Denture

“ Where Artificial teeth.the crown only of a tooth or those of several teeth were lost, the restoration was effected by engrafting upon the prepared root a suitable crown by means of a wooden or metallic pivot. When possible, the new crown was that of a corresponding sound tooth taken from the mouth of another individual; otherwise an artificial crown carved from bone or ivory, or sometimes from the tooth of an ox, was used. To replace entire dentures a base-plate of carved hippopotamus ivory was constructed, upon which were mounted the crowns of natural teeth, or later those of porcelain. ”

“ It is plain enough that ninety per cent, of dental work might have been avoided; just as ninety per cent, of the sickness and premature death in the world is needless and could be prevented. The dentists have made the astonishing discovery that they can alter and enlarge the jaws of any child by simple means and they have found out, moreover, that the teeth themselves and their arrangement are the pattern from which the jaw takes its shape. ”

“ Then they fall to with their spades, cutting the flesh away from the lower part of the tooth and loosening it, and completing the extraction by main strength, very much after the fashion of a dentist, but by means of the falls instead of forceps. Often the loop slips off of the tooth suddenly, letting down the men who are swaying away on the falls, and starting shouts of laughter. Or the whole strip of teeth may come together, held together by the gums. When the teeth have all been drawn the jaw is sawed into slabs for convenient use, for the jawbone is very hard and close-grained. ”

“ Provided, that the lower jaw and the tongue and lips are strong and well developed, made so by sufficient chewing, especially from the years of two to six, in a child's life. If the child's education in chewing, however, has been neglected, the dentist can and does spread the jaw as already stated, so that it will have room enough for all the teeth. In other words, orthodontia does what nature would accomplish unaided were her simple laws of development properly observed.
A full set of teeth forms a beautiful arch, no stone of which should be missing. ”

“ For that matter, teeth, as is well known, can be extracted, cleaned and put back again, or teeth from one persons mouth can be put into the place of an extracted tooth in another's mouth and become firmly imbedded and do good service for years. The part of the jaw-bone that embraces the roots of the teeth is called the alveolar process, and it continues to grow and harden for some time after the teeth have been erupted, or after they have changed their places in the jaw. ”

“ Each tooth has a biting part or crown covered by enamel, a neck Where the gum surrounds it, and one or more roots or fangs fitting into sockets (alveoli) in the jaw bone. For surgery of the teeth see Dentistry.
There are thirty-two permanent teeth in man, sixteen in the upper and sixteen in the lower jaw; they are also arranged in symmetrical sets of eight teeth on each side. ”

“ A tooth consists of an inner soft pulp (in old teeth the pulp may become converted into bone-like material) surrounded by hard white dentine or ivory, which is covered by a thin layer of enamel, the hardest tissue known in the animal body. A hard cement sometimes covers as a thin layer the outer surface of the root, and may also cover the enamel of the crown. ”

“ There is infection; therefore, the first thing to do is to remove the pus.
Dental Treatment.—If there is a large cavity in the tooth, try to enter the root canals and remove the putrescent matter. If the face is badly swollen, make a digital examination, and over the root of the affected tooth you will find a spot about the center of the swelling where it seems to be spongy, appearing to hold the impress of the finger. Take a clean, sharp, cycle-shaped lancet, place on the spot, holding the patient’s head firm with your other arm for fear of his moving. ”

“ The scalpriform incisors of the rodents, already alluded to, have the enamel band on the front face of the tooth; the softer dentine behind wears away more rapidly, keeping the cutting surface bevelled, like the edge of a chisel, while the hard enamel forms the sharp edge. In some instances the enamel is absent altogether and the teeth are composed entirely of dentine, as in the elephant tusk. ”

“ The dentition is very peculiar and characteristic: there are in all thirty-two teeth, tipped with deep crimson; of which twelve belong to the lower jaw; of the remaining twenty ten occupy each side of the upper jaw, and of these the first three are incisors. The first incisor is large, with a long anterior canine-like cusp and a small posterior one; then follow two small single-cusped teeth; which are succeeded by three similar progressively smaller teeth, the first being a canine and the other two premolars ”

“ The teeth are thus nourished like other parts of the body. The exposure of the delicate pulp to the air, due to the decay of the dentine, gives rise to the pain of toothache.
Surrounding the cavity on all sides is the hard substance known as the dentine, or tooth ivory. Outside the dentine of the root is a substance closely resembling bone, called cement. In fact, it is true bone, but lacks the Haversian canals. The root is held in its socket by a dense fibrous membrane which surrounds the cement as the periosteum does bone. ”

“ Wherefore, the opinion of those who consider that the first teeth are formed from the milk,180 and those of the second dentition from food and drink, must be declared entirely false. In fact, by opening both jaws of a stillborn fetus, one may find, on each side of each jaw, the incisors, the canine, and three molars, partly mucous and partly osseous, and already sufficiently large and entirely surrounded by their alveoli. Then removing, with a skilful hand, the incisors and the canines, there may be observed a very thin partition only just ossified ”

“ The brain of the hare can, by being rubbed on the gums and jaws, serve for two important purposes, since it has not only the virtue of facilitating dentition, but also of making teeth grow again to those who have lost them! The brain of a partridge applied to a carious tooth makes it fall in pieces!
The treatment of odontalgia embraces, according to Gaddesden, both general and special means of cure. To the former belong purgatives, bloodletting, scarifications of the labial and sublingual mucous membrane, leeches, the application of scarified cuppings under the chin. ”

“ Then a deep groove is made in the middle of the upper teeth, crossing them all, and itself cutting through at least one-fourth of the whole thickness of the teeth, so that the enamel is cut quite through, a fact which we Europeans, who are taught by our dentifricators that any damage done to the enamel is mortal to the tooth, find it difficult to believe. ”

