The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-01-06
WHY YOUR TEETH ACHE.
A DENTIST DIAGNOSES THE PAIN
AND GIVES REMEDIES.

IedSs Tor the layman.
What is health? To reply in brief dog
matism we may say, "a MN enjoys health
when be is not unpleasantly conscious of
any special part of his body" Therefore a
perfectly healthy, sound tooth never aches.
But tooth may be healthy and yet not
sound, and thus we come to appreciate the
simplest kind of toothache Your little
girl says, whenever eat a caramel my
tooth aches" You take her to the dentist
and he tells you that the teeth are all
healthy. Why, then, the ache?
We allow our children to do with their
teeth what we will not permit our servants
to do with our china; yet the enamel is al
most as friable as porcelain. Hot chocolate
after ice cream, hot coffee after iced water
melon, hot rolls and iced milk-all such
extremes of temperature result in cracking
or checking the enamel. Cracking nuts,
hard candy balls, ice, etc, may produce
the same result. By capillary attraction
these tiny crevices, which lead down to the
sensitive dentine, are filled with the fluids
of the mouth.
Now eat caramels, and the sugar dis
solving enters the crevices also and soon
ferments, forming acids which irritate the
dentine and produce this kind of tooth
ache. 1t is more common with children,
because the enamel Of the temporary set is
more easily cracked The best course is
to avoid such use or abuse of the teeth, but
with the ache present the remedy is sim
pie. Fill the mouth with warm water,
and in a moment the pain will pass away,
the fluid washing away the irritant and
the heat acting as a soothing agent.
WHAT TO DO FOR ToOTHACHE.
Next we have toOthache proper, that
kind which arouSes us from slumber. The
pulp (or, as it is enormously called, the
"nerve') is jumping. Decay has advanced
until it has reached the pulp, whereupon,
exactly as in the first condition, the acid
results of fermentation irritate the sensi-
tive organ and produce pain. The jump
ing is the passage of the blood through
engorged vessels, forcing the walls of the
capillares against the nerve filaments, so
that with each pulsation of the heart there
is a responsive throb. Some dentists at
tempt to save such pulps alive, and it is
possible to do so, but it is hazardous I'M
dertaking and rarely successful if the
disturbance has continued for any length
of time.
The best procedure is TO destroy the pulp,
remove it and fill the root canal This, of
course, forces the patient to dentist, and
great care should be taken to choose a skill
full man, because there is no one thing in
dentistry more often bungled than this ap-
parently simple killing of pulp and sub
sequent filling of the roots and crown. If,
however, the pain is excessive and occurs
at night, or when dentist is not readily
accessible drop of any essential oil on
pledget of cotton placed in the cavity will
give temporary relief.
Use oil of cloves, peppermint, sassafras,
camphor, turpentine, but do not use creo-
sote or carbolic acid. Either of these lat
ter may be employed by the dentist, but in
the hands of a patient the usual result is
that an excess is placed on the cotton and
the gums are more or less badly burned
The least part of a drop is all sufficient.
Cover with a second piece of cotton. This
kind of toothache is the only sort that can
be relieved by 'toothache drops" or other
to be applied in the cavity of
decay.
THE WORST KIND.
Next we have what the dentist knows as
pericementitis. This is an inflammation
of the pericementum, which is the soft It's
sue that surrounds the root. 1t may oc-
cur in a tooth which has cavity or in one
which has been filed but in any case it
never occurs in tooth having pulp that
is alive. Pericementitis is the dentists
bette noire, because it so frequently is diff
cult TO control. The tooth is sore to the
touch, is felt first on closing the teeth to-
gether, that is, it has elongated by rising
from its socket, and the pain is dull ache
more or less severe, worse at night and con-
tinuous.
If the tooth has been filled the chances
are that the root has not been thoroughly
cleansed of septic matter. In this case
relief may sometimes be OBJ
tanned by removal of the filling, allowing
the escape of gases from the root II il ~
an untitled tooth thelha.here is dead pulp
present which must be removed. In near
ly all such cases appropriate treatment will
save the tooth and restore it to normal
health.
This usually neceSsitates several treat
ments with disinfectants and the pain NAV
for several DAYS. II a dentist is
not accessible apply iodine to the gum over
the root, take twenty grains of bromide Of
potassium, or ten grains each of bromide
Of potassium and of bromide Of sodium: a
bot mustard footbsth frequently does good,
but everything : temporary except thor
ough cleansing and medication of the root
If this condition is neglected, or II a dead
pulp Is left in a tooth for any length of
time. the inevitable result is alveolar alb
scess. This disturbance varies from a
small opening in the gum through which
a constant discharge Of pus goes on. with
out pain. TO a sudden swelling about the
root which must be finally lsnced 70 evac-
uste quantity of pus. The pain may be
excessive. There NAV be an anchyloSis OF
the jaw, and in the lower Jaw the pus some
times burrows downward, discharging out
side uuder the jaw bone. In slveolar ab-
scess II Is frequently good practice 10 eX-
tract.
Too many such teeth are kept in the
mouth, the patients constantly swallow
ing PuS with their fos,s. producing blood
poisoning and a condition sometimes mis-
taken for malaria. Occasionally. however.
a radical cure may ne ts.ecJed by a skillfUl
dental surgeon. The treatment consists
o1 thoroughly uIsinlc - ~ the canal and
eNurpaung the sc I'm the end Of the
root. IL may be neceSs AIRY 10 amputate the
end q the root, cutting of the part which
= diseased ana removing Il through the
gum. When extraction Is decided on il
should be done wl,hc- delay. The idea
thar the oPe-a--ou n tponed IN
ri abatement Of - 81 -.lnS il absurd
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