Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1851-01-16
Tlle Teeth.
fcoNTINUED)

maStlcatlon ana Speecn, When VIC holota. otie
are destroyed is prodie Ious regards health and
MISUNDERSTANDING aside the defornty and morti-
fcation attendant on toothless gums. lanes
Johnson, Physician to the King (WtLl'am IV).
"Yet.s saws an eminent author and practitioner,
90 this amount of benefit derived from afiltcial
teeth is small, if compared with that which has
resulted from filling the natural teeth in the first
stages of decay"
Not an objection has ever been urged, by
scientific individual. against the practice OF filling
decayed teeth No other remedy has ever sue
ceeded and no other is resorted to there being no
existing necessity-as this method is speedy in
arrestng the devastating progress oil The disease,
and effectually securing the perfection and pei
manent preservation of the organ thus treated.
Some persons, though few, have doubts as to
the utility and permanency of the operations; which
doubts are undoubtedly in consequence ofthelr
own, or friends misfortune, in procuring the SER
vices Of an incompetent operator,-or, perhaps
they were SO tardy in making up their minds to
avail themselves of the proposed remedy, that the
teeth had become haggered and imperfect in their
outline, and, may be, deprived of their vitality
In which case, 20 call it on experimental failure
Of a scientific principle or to regard the opera
tor as responsible for the results, would be as un-
just as for person having two or three teeth re-
pared, and leaving half score in a mutilated
condition unattended to, TO hold the dentist res
ponsible for all the toothache he may afterward
have.
The practice Of filling teeth is not new nven-
ton or discovery; it has been pursued for many
years and every year additional thousands test
its benefits, and add their testimony in its favor
There are many persons in our own community,
having teeth that have been filed twenty, thirty,
and some even forty, years, yet remaining as
perfect as when the operation was perfOrmed.-
And we know of one operator who has, in this
county, filled four hundred and fifty seven teeth
about half that number two years ago, and the re-
naming half one year, and not in one instance has
one of these operations failed, that competant
Judge would consider worthy Of a guaraniee---and
by the most extended inquiry he can learn OF but
fue cases of failure, Of any character With these
facts in view, those who would not forego the
expense and trouble, TO prevent days and weeks
of misery from affected teeth, and to preserve
the organs with all their natural beauty and USE
fulness, must themselves be the greater sufferers.
People should try to avoid being un-well, if for
no other reason than TO keep from taking medicine
so also, they should endeavor to preserve the
teeth, if with no better object than to be exempt
from tooth ache. Burns says:
"Where 'ere that place be priests ca hell,
Whence "a the tones O mis'ry yell,
And ranked plaques their numbers tell
In dreadful raw
Thou, tooth ache, surely bear'st the bell
Amang them a.
Yes, i is lively tune to dance TO. Well, if
we are so unfortunate to lose the teeth it is not
so great as to lose an arm, an eye. An artifi
cial eve can be made to answer the appearance
very well but we cannot attach muscles to it, to
move it; neither can it perform the purposes OF
vision. The teeth admit OF being substituted with
greater perfection than any other parts of the sys
tem-so much so as TO answer, in favorable cases,
all the offices of the natural ones.
1t used TO be thought great and useful art
when the only resource for procuring artificial
teeth was TO carve them from ivory, or from the
natural teeth of animals which,, after ALL could
be but temporary, and dsagreeable even them
Now, we have them manufactured from mineral
of an endless variety Of shades, shapes, and sizes,
that we find in natures own handiwork. In fitting
the plate upon which to mount artificial teeth, the
method was, not many years since, merely to bend
it as nearly TO fit the arch was practicable,
with pliers Now, we have a method by which
gold plate can be so accurately adapted to the
maxilary arch that, by excluding the air, it is re-
taned with considerable power merely by extern
al atmospheric pressure.
No art or science has advanced with more rap
pd strides than that Of dentistry, within the last
few years. One fact illustrative of its unsurpass-
ed advancement in this country, is that large
quantities of artificial porcelain teeth of our man.
ufacture, annually taken to the mother country,
and there made of in preference to their own.
Itis equally parents duty to besiow all requisite
care for the proper development and healthful
condition of his chldren's teeth, as it is to fur
nish them with food and clothing. But, it may be
asked, how is this 10 be accomplished : Prlnci-
pally by avoiding improper articles Of diet, lux
ury-bot food and drinks--and by a daily use OF
the brush-a similar course to be pursued by a.
dults.
Much has been said and written for the promo
ton of general educaion-but physical training is
sadly neglected. We have the greatest reasons
to believe that knowledge Of our own physical
organization-the causes which operate to Danish
or depreciate health--is infinitely more essential
than knowledge ofthe geography ofthe Earth, OF
an acquaintance with the history of nations. The