Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882 by Various
page 51 of 139 (36%)
page 51 of 139 (36%)
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become impregnated with lime-salts, and will then begin to harden, and
in a very short time you will have an excellent example of the disease under discussion. Patients suffering from salivation fall an easy prey to this disease, due to the action of the drug on the glands and the hard and soft tissues of the mouth, the gums in such cases affording a ready pocket under their edges for the deposits. When you find a tooth with the characteristic concretion of tartar upon it, the first principle of surgery demands that you clean that tooth thoroughly. Go down beyond the line of the disease, go around the tooth thoroughly, and break up the diseased tissue, and apply tincture of myrrh, and in three days you will notice a marked improvement for the better, and if the patient takes proper care of the teeth the disease will not return. Practitioners should watch the teeth of the young people under their care, and see that the mouth is kept scrupulously clean and healthy. In reply to a question, Dr. Riggs stated that whenever absorption goes on irregularly, unless the inflammatory action is extreme, it will sometimes absorb one or two bone-cells, and then skip one or two, and these last, being isolated, naturally die, or become necrosed to some extent. In treating this disease you must break up the line of disintegrated tissue. You must, as it were, transfer your eyesight to the end of the instrument, so that when you strike dead bone you will know it. Live bone will feel smooth and greasy. It requires some years of experience to treat this disease properly, because you have not your eyesight to aid you, but must depend absolutely upon the sense of touch. With experience, however, you will learn to give a great deal of relief in one of the most annoying |
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