A system of dental surgery / by John Tomes and Charles S. Tomes.

  • Tomes, John, 1815-1895.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of dental surgery / by John Tomes and Charles S. Tomes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pressure be too great, and if it be too slight the teeth will not move, or the movement be so slow that both the patient and practitioner will become wearied before a successful result has been gained. A certain amount of irritation in the socket is a necessary attendant upon the treatment, otherwise absorp- tion of the socket would not be induced. Other conditions being the same, the age of the jiatient will influence the results. The younger the patient, the more readily can the teeth be moved; the older, the more difficult will the operation become. Suj)posing the irregular teeth to have been reduced to a proper position, and that the movement of them has been attended with a certain amount of destruction of the existing socket, we have then to inquire whether the lost parts will be fully reidaced, and if so, the length of time required for the formation of the new bone. It is not probable that a series of preparations, illustrating the condition of the parts at different stages of treatment, will be obtained; we must therefore be content with less positive information than such a series would furnish, and avail ourselves of such facts as can be gathered from those cases in which teeth have been forced from their former position by a loss of proper antago- nism. The dissecting-room will furnish examples of this character, and in them we shall find that the shifted teeth have a less perfect implantation than those which have been undisturbed. The sockets will not rise to the level of those of the other teeth ; from which it may be inferred that the loss of the displaced teeth will be hastened. Whether the same conditions obtain in teeth which have in early life been intentionally moved, observations directed to individual cases over very many years can alone determine. But supposing they do, we must put against the disadvantage the fact that the labial walls of the sockets of outstanding teeth are very commonly deficient in strength, or imperfect, and that teeth so placed are liable to become loose prematurely. Admitting, then, that sockets partly removed under treat-