Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-12

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IN MTTTh 1t is a subject that
HfTPIWI III must be of interest
| N tN IlNNNt n to everybody who
fi%>sN ...:mN g owns teeth or Dor
RV-HL rows them. Merely
with respect to what
electricity has accomplished in that branch
| of medical science, there is a good deal
to be said. By the use of an electric light
| in connection with the little mirror intro
| duced into the mouth. the teeth and alive
olar processes are brilliantly Illuminated
and rendered translucent. Thus anything
wrong about the dental apparatus may be
quickly discovered. For example, dead
tooth pulp shows black and Opaque. Per
| haps the dead tooth may be hidden in the
jaw, never having been erupted and may
| have been the obscure cause of trouble for
years. The light reveals it at once. Facial
neuralgia. by the way, is nearly always due
to dead tooth. The proper physician to
seek for that complaint is a skilled dentist.
Electricity Is most valuable as a motive
power for tooth-boring tools, which, strange
to say. cause less pain the faster they go.
Most people now grown up can recall the
excruciating pain caused by the excavat-
Ing instrument which the dentist of a gen.
Grafton ago slowly revolved between his
fingers. The "burrs' now made for such
work are much finer than they were half
a dozen years ago. being capable Of cut
ting through steel bars. Furthermore the
labortous method of turning them out by
hand has been superseded recently by a
machine which produces them at a cost of
III cents apiece. The machine-made burrs
are much more perfect, those less in size
than pinhead being too small for OBJ
servation with the naked eye, but exhibit
ing under a powerful magnifying glass the
forms OF most exquisite cutting tools. Elec-
| trfcity Is employed also for pulling teeth
| The mechanism consists of a two-cell bat
| terry with vibrator attachment-the latter
a thin strip of metal fastened at both ends
and made to vibrate 1000 or more times
| a second by current At each vibration
the current is cut and renewed again, the
effect being to give a steady flow Of the
fluid. To make sure that the flow is salts
factory. the operator tunes the machine
with little reed tuning pipe until the strip
| Of metal sings "A" To the battery are
attached th1ee wires. Two of them have
handles at the end. while the third is
attached to the forceps. The patient grasps
| the handles. the electricity is turned on
suddenly, and the dentist simultaneously
applies his forceps to the tooth The in
| slant the tooth is touched. it, as well as
the surrounding parts. become insensible to
| pain. jerk, and 1t Is out
Teeth Are Saved.
One dentist at the convention remark ed
that there Is not one tooth lost now where
| there used to be 100. The day of reckless
| tooth-pulling has passed. 1t Is a mighty
poor tooth that the skilled operator of to-
day cannot render far better and more
serviceable than the best possible false
one. II only the root is left, a new upper
part Of porcelain or gold, called Grown"
is fastened upon 1t so as to be quite service
able. Supposing that not even the root is
left, a gap In the mouth is filled in with
one or more dummies securely fastened
by a gold bridge" or otherwise to the
sound teeth. Complete sets of false teeth
are rare nowadays. On the other hand
people in a palpably toothless condition are
almost never seen, the cost of a complete
ARTIFICIAL dental equipment being only sl6
The demand for tooth crowns comes
largely from base ball players foot ball
athletes and bicycle riders, who are very
apt to have their teeth broken off short
But the last and most ingenious resort of
the dental surgeon Is 'implantation'-tha
Is the setting of new teeth into the jaw
For this purpose real teeth are employed.
and not artificial ones. Cocaine having
been first applied for producing local an
aesthesia, hole is drilled in the jawbone.
ana into this socket good TOOTH newly
IL. Il
patient is young and vigorous the osseous
structure soon closes around it, and by the
time the gum is healed the tooth is ready
for use. 1t should last for from three 70
ten years. In the case of elderly or fee
BILE person 1t may be fastened in place by
silver wires passing around the jawbone
In Place of Gold Filling.
The root of a freshly extracted tooth is
covered with a delicate membrane called
the ''pericementum," the vitality of which
materially assists the wished-for combining
of the tissues. Unless the grinder is d.
rectly transferred the vitality of this men,
brane must be artificially preserved one
way of doing 1t is to graft the tooth tenn
porarily into the comb of cock, that part
of the fowl being well fed with blood. as
may be seen from its redness. When want
ed for use 1t is cut out. Ordinarily the pa
tent Is obliged to wait for awhile until the
dentist has suitable tooth freshly ex-
tracted, unless he chooses to hire somebody
to sacrifice one.
One of the most important improvements
in modern dental practice is on the point of
being accomplished. 1t will consist in the
substitution of porcelain for gold in the
filling of teeth, especially in places where
repairs are likely to show. For this purpose
a piece Of thin platinum foil is introduced
into the cavity" and so manipulated as to
take the exact form of the hole, as If 1t
were intended as lining. Then it is care
fully withdrawn, so not to disturb it's
shape. Thus is obtained mold from which a
porcelain cast may be made to fill the cavity
exactly. This is secured in place by cement
The trouble is that no cement as yet in
vented is proof against the dissolving power
of the fluids in the mouth. Accordingly
this process of 'inlaying," 1t is called
must remain to a great extent unavaiab BILE
until non-soluble cement shall be discover
ed There is no longer any excuse for
crooked jaws. inasmuch as dental surgeons
know how to make them straight. This
may be accomplished, up to the age of
twenty years, by simple contrivances. One
of them is a plate in two pieces united by
a spring, which continually exerts press
ure in the desired direction. Another device
consists Of series of wooden disks each
one to be worn until 1t no longer fits tightly
and then to be replaced by the one next
larger The deformity of projecting lower
law is remedied by a spring arrangement
with a cap on the chin and another on the
back of the head By this means the jaw is
gradually forced back until it assumes its
proper position. The process is painful, Of
course.
Vegetarlans by Nature.
Psychologists say that projecting lower
law is reversion to a primitive type
Early man had lower jaw which projected
beyond the upper. instead of closing with
the under teeth inside His canine teeth
10 fonf