The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1895-03-23
THAT TOOTH.
The Process of Saving 1t Described by a
Suffering Soul.

Suffering Soul.
The doctor stretched my mouth open
until he could see my heart beat. Then he
taid cautiously, Il think we can save that
tooth" Running a long, inquisitive wire
into the tooth to a depth of about 10 inches,
he stirred up something known as q
nerve" In response to my fervent yell
he asked, Docs that hurt?'' l wiped the
tears out of my eyes and said simply,
Yes" Then he got some Zahn-Artzt
crowbars and pricd here and there at the
tooth, occasionally waking up that cussed
nerve which had been growing ever since
at it's uncoremonious handling. Then he
said, eve will have to Kill the nerve first
and fill the tooth aftcrward."
How long will that take?" l asked
~anxiously.
"Oh, you can't tell about that he re-
piled. You can have it pulled if you pre-
fer it," he added. Invent to the glass and
smiled at myself. 1t was as l feared. If
that tooth was yanked out, my smile was
ruined.
There Is nothing SO unpleasant as a fore
shortened smile. Tho absence of a tooth
at eth r end Of 1t gives it a wolfsh char
acter. A tooth out Of the center of a smile
simply wrecks it. No, l could not afford
to have that tooth pulled.
Stimulated then by the strongest in
gredient in the male character-yiz. van
ity-I resolved to take my medicine, and
so the pact was made.
Well, the first thing to do was to kill
tho nerve. The nerve is a long, starved
angleworn growth that starts in the tooth
somewhere and grows down and up with
three distinct tentacles or f~eelers. One of
these connects with your brain, one with
your heart and the other with your soul.
Every time the nerve is touched an electric
shock goes to each of these terminal points,
and you feel as If you had been shot, stab
bed and burned with a hot iron at one
and the same time.
The doctor toyed with this nerve of
mine for some weeks. Whenever the COM
bination was made 1 used to kick out with
one foot and cry, "Ow!" or grab his hand
and say appealingly, ooh, don'tr' Then
he would say, 1--WE won't hurt YOU"
Sometimes he would lull me into a
fancied security, and l would be counting
300 or saying to myself, Even this will
pass away when all of a sudden 4 1000
ra~ttlesnakcs would dart their venom into
me simultaneously, a hundred mules
would kick me, a score of bumblebees
would sock their stingers Into me, and the
world would come to an end. Then l
would know he had stepped on my nerve
with the 'teaser." Tn ''teaser'' ia the
boss ''feeler," being fine as a horsehair
and of the most undoubted yell producing
power.
After a long while the nerve capitulat-
ed. had lost II pounds in the process,
but a great gain had been made. The
tooth was now as tender as a mush and
milk poultice, and even to tickle it with
49, zz.:l IL -.-., ---...-
agony. He used to soothe it from time to
time with various lotions, and finally he
began to quarry out the dead bone a little.
This was grewsome work, for there were
tender places all over the tooth, as thick
as spots on a Leopard. and every time he
jammed a chisel into one of them l almost
tainted. l was kent in a continuous cold
sweat for weeks thinking about il before I
went, going through with il while | was
at the office and thinking about it after l
left.
After he had amused himself by digging
and blasting out a lot of little galleries in
the upper part of the tooth he began to
treat" the root apertures.
This is q most ingenious and refined
cruelty and by some dentists is preferred
even to nerve killing The nrocess is TO
first feel around with the .steasern on the
sensitive roots, next to put a little cot
ton dipped in carbolic or nitric acid. creo.
sote or t~urpentipe around the s'teaser,
and stick it away down into the same
place. This hurts powerfully. 1t ~cleanses
the roots of impurities, though. A lighted
match would he less painful. but the amer
ture is not large enough to admit one
After this some cotton filling is stuffed in,
and you are told to como back in three
DAYS. That night YOU wake at 10 O'Clock
with your soul in arms and eager for ths
fray" You dig out all the filling and
pace up and down the room saying at in
~tervals, "Oh, gosh, why didn't I have it
pulled?"
Then you &c back, and the treatment is
renewed. The doctor varied tho upper fill
ing by putting in hard rubber filling after
awhile. This is put in soft and hot and
hardens when it gets cold.
When you wake up with his hurting
you at night, you can't get it out. A red
hot hairpin may get some OF 1t out, but
you are liable to glance OIL and get your
gums into the scar and yellow.
When the roots are ready to fill, a glad
Inc plrds sing, the SKIES are Drlght, roses