Neuralgia of the inferior maxillary nerve / by John Lizars.

  • John Lizars
Date:
[1821]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neuralgia of the inferior maxillary nerve / by John Lizars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to degrade our profession, must act by cutting off the source of the diseased nerve for a time; and hence the increased sensibi¬ lity will be subdued. It has frequently failed in this, as in many other diseases, to accomplish a cure. Mercury has been used in two or three instances of neuralgia of the face with success; but these are not numerous enough to decide its efficacy. Again, it has been known to give rise to sciatica. 44 L’action du mercure, dit Richerand, princi- palement celle du muriate mercuriel oxigene, y a quelquefois donne lieu. ” Where it was administered in the affections of the face, it aggravated the pain until pushed to excite violent ptyalism; it must consequently act by overpowering the sensi¬ bility of the nerve, partly by exhaustion, and partly by the tu¬ mefaction of the face. Neuralgia of the face is liable to be confounded with tooth- ach, hemicrania, rheumatism, abscess of the maxillary antrum, muscular cramps; and, we may add, the pressure of too many teeth in either of the maxillary bones. A very interesting case of this nature occurred to me last year, of a lady who was tor¬ mented with pains resembling those of tic douloureux, and which were removed by extracting one wisdom tooth after ano¬ ther. The teeth had so little room that, in their descent, the crowns were turned towards the cheeks. Similar cases, I un¬ derstand, occur occasionally to the dentists. Pujol thus cha¬ racterizes the symptoms of neuralgia, which appear clear enough to distinguish it from other diseases. 44 Les douleurs sont mo- mentanees et extrement aigues, qui se font sentir de temps en temps comme des coups electriques dans certains lieux determi¬ nes de la face, qui de la rayonnent en differens sens, et font eprouver la sensation d’un instrument tranchant plonge dans les parties mol les. ” I have made these preliminary observations, in consequence of finding the disease little known, and often misunderstood. A gentleman in this neighbourhood consulted me, about three years ago, for neuralgia of the mental nerve; when, to my sur¬ prise, on examining his mouth, not a single tooth had been left. He appeared, in place of a man in the meridian of life, one be¬ tween sixty and seventy. The division of the nerve, at its exit from the mental foramen, gave immediate relief. The patient whose case I am about to detail, is a labourer within 10 miles of this place, 55 years of age, and of a sound constitution. He was attacked with this complaint some time in July 1819; and his medical attendant, imagining the affection toothach, extracted the third and fourth molar teeth of the lower jaw on the right side, the place where the pain was acute¬ ly lelt. This, however, procured no relief. Various remedies