The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1915-03-17

scure corners at the bottom OF the
mouth. from which position they could
be extracted only with great dimculty
on account Of the danger Of bleeding.
x.ray photographs gave no assistance
to the operators in these cases because
there were literally no solid pieces left
for putting together.
The patients appeared to suffer e.
tremely little pain during the course OF
the fixing Of all sorts Of complicated
wire apparatus in their wretched
mouths because the pressures and
forces employed were applied 80 very
gradually. There were several men
present for dressing who had been I'M
der ether on the operating table two
hours before while q surgeon placed
morsels of their ribs where their own
lower jaws had once been; these fel.
lows were smoking cigarettes and
whistling a little and trying out bit
Of conversation just to see how the
new halves of their mouths worked.
Apart from the line Of stitches up and
down the center Of their chins the
faces looked quite normal.
From Many HospItaIa
It is extraordinary what large
number of such difficult cases one den.
tist can attend to between nine and
eleven in the morning. A very few min
utes suffice for each case because the
curing effected by the apparatus with
in the mouth is so gradual process.
Six operators had perhaps sixty or sew
enty cases in their chairs during the
short time that the correspondent was
permitted to remain in the clinic. The
majority of the cases SO far have come
from the wounded taken directly to the
hospital from the front, but during the
last few weeks many cases have been
received from other hospitals whose
surgeons have heard of the work be-
ing done by the American dental clinic
Most of these cases were for reopera.
ton, of course.
In addition to the more serious sur.
gical work which the American dem
fists are carrying on large amount Of
extremely important minor work in the
way of repairs to bad teeth is being
accomplished. Soldiers who cannot eat
cannot fight and 1t takes better than
ordinary teeth to chew army food. The
number Of men who have been sent
back from the trenches because they
have broken off their rotted teeth by
biting on hard biscuits and have then
fallen i'll from indigestion of food
swallowed whole is very large. There
are also in the regular military hos.
pitfalls of Paris and the provincial cities
hundreds Of men who have simply lost
their false teeth in the trenches. The
state Of dental culture in France is SO
low-until 1894 any person whatsoever
could hang out his dentists sign
that the ordinary recruit has teeth
which an American dentist would say
offhand made him useless for long
campaigning.
The English soldiers, too, have very
bad teeth. The consequence is that
toothache is common in the English
trenches, even among officers, strange
as that may seem. One English gen.
eral even had to have dentist visit
him under fire to pull tooth.
Important as Good Feet.
The point which the American den.
lists emphasize is that dental work is
so rapidly done that it would be DOS.
sible to have every man properly
equipped with a chewing apparatus in
time OF peace and that eating is such
an important part Of a soldiers &C.
tivity that 1t is as foolish to send him
out to battle with bad teeth as it would
be to drill men with impossibly Grip
pied fee' "'' me idea of making ex.