“ We do not, of course, know how often the question has applied to the actual and complete loss of the teeth, or only to some interference with the teeth cutting the gum, occasioned by a limitation of the necessary space. However, it must be remembered that the shortening of the jaw stands in direct correlation with the reduction of the dentition. A prediction of the man of the future is given us by Cope: the lower races of men will retain the dentition of the present day, incisors , canines , premolars , molars ”

“ When the dislocation is only on one side, the chin and the whole jaw are found deviated toward the part opposite to the luxation; and the similar teeth of the two dental arches do not correspond; but instead under the upper incisors will be found the canine tooth of the dislocated89 part. If, however, the luxation is bilateral, the chin inclines and projects forward; the lower teeth are farther in front than the upper ones, and the muscles of the temples are tightly stretched. ”

“ It seems to be a common opinion, that any one can pull teeth, who has a turnkey, and sufficient physical strength to use it; accordingly, blacksmiths, barbers, and medical students, are the chief operators in this line of dental surgery. The many fatal accidents which must inevitably be the consequence, such as breaking the tooth or jaw-bone, are considered matters of course. ”

“ It is a not unfamiliar experience for a man to go to a dentist, get into a chair and point to a toothache in the upper right or northeast corner of his mouth and have the dentist tell him that the toothache he thinks he is having there is really in the root of a tooth in the right lower or southwest corner. ”

“ The tooth is composed of a small central body of coarse ivory or ‘dentine,’ traversed by medullary canals, which at the periphery of the coarse dentine anastomose by loops, from the convexity of which the calcigerous tubes are given off which form the fine dentine: the layer of this substance, which immediately surrounds the coarse dentine, is about one line and a half in thickness, and the whole is invested with a very thin coating of cement. The teeth of the Scelidothere thus 82present a more resisting structure than do those of the Mylodon ”

“ The tubules of the dentine lodge excessively fine fibrillæ of the nerve and that is why the cutting into a live tooth is so painful an operation. (2) The enamel, which is the hardest of all animal tissues, has a polished and shining appearance and is arranged in a mosaic of microscopic prisms, closely packed together, which in most mammals are solid, but in the marsupials, with some exceptions, are tubular. ”

“ It is too sweet for youthful teeth. One of these days you will be carried to a dentist, an esteemed person with horrible tools, prior to the removal of a small hell, containing several myriads of lost souls, from the left side of your lower jaw! ”

“ In general, when the permanent teeth are irregular, one or more should be removed. If the teeth are crowded and irregular, in consequence of the jaw being narrow and short, or when they press so hard upon each other as to injure the enamel, remove one or more to prevent their looking unsightly, and in a few months the remaining teeth, with a little care, will fill the spaces. ”

“ The teeth are a fruitful source of suffering and of disease, and are with truth styled “our first and our last plagues.” Dentition is the most important period of a child’s life, and is the exciting cause of many infantile diseases; during this period, therefore, he requires constant and careful watching. When we consider how the teeth elongate and enlarge in his gums, pressing on the nerves and on the surrounding parts, and thus how frequently they produce pain, irritation, and inflammation ”

“ The man-like Apes, the history of whose discovery has just been detailed, have certain characters of structure and of distribution in common. Thus they all have the same number of teeth as man—possessing four incisors, two canines, four false molars, and six true molars in each jaw, or 32 teeth in all, in the adult condition; while the milk dentition consists of 20 teeth—or four incisors, two canines, and four molars in each jaw. ”

“ On the under surface of this oblique tooth band (still taking the lower jaw) , and close to its edge, appear ten thickenings, below each of which the mesoderm rises up into a “ dental papilla, " and so moulds the thickening into a cap for itself-the “ enamel organ.” ”

“ Fig. 303.—Dental plates of Dipterus valenciennesi, nat. size. A, Upper jaw; B, lower jaw. n, Position of the nostrils; p.p, palatine dental plates; p.pt, palato-pterygoid bones; sp, splenial teeth. (From Smith Woodward, after Traquair.)
Fam. 1. Ctenodontidae.—Body fusiform. Tail heterocercal or apparently diphycercal. Excluding the anal fin, which is always distinct, the remaining median fins are either distinct or continuous. Dental plates traversed by radiating transverse ridges terminating in rows of conical denticles (ctenodont dentition, Fig. 303) . Vomerine teeth not known. ”

“ As the tooth wears, the surface, besides the external enamel layer as in an ordinary, simple tooth, shows in addition a second inner ring of the same hard substance surrounding the pit, which, of course, adds greatly to the efficiency of the tooth as an organ for biting tough, fibrous substances. ”

“ It requires as much skill and knowledge to extract teeth well, as it does to amputate a limb; yet some persons, who possess strong arms, will obtain a pair of forceps, or a tooth-key, and hang out the sign of “surgeon-dentist,” although ignorant of the principles that should guide them. ”

“ The milk-dentition, and even the early condition of the permanent dentition, is formed on the same general type as that of Sus, except that certain teeth are absent, the formula being i sfrac, c sfrac, p sfrac, m sfrac, total 34; but as age advances all the teeth have a tendency to disappear, except the canines and the posterior molars, but these, which in some cases are the only teeth left in the jaws, attain an extraordinary development. The upper canines especially are of great size, and curve outwards, forwards and upwards. ”

“ Teeth are made up of three different substances, which are known as enamel, dentine and cement.
The enamel is a very hard substance, the hardest in the body, and may be compared to quartz. The enamel covers the entire tooth down as far as the gums. ”

“ Young mothers whose children are cutting their teeth will be glad to hear that by burning the tooth of a horse, grinding it to ashes, mixing it with the infant's saliva, and then rubbing it on the gums, the pain may be greatly moderated and the process of teething materially assisted. ”