity of the irritating cause, sometimes ramified
over the whole side of the face and head,, and occa-
sionally spread much farther, so as even to implicate
the shoulder and the arm. Neuralgia of these, ex-
tending down to the hand, is often found to be in-
stantly relieved by extraction of a diseased tooth
and any operator of much observation can call to
mind numerous instances in which facial neuralgia
has been thus relieved or wholly cured. This affec-
tion of the face, however, does not always originate
in diseased teeth ; though there is little doubt that,
in a majority of cases, it rises wholly or partially from
this cause.
Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the mouth,
is a common result of diseased teeth ; and it is liable
to extend to distant parts of this membrane, and
occasion greater difficulty than in the mouth, as