Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-01-02
WHY YOUR TEETH ACHE.
a DENTIST DIAGNOSES THE PAIN
AND GIVES REMEDIES.

AMI GivEO 0CWCOlCO.
How Simple Toothache Is Caused--Warm
Water Will Cure 1.-THE Aid of a
Dentist Is Required for Most Aches.
Danger of Disease from Unsound Teeth.
Perhaps there is nothing within the
sphere of dentistry about which the people
know so little as toothache.
To the question, "What is a toothache?"
l shall now give reply which will be
comprehensive, and, l hope useful, in that
it shall divest the subject of much of the
mystery in which it is now enveloped, at
least for the layman.
What is health? To reply in brief dog
matism we may say, "a man enjoys health
when he is not unpleasantly conscious of
any special part of his body" Therefore
rei katly healthy, sound tooth never aches.
but q tooth may be healthy and yet not
sound, and thus we come to appreciate the
simplest kind of toothauhe. Your little
girl says, Whenever l eat 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 month
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 soothing agent.
WHAT TO DO FOR ~ooTHACHE.
Next we have toothac e 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-
We css 9al and ii; ssd9,se 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 responsive throb. Some dentists at
tempt to save such pulps alive, and it is
possible to do so, but it is a hazardous I'M
dertaking, and rarely successful if the
7. L. 81
of time.
The best procedure is to destroy the pulp,
remove it and fill the root canal. This, of
course, forces the patient to a dentist, and
great care should be taken to choose skill
full man, because there is no one thing in
dentistry more often bungled than this ap-
parently simple killing of pulp and SUBJ
sequent filing of the roots and crown. If,
however, the pain is excessive and occurs
at night, or when dentist is not readily
accessible, a drop OF any essential oil on a
pledget of cotton placed in the cavity will
give temporary relief.
Use oil of cloves, peppermint, sassafras,
camphor, turpentlne, 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 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
medicament to be applied in the cavity of
decay.
THE WORST KIND.
Next we have what the dentist knows as
pericementitis. This is an inflammation
IL. 81 IL
sue that surrounds the root. 1t may oc-
cur in a tooth which has cavity or in one
which has been filled, but i'll any case it
never occurs i'll 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
immediate relief may sometimes be OBJ
tanned by removal of the filling, allowing
the escape of gases from the root. Ii it is
an untitled tooth then there 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 us.tGly necessitates several treat
ments with disinfectants and the pain may
continue for several days. If 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; q
hot mustard footbath frequently does good
but everything is temporary except thor
ough cleansing and medication of the root.
If this condition is neglected, or if 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
q constant discharge of pus goes on, with
out pain, to u sudden swelling about the
root which must be finally lanced to evao-
uate quantity of pus. The pain may be
excessive. There may be an anchylosis of
the jaw, and in the lower jaw the pus some
times burrows downward, discharging out
side under the jaw bone. In alveolar alb
scess it is frequently good practice to ex-
tract.
Too many such teeth are kept in the
mouth, the patients constantly swallow
ing pus with their food, producing blood
poisoning and condition sometimes mis-
taken for malaria Occasionally, however,
q radical cure may be effected by a slSillful
dental surgeon. The treatment consists
OF thoroughly disinfecting the canal and
extirpating the sac from the end Of the
root. 1t may be necessary to amputate the
end of the root, cutting off the part which
is diseased and removing it through the
gum. When extraction is decided on it
should be done without delay The idea
that the operation must be postponed ul-
til abatement of the swelling is absurd
4 Dentist in New York Herald.