The family dentist : containing a brief description of the structure, formation, diseases, and treatment of the human teeth / by Josiah F. Flagg.

  • Josiah Foster Flagg
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family dentist : containing a brief description of the structure, formation, diseases, and treatment of the human teeth / by Josiah F. Flagg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    stances,] friction of the body and limbs, good air, exercise, and wholesome food; and above all, a cool and open habit of body. The gums should be rubbed with the finger, and the child should be allowed the use of its own fingers in its mouth. The idea that a child's sucking its fingers will prevent their growth, is a prejudice without foundation in truth. The old and erroneous opinion, that the teeth, as they grow, cut their way mecha- nically through the gums, first suggested the idea of assisting them in their protrusion, by the friction and pressure of hard substances;* and hence arose the cruel and hazardous practice of scratching the gums through with the finger nail, or with pieces of hard loaf sugar, a practice which has too often been the cause of severe local and general suffer- ing, if not of death, from the inflammation, fever, and spasms, which it has contributed to excite. Hence also the use of the coral and other hard smooth substances given children to bite ; which, as has been observed by Dr. Blake, are most dangerous instruments put into the hands of children to destroy them- selves ; for as the teeth rise, and become ^ » Murphy's Natural History and Diseases of Teeth, pp. 51—53.