The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-05-06
Teeth and TOOthace.

u fists, and the Importance to which the
:, science of dentistry has attained, are
: very strong arguments in support Oi
q the theory that our teeth are deteriOr-
n I'ating. That the dental profession must
: be profitable one, needs no argument
beyond a glance ut the very fiOwery
t advertisements which crowd our papers,
r arguing very numerous and wealthy
4 clients. No one who has not been
! compelled to wear false teeth can un-
e derstand to what an extent they are at
e once q comfort and a nuisance. The
' Improvement iii appearance, in articu-
la ion, and the great advantage of bet
l ter masticatiOn, are benefits too evident
. to require fuather mention. These
benefits, of course, depend very much
: on the fitness of the material employ
ed; and while ingenuity has been
! racked to find the best looking and
hardest substances for teeth, L have
known ut least two persons who pat
rouiZed 10 invention whatever. One
gentleman had very fine molar
drawn i'm consequence of its aching
most terribly; but when out it looked
as white and sound as tooth could
look; SO, with great presence of mind,
my friend stopped the dentist as he was
; about the close the gum, and asked
him to reinsert the tooth. After a lit
tie demur, the operator complied. The
tooth fitted beautifully, and i saw it
half dozen years afterward, as useful
and tightIy-fitting a molar as any in
the whole set. But this is much eX-
ceeded by the case of n gentleman very
well known to ME, who, having suffer-
ed a great dca. from toOthache, had
had, at intervals, several teeth en-
tracted. These he preserved, and, at
last, being forced to revisit the dentist,
and finding that it was necessary for
him to lose two more, he hcrOically de-
termined Oh having all that was left
extracted; then with these and the
teeth already ain stock f" lie had a
very capital set fitted, which he wore
for many years.
The extraction Of so many teeth at
once seems q great trial to undergo;
but some PERSONS have such Il horror
of tOothache that nothing equals its ter
rors in their estimation; and, not very
many Years ago, a poor young fellow
in the suburbs of London hanged him.
self in sheer despair at the continual
| pain he suffered-pain which is, | must
own, of a character more depressing,
more relentless, than any other that |
have known.
1t must be dreadful when poor dumb
animals suffer from toOthache. Every
one has read how Chunee, the elephant
at the old Exeter Change, went mad
from it; and it is popularity supposed
| that is often the cause of madness in
dogs, and really think it very prOba-
| ble. The poor brutes seek the sympa-
| thy and aid of their masters for have
known a poor old cat come moaning
time after time, until it drew attention
| to its teeth-a surgeon who was visiting |
at the house first suggested the cause of
the animals discomfort and one per- |
son, more skilled than the others, pos J
sibly, in the management of our dumb |,
companions, drew a tooth which was |
rather loose, and at once relieved the |
poor creature. L once know a man |
who assisted at the eXtratiOn of a tooth /
from the head of very different cat
the patient being Il fine leopard in the |
Regents Park Gardens. An account |
appeared i'm the papers of the time, so
L may be excused from any lengthy de-
tail. When the authorities had decided
that it was toOthache which allied the /
animal, they had small but very
strong sack made, and with this, after
much trouble succeeded in bagging the
leopard. His head, of course, was left
out, the sack being drawn pretty tight
ly arOung his neck. The operation
was attended with complete success TO
the leopard; his tooth was drawn, and
he recovered; but, unhappily, just a.
it was over, by Il desperate plunge he
burst the sack and, thrusting his paw
through the opening, drove his talons
deep into the arm of a keeper, tearing
and Iacerating the man fearfully.
] cannot leave this subject without
advising my readers that the following
recipe, for which | am indebted to the
Lancet, and which out TO bc made as
widely known as possible, will really
cure the most maddcniDg toothache:
One drachm of collOdion, added TO two
drachms of Calvert's carbolIc acid; Il
gelatineus mass is precipitated, small
portion of which inserted in the cavity
Of the tooth, invariably gives immedi-
only, not the car.
The worst of a slight flaw in the tooth
is that the tongue will never leave il
alone; but, although it sacrifices itself
by the practice, will insist on poking
I ,
of, this irritation is so pleasing, and 50
indispensable to some persons, that
they employ artificial means to excite
very common and very injurious way;
but iD the case of musician WAS once
acquainted with, it took Il far stranger
form. This man always kept a pin in
his mouth, only removing il when hc
SIn In atn nj l,af. .,,I |
and played, with this dangerous and
lunatic-lil1c plaything in his mouth
For thirty Years he persisted in the
weeks, by which time il would have
become almost black. over and over
again was he demonstrated with, but in
vain; and ut last one pin slipped down ,,
his throat, and he was a dead man in a
week.
The anccdOte recalls the fact that ,
false teeth are not all comfort, and ,
some little care must be taken to pre- ,
vent such catastrophe As that just al ,
luded to; for instances have occurred of
sufiocation where the teeth have been
pulled out by the food; soft food, such
as batter-pudding or mashed potatoes, ,
is what should bc chiefly guarded !,
against. 1t is impossible to avoid, in
describing accidents of this kind a GER
tain ludicrous cOlOring, however seri-
Ous the matter may be to the person ,
concerned; thus, when ! mention that ,
| have known 4 dog run away with ,
two most expensive teeth, which had
been detached by the adhesive qualities
of some soft pudding, | know the read
er will smile, although at the moment
the incident was quite alarming, and I,
the teeth were only cOughed up in time
to save their owner from suflOcatiOn.-
So with gentleman very well known
and ranking very high as a tutor and a
conductor of aspirants successfully
tbfQDgh those examinations which are
Sudh Barriers to the ambitious; he will
remeInber,. if he sees these lines, how, ,
when saying at a strange house, he left
his teen OH his dressing table, and how
the hOllsc-maid threw them away, so
Nat they had TO bc sought and rescued
l6p the dust-bin.
AAlest wcarcrs of false teeth take them
vi on going to bed, but some are oh
1iged to remove them whenever they
cat. This latter being the very opera
ton for which they are usually bought .