Practical oral hygiene : prophylaxis and pyorrhea alveolaris.

  • Adair, Robin, 1878-1929.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical oral hygiene : prophylaxis and pyorrhea alveolaris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    more roots embedded in the jaw. The outer coatiDg of the tooth, the part that we see, is called the enamel. It is nearly all lime-salts, 98 per cent. It is very hard, very compact, comparatively thin, and has no nerves; there- fore, it is without feeling. Its purpose is to stand the wear of grinding, and to protect the softer, sensitive parts of the tooth beneath. (***) Beneath the enamel is the dentine. It forms the bulk of the tooth. It is only about three-quarters, 75 per cent, lime, and is, of course, not so hard as the enamel. It is something like bone, having tubes and hol- low jDlaces, within it, along which the germs of decay can spread and multiply without much resistance. In the center of the tooth, surrounded by the den- tine is the pulp, commonly but improperly called the nerve. It has a great many exceedingly fine, thread-like branches outwardly through the dentine, forming a very complete signal-service, the duty of which is to warn us when danger from decay or other source threatens the health and usefulness of the tooth. A tooth that aches, after one has been eating, for instance, is a tooth in distress. Some of the little pulp- branches are exposed and are calling for protection. If they do not get it, the pulp itself will be calling next, and by that time the chances are that the labor, pain and expense of saving the tooth have been increased mnnv fold. Here is a case in which a stitch in time may save not only a great deal of suffering, but, by a simple, inex- pensive filling, the tooth may be saved to usefulness and comfort. If, on the other hand, the warning is not heeded, the pulp, after protesting with all its might with some pretty severe aches and pains commonly called neuralgia and other things, gives up the fight and dies. Because the pain is felt not so much in that particular tooth as all over the face on that side, the tooth may not be suspected, and frequently physician's bills of large size are contracted in the vain search for relief.