The Washington times., 1919-04-06

photographs of Skulls Showing (AbOve)
"a Normal and Complete Set of Upper
Teeth and the Resulting Normal Dental
Arch; and an Upper Jaw from Which the
Loss of Teeth Has Caused a Shrinking
and FIattening of the Dental Arch.-From
Photographs by Doctor Williams.
~RE loss OF just one uoorn IN carry
youth or the accidental pushing Of
a tooth into a wrong position may
lead 70 a lifelong Disagreement Of the
Jaws and face.
This deformity has many unhappy conse-
tquences. It destroys beauty. No woman
fcan be really beautiful unless she has well
,proportioned, graceful, evenly developed
jaws and teeth.
! Another unfortunate result is injury to
health through inability to chew properly.
Irregularly developed jaws also hinder a
persons success in life by preventing him
from speaking clearly and from making a
pleasant impression on those with whom
he has to do business.
hSs Dentists lately have given good deal
Of attention to regulating teeth and the
specialists are called "orthodontists."
:, Dentistry is not an exact science and
unfortunately bad judgment and bad
teeth as is so common in the other
:. branches of dental work.
=. The time when there is the best hope
of correcting deformities satisfactorily is
CsWhen the permanent teeth have just
s-come in, for at that age the Jawbone is
very pliable and responds quite remark
ably to efforts to change its form. 1t must
lbe obvious, however, that in this very
pliability and response to manipulation
or
treatment.
The part Of the jaw in which the teeth
are plapted is called "the dental arch
7. This arch must be symmetrical, both IN the
h7upper and the lower jaw. 1t must have
certain width and curve. Each side should
iebe an exact duplicate Of the opposite side.
- The upper jaw must bear a fixed, grace
ful proportion TO the lower. The upper
must project slightly beyond the lower, but
slDot very markedly. The lower must not
project beyond the upper, but it must not
recede in a marked degree. The upper
and lower teeth must meet and ht into one
another all the way round.
4. The commonest defects are (D abnor
maIly projecting upper teeth, C2) project
ing lower teeth, usually due to loss Of
teeth in the upper jaw, CD one-sided Jaws
and 90 fiat face, often due to the spread
ling Of the front part Of the upper dental
SiLarch.
81 There are many appliances for regulat-
ing the position Of the teeth and the form
9iof the dental arch. The arch can be ex-
panded or reduced in size or changed in
any desirable way in childhood, and con-
siderable changes can even be made in
early adult life.
But how is the operator to decide what
form the improved dental arch shall have?
What standard of beauty, what model Of
perfection shall he work from? OF course,
there are some changes which must OBJ
viously be made. If the upper teeth pro-
Sect quarter of an inch beyond the lower
they must be drawn back, of If one side of
an arch is pushed in through the loss of
teeth it must be rounded
But there are questions which are not so
easily decided. The length of the arch
from back TO front in proportion to its
width varies in different persons of agree
able and we'll developed. facial appearance
There are many different curves of each
arch, different proportions of one jaw to
the other that might be copied by an opera
tor seeking to bring a defective denta
arch up to the normal
Let us suppose that the orthodontist q
treating a girl. A beautiful or, at least, at
..tractive face is Of supreme importance Il
her. Shall he seek to remodel her defec
tive Jaws upon those Of lillian Russell, {