Practical observations on the teeth and gums, with the best mode for their preservation / by I. L. Levison.

  • Levison, I. L.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on the teeth and gums, with the best mode for their preservation / by I. L. Levison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    and as they are for tearing flesh, they have also been called canine or dog teeth : immediately behind them are placed (at each side) two molares or grinders, and their name explains the part they perform during mastication. The whole, when enumerated, will be found the number before mentioned. As these teeth have only to perform their oflBce for a definite period of time, they are but small and the attachments weak, for they soon decay to make room for a stronger and more per- manent set; the latter, as they increase in size, press against the sockets containing the temporary set; an absorbtion of their fangs takes place, they become loosened, and are easily removed. On extracting the milk teeth, the fangs appear irregularly rough as if broken; this is by no means the case,/or the]/ are sometimes only partially worn down,—the denuding process having been greatest on that side at which the pressure of the forming teeth was most exerted, and this causes the absorbtion t^ be more on one side than on the other. The temporary teeth generally make their appearance in most instances about the sixth or seventh month} they are completed by the third year, and remain until the sixth or seventh, when the process for their removal takes place as we have before described. The permanent teeth may be much obstructed if the milk ones are not extracted in time ; and as Mr. Fox observes, whenever nature seems tardy in removing them herself, as the beauty of the mouth, and the proper articulation of speech depends upon the regularity of the second set, the teeth acting as the impediment should be removed. It therefore becomes a duty of parents, and those who may have the care of children, to attend to the change that takes place during the shedding of the deciduous, and the coming of the permanent ones: for these latter teeth were destined by the beneficent Author of us to last through life (or another set would have been provided) ; therefore they are much larger and stronger than the first ones. It must be obvious, that without assistance they are liable to be forced out of their proper curve, or by pressing and pver-Jappingeach other may bring on a decay; besides, such irregular ones form cavities for the tartarous mucus to deposit itself. But if the teeth acting as impediments be removed, the new, ones will take their proper places, but much depends on the tem- porary teeth not being extracted too prematurely, for many deformities may result from such a practise. For example, the central incisores of the lower jaw are first loosened, they are then removed ; and if there is not sufficient space for the new teeth that supply the place of those, the two lateral incisores must also be extracted. The incisore teeth of the upper jaw are the next, and the same remarks apply to them, but the cuspidate or eye teeth, although they stand next, are longer in coming through the gums. Supposing an operator, ignorant of this fact, should extract them next, the new cuspidate, from having lost all resistance, cithercome through the posterior side, or stick so out at the anterior part of the gums, that they resemble tusks; the teeth that supply the temporary