Tooth decay

“ If the nerve is not exposed, and there is a disposition to a return of the pain on exposure to cold air, or a change of weather, the pain being of a rheumatic character, give Rhus and Macrotin in alternation. These will relieve many cases. For decayed teeth, the pain being dull aching, with soreness, use Chamomilla. The body of the tooth, that is the dentine, sometimes becomes very sensitive when there is no decay or cavity, the pain being experienced when some hard substance hits, or the air or water, either cold or hot, comes in contact with the tooth. ”

“ Each individual tooth, missing its best stimulus to healthy growth and vigor, firm and regular pressure and exercise against its fellow in the jaw above or below, gets a twist in its socket, wears away irregularly, and becomes an easy prey to decay, while from failure of the entire upper and lower arches of the teeth to meet squarely and press evenly and firmly against one another, the jaws fail to expand properly and the tendency to narrowing of the tooth-arches and upward vaulting of the palate is increased. ”

“ Attention to the first set of teeth keeps the mouth healthy for the second teeth, which begin to come when a child is seven and these will last you to the end of your life, if you keep them in order.
If one tooth is allowed to decay, it will spread decay in all the others, and this arises from scraps of food remaining between the teeth and decaying there.
A thorough Scout always brushes her teeth inside and outside and between all, just the last thing at night as well as other times, so that no food remains about them to decay. ”

“ The front teeth are called incisors because they are used to cut the food. The back teeth are named molars because they are used in grinding the food.
Fig. 32 —Photograph of teeth not kept clean, showing how germs and a sour substance called acid eat holes in them and thus cause decay and toothache.
Toothache.—Toothache is a common ailment, and yet it can be entirely prevented. A tooth does not ache until it has a hole in it. The tender nerve within gives us warning that it is being hurt. The dentist can stop the ache and mend the tooth so that it will not ache again. ”

“ Every practitioner, however, has met with instances in which the molars were implicated. There are two forms of disease to which these teeth are liable; caries, or decay, and a loss of vitality, or death. The death of a tooth has [154] not hitherto been observed upon by veterinary authors, but it is not rare. The causes which may give rise to it cannot be accurately stated, though they may be conjectured. The vessels that nurture the fang and ramify through the pulp, are small and delicate ”

“ When a tooth has gone so far to decay, that it cannot be cured by stopping, it should not be suffered to remain in the mouth, lest it infect the rest. Front teeth, however, when the roots remain sound, and firmly based in the sockets, ought not to be extracted, as upon the latter artificial teeth can be placed with great advantage. In such cases, the removal of the crown only is necessary. ”

“ It depends, in many cases, on a humorous fluxion of a hot or cold nature which flows into the alveolus, forcing the tooth outward, loosening it, and causing the patient so much pain on the slightest pressure being exercised on it, that he cannot dare to bite with it in the least. If, however, the tooth is corroded, hollowed out, or pierced to the root, the pain is so strong, when the patient drinks—particularly if the liquid is cold—that he seems to have had a stab with a stiletto inside the tooth. ”

“ One would think that the mere knowledge that decayed teeth can cause all this havoc would lead to a grand rush to the dentist, but so far from being the case, doctors find it extremely difficult to induce their patients to part with this unsightly, evil-smelling, and dangerous decayed tooth. ”

“ But the tooth is so loose that it is a torment to the man; it lies in its socket, entirely loose, almost ready to drop over. It hurts so that he cannot bear the pain. The tooth is taken out. There is no tartar on it, or very little; there is a little speck near the point that looks like a foreign body; but the point of the tooth--the apex--is as sharp as a needle. After the disease has done its work of separating the tooth from its socket, the destroying agent begins to absorb the tooth at the point, irregularly, causing the sharpness described. ”

“ There are few adults who cannot describe the pangs of tooth-ach from their own feelings. It is generally intermittent, seldom dangerous to life, except during the{263} first dentition of infancy. Its constant symptoms, pain, flow of saliva, restlessness: its variable symptoms, swelled face, carious loosened teeth; fistula, exostoses of the gums and jaws. The causes, inflammation of the periosteum of the teeth, gums, or jaw; suppressed perspiration; moist air; catarrhal defluxion; suppressed habitual evacuations, nasal hemorrhage and venesection; plethora; intermittent, scorbutick, arthritick ”

“ When a decayed tooth becomes the seat of excessive pain, and this does not yield to any remedy, one must either have recourse to extraction or cauterize it; this can be done either with potential caustics—such as oil of vitriol, aqua fortis—or with the actual cautery. By cauterizing, Paré adds, one burns the nerve, thus rendering it incapable of again feeling or causing pain.
Erosion or caries304 is the effect of an acute and acrid humor, that corrodes and perforates the teeth, often to their very roots. ”

“ When a tooth aches, and it is thought well to extract it, because medicaments are of no use, the gum must be detached all around, and then the tooth must be shaken until it is well loosened, it being very dangerous to draw a firm tooth, as this may sometimes give rise to a dislocation of the lower jaw. And greater still is the danger in regard to the upper teeth, as this might cause a shock to the temples and eyes. ”

“ Internal ulceration is frequently caused by the continued use of snuff, or the presence of other irritating matters,—by irritation communicated from diseased gums or alveoli, or from decayed or crowded teeth, particularly the incisors310 of the upper jaw—by stumps in any part of the mouth, or the pivoting of artificial teeth on them—or by introducing the dentist’s perforator, with a view of destroying the nerve of a tooth. ”

“ Come what may, they must keep up at an equal rate the wear and tear of the incisors, and the internal growth of the pulp beneath, which is always pushing the tooth forward. This dull continuous work might otherwise have a terrible result, which you would never suspect. It is very disastrous for a young lady to lose a front tooth, as it is called, for it sadly spoils a pretty face; but for a rodent such a loss is much worse ”

“ Fractures of the jaw commonly heal from the fourteenth to the twenty-first day.
“In luxations of the jaw (Chapter XII) the bone is always displaced forward; but sometimes only on one side, and sometimes on both sides. 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 integument should be first divided, and the edges of the incision drawn asunder, so as to expose the bone, which alone should be touched with the cautery. By this simple expedient the osseous structure will be destroyed; and as such structure is not highly sensitive, the suffering of the animal will be slight, while after exfoliation has taken place, the trivial cicatrix will be concealed by the hair. When caries is present, the symptoms do not materially differ from those described as indicating the death of a tooth. The disease may commence at any part of the fang or crown ”

“ On the strength of this observation, the author believes that in certain appropriate cases, recourse may be had to the luxation of a tooth, rather than to its extraction to obtain a cessation of toothache.
This method of cure had already been advised by a still earlier writer, that is, by Avicenna. When a subluxation produces the rupture of the dental nerve, this, in its results is equivalent to a replantation.
Foreest is the first to speak of the violent inflammation of the gums and of the whole mouth, caused by the application of artificial teeth of ivory fixed in their place with gold wire. ”

“ After a time the inflammation lessens of its own accord, the secretion diminishes, the crusts dry up, and at length fall off, leaving the skin red, slightly swollen, and its surface scaling off in flakes, which gradually cease to form, and the skin by degrees becomes quite sound again, and so remains, until perhaps the irritation caused by the approach of a new tooth to the surface, rekindles the old trouble, to go once again through the same stages as before. ”

“ But it is a safe plan to have the teeth looked over at least twice a year, for you may have broken a tooth without knowing it, and by the time a decayed spot is large enough to cause pain, or has made a hole that you can feel with your tongue, it has advanced much farther than it should have been permitted to do. ”

“ Extraction. This operation, says Dionis, ought not to be performed too lightly, but only in those cases in which it is really necessary; that is, when a tooth is the cause of insupportable pain and its crown is almost entirely worn away; when nothing remains of a tooth but its root; when a tooth is so loosened in its socket as to leave no hope of its again becoming firm; when supernumerary teeth or irregularly planted teeth give rise to inconvenience or deformity; and lastly, to remove deciduous teeth that have become loosened. ”

“ It is not always necessary to have teeth extracted when they ache. The nerve, or the investing membrane of the root, may be diseased, and the tooth still be sound. In such instances, the tooth should not be extracted, but the diseased condition may be remedied by proper medication. There are many sound teeth, that become painful, as already mentioned, which are unnecessarily removed. ”

“ When the pain resists every other means of cure. (2) When there is any danger of the disease spreading to the neighboring healthy teeth. (3) When the tooth is troublesome in speaking and in masticating.
Before extraction, the patient must be prepared for it by bloodletting, purgatives, and narcotics; and the operation must be commenced by separating the gums from the tooth.
Arculanus admits, like many of his predecessors, that the eradication of a tooth may be effected not only by the forceps and other suitable instruments, but also by other means. ”

“ If suffered to remain, it tends to destroy the health of the gums; they gradually decay, and thus the roots of the teeth become bare, and they often drop out.
When children are shedding their first set of teeth, care should be taken, to remove them as soon as they become loose; otherwise the new teeth will grow awry. When persons have defective teeth, they can often be saved, by having them filled by a dentist. ”

“ It very often happens that the patient cannot indicate exactly which tooth it is that gives him pain, his sufferings being so acute as to appear spread over a great part of the jaw. One cannot, therefore, trust too much to the indications given by the patient as to the point of departure of the pain, and must take care not to extract a healthy instead of a diseased tooth. ”

“ One of the most frequent causes of decay of the teeth is the retention of fragments of food between and around them. The warmth and moisture of the mouth make these matters decompose quickly. The acid thus generated attacks the enamel of the teeth, causing decay of the dentine. Decayed teeth are often the cause of an offensive breath and a foul stomach. ”

“ Only in very rare cases does it attack the roots of the teeth. It rarely appears after fifty years of age. Hunter does not admit that this disease may be communicated by one tooth to another. As to its treatment, the caries, if superficial, may be completely removed by filing the decayed part of the tooth before the disease penetrates to the cavity, and its spreading will thus be arrested for a time at least. ”

“ In cases of a diseased molar tooth in the upper jaw, food getting firmly impacted in the hollow space, irritates the pulp in the fang and the adjacent bone until the progress in ulceration reaches the nasal chamber or sinuse and a nasal discharge is established. If an upper molar tooth is lost the molar formerly opposed to it in the lower jaw grows out and sets up the same train of symptoms. In all cases then in which nasal gleet is associated with much fœtor and with difficulty in eating, a careful examination of the teeth should be made. ”

“ If, as often happens, that the seat of the erosion lies in such a manner between two teeth as to make it impossible to apply caustics or other medicaments, one must file just sufficiently between the healthy and the corroded tooth to render the part accessible, taking care, however, to file more on the side of the affected tooth than on that of the healthy one. ”

“ If the patient is unable to face the drastic extraction, the tooth is simply allowed to abscess and slough away. Sometimes an aged person loses every tooth in this manner. One after another they abscess and slough out until at last the helpless victim is able to relax in the blessed state of painless toothlessness.
Many of the people, especially the older ones, are suffering from rheumatism and arthritis. There are many specific causes but often it is merely the breakdown that comes from a life of exposure and hard work. ”