The Sunday globe., 1901-05-12
MODERN DENTISTRY
Description of the Ancient Art and
How Teeth Were Extracted.
TERRORS OF THE TOOTHACHE.
Painless Extraction OF Teeth One OF The
Greatest Blessings Of Our Ad-
VanCed Civilization.

Greatest Blessings Of Our Ad-
anOed Civilization.
If toothaches could be purchased in
the market for so much an "ache" and
kept in stock, what a convenient thing il
would be for those who might desire to
torture an enemy by means at once sim
pie and effectve A good supply of in.
quisitoral toothaches would have knock
ed the Reformation silly and made here
tics scarcer than saints in purgatory.
Vitrol throwing as AN agent of jealous
revenge would become lost art if good
healthy toothaches could be bought by
the dozen and carried arounl by the
avenger ready for use at moments no
tice There has been no form of agony
ever invented that could compete in hid
eousness with toothache that under
stands its busineas and throws all its
energies into the work before it. There
is only one form of pain that equals the
toathache in intensity, and that is the old
style Of yanking the molers out, and
even that was temporary in duration,
while the ache itself represented an in.
finity of suffering, for each moment of
the jumping, b'uncing pain is equal to
a month Of ordinary time.
In the old days when tooth pulling
was a good deal like murder in the first
degree, and when the tools used in the
homicide were about as biz and awkward
as a blacksmith tongs, it is no wonder
the people bore the evils they already
had rather than to fly to those they knew
not of, but which they had a faint idea
consisted of broken jaw and mouth.
ful of blood and splintered enamel; but
in these days of laughing gas and smil.
ing dentists it seems strange that per.
son will endure the torlures of the
damned for weeks when relief can be
secured so speedily, 1t is fact, how
ever, thai tooth-pulling is not much more
popular or fashionable now than it was
when the kings of England, who were
the first dentists by the way used to
yank out the teeth of the Jews who
! would not come down with the cash so
sorely needed in the royal eXchequer
The loss Of an aching tooth at the hands
of a smiling dentist is an awful ordeal
I largely because the Imagination of the
sufferer has made it so. He suffers the
operation many times in anticipation be.
fore the fUrceps grapple with the offend
ing moler.
Newspaper mel are not any freer from
this superstition than common mortals,
as is proven by an experience during the
past week. The victim in question had a
tooth that had been with him so long
a time that a sort Of friendly intimacy
had sprung up between the two. The
tooth, however had recently got tired of
its job and kicked so vigorously to get
out in the wide world and seek its for.
tune that he finally concluded to let it
go. Before he came to this conclusion
he temporzed with it for some time in
the hope that IL would change its mind
and conclude to remain, but to no pur-
pose Its demands for release became so
imporlunate that its objections to re-
naming sent thrills Of pain clear through
me repOrtorlal anatomy, which ended in
his surrender, He became a close stu
dent OF the dentists cards in the news
papers in his endeavor to find one who
could perform the operation without
pain, and finally made selection of
dentist on the Avenue. This selection
was made on Monday. He met the doc
tor on the street and discussed the
weather and other topics of interest with
him, and finally inquired if he would be
IN his ol1ce the next day, and was told
that he would. Tuesday he passed the
stairway Leading to the office, but didn't
think the dentist was In. lie didn't
know just what led him to think this,
but he was inspired with the thought
somehow, and passed on. On Wednes-
day morning the tooth raised big rum
pus at the long delay, and so he made a
bee-line for the Doctors Office AT the
foot Of the stairs the tooth seemed sorry
for the impatience it had exhibited, and
taking the tooth behavior as a sign that
it was not so anxious for the separation
as it pretended, concluded he would give
it one more chance to be friends, and so
went on up the street about his bust
ness
II the tooth had any regrets about the
coming separation, however, they were
of short duration, for during the follow
ing night held wake" over the dead
friendship that had before existed be-
tween the two, and sent the reporter to
the dentists office the next morning be-
fore breakfast, with the determination
| that no more compromises would be sub
mitted to on his part. The dentist was
in, and in a splendid humOr 1t was
early yet, and the scribe concluded he
\ would wait till some other patient came
in, ',just to see how it was done Mis-
cry loves company, il is said, and he
thought if he could see a jaw or two
broken (lor someone else) before his turn
came, he could stand the ordeal better.
He had not long to wait A man came
in with his jaw bound up in a cotton
handkerchief His left cheek looked as
/ if he had undertaken to swallow base
ball, and that il had lodged in the left
side of his mouth. AS well as he could,
| considering the impedments to speech,
he said he had the jumping toothache
and wanted the nerve killed. The doc
! tor looked up at the tooth, and informed
him the nerve was already dead, that the
original trouble, irritation of the living
membrane of the pulp walls, had result
! ed in inflammation, superation, and col
! lection of puss, etc. He said he reckon
ed he hardly catched on, but II was the
darndest, livliest dead nerve he ever
heard Of He never had the toothache
but once before, and that time he had
cured it by driving 20penny spike
down the root of the'mouth, which drove
the nerve clear through the little end.
| "What do you think of that?" he eX.
claimed. The doctor thought, in view Of
the fact that the opening to the end OF the
root was less in diameter than that of a
small hair, or 81, 000hs Of an inch, his ex-
perence was remarkable He said he
could beat tha'. His uncle, now dead,
was once out chopping wood and stick
flew up and hit him in the tooth, knock
ipcr out a louer unolar He nrOcceded